Although the title of this post claims that we are “racing through Iowa” that is really more of a nod to the miles we are covering and not necessarily the speed or ease at which they are being covered. We are realizing that the hills, folds, ripples, or whatever you would like to call the shapes of the land here are never ending. This makes the riding more interesting and the state very pretty, but it does mean much more effort and a lot more gear shifting. Today, we left our home at another university to get very near to Des Moines (coming tomorrow), but in a town that we are loving the hospitality in and, speaking of racing, which is right next to the Iowa Speedway.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 91.4 miles
Elevation: +3,543 ft. / -3,333 ft.
Ride Dedication: Poppy - A friend of Ren’s from Chicago who had osteosarcoma affecting her femur near her knee. She was an inspirational person to meet and hear a story from. We connected with her because she is in a very similar stage of life to us as a team.
Points of Interest: Iowa Speedway, Deep Rock Ice Cream (not open, but cool facade), rolling hills
Tales of the Trails
Today the team decided to try something new for our morning routine. The past few days we have had a little extra time getting ready everyday, so today the whole team decided to cut down our time to get ready by 15 minutes "unofficially." With everyone racing around to pack their bags, make and eat breakfast, and do many other miscellaneous things in only 1 hour the team managed to only be 5 minutes late to our morning circle. Which honestly is pretty good for our first attempt, so we will see if this continues in the future or if we will go back to our previous routine.
Now finally getting into the ride, the team was sad to leave the university’s campus especially as we had gotten many ILL chants yesterday. The people so far, besides a couple angry drivers we soon forgot after they passed, have been quite hospitable and wonderful to talk to. As we rolled out today we almost instantly got onto a state highway. The team will definitely be getting used to state highways as these will be the roads we are on for at least the majority of Iowa and Nebraska, if not more states in the future as well. Despite it being the same road throughout the day it was far from straight and flat. Depending who on the team you ask, the rolling hills were either a very appreciated change of pace from the flat roads of Illinois or very annoying with not much in between. Our first two rest stops were on the side of the road and not very notable as we were just chugging along.
I, Parker, was on a team going by the name of “Chain gang” today. It was quite aptly named as between the 4 of us in our group our chains either made noise, had trouble shifting, or dropped. After the first two rest stops the day they finally began to get interesting. The team is beginning to appreciate all the Casey’s gas stations in the midwest. I can’t really explain the feeling of seeing the van parked at Casey's in any other way than seeing the statue of liberty. No matter how bad we are feeling every time we see the gas station we know that it will be a good rest stop. What do we get there you might ask? So far the slushies have by far been one of the teams go-to “snacks.” They are even free on Fridays!
Honestly there is not a lot to say about the route today other than the beautiful landscape that was in our view for the entirety of the 90 miles. Despite being on one road getting a little boring we always love seeing all the cows and many other animals in the fields. The team was quite tired after a long day. We got to dinner a little later than we expected and arrived at 7. Luckily as we rolled into Our Savior Lutheran Church, they had already had dinner prepared and ready. We ate a wonderful meal of pulled pork, green beans, and cheesy potatoes. After dinner it was a little hectic as the place the team was actually sleeping was a local YMCA. The group got on their bikes and made their way to the stayover. It was quite comical as since it was only a mile away most of the team decided to try and sprint after our support van to draft off of it. The team was able to all get showers and do laundry at the YMCA which we were all very appreciative of. We all went to bed looking forward to tomorrow as it is a much shorter day into Des Moines.
Cyclists’ Corner
Rider: Ren Goodfriend
Interview Recorded on June 17th (Day 25)
Hi! The fans.
How are you feeling today? How was today’s ride?
Today's ride was crazy. Feeling good. When I started, I felt when I was on the bike, I was just like “This is miserable. This is terrible. When can I get off?” Now it's less like that, and it's more just, I feel like I've accepted I'm gonna be here forever. I'm on a bike and it's like whatever. It's happening. It feels the same as just standing up. That's what I was telling my team today. It takes the same amount of effort to me now, which is nice.
Today's ride, well, we started late because there was a thunderstorm in Des Moines that went until about 9 am. Then we left Des Moines and my team just ran into infinite issues along the way. First there was the mud because the trails were completely clogged with mud and my bike did not like that. I spent a long time getting dirt out of my bike. Then after that, after the rest stop, Anthony's bike fell or something, so his derailer hanger was messed up and he kept DIY bending it on the road. And then Sam got a flat tire. Sam's chain kept falling off and we had to stop every once in a while. We were like, “is there something wrong with your shifting?” We think it was just kind of bad luck because the limit screws were perfect. Eventually what happened is we got to the 3rd rest stop, and as we got to the 3rd rest stop, the 1st team had arrived at the stayover. We were like, “uh-oh.” It was 7:30 pm and Maaike said at 8: 30 pm, stop riding. We just made the decision to drive the last 20 miles, and it sucks. Honestly, I think we were in a bad mood about it, but I think the ride ended up being really fun. We played music very loudly [in the van], and now we're here and the stayover's quite nice. We've got showers we weren't expecting, so I'll take it. I think it seems really good.
Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?
I mean, to be honest, as I go through the first few weeks, I was like, “I gotta get out of here. This is not working.” The fact that I've even just been able to go from not riding most of the time to being able to ride has been really nice. I haven't really had to sag at all since Champaign except for when I got super sick. Other than that, no mechanical issues or anything, which has been super great. Part of it is just that I want to see the percentage of days I ride go up linearly.
I saw my aunt yesterday and it kind of reminded me that I should try to connect with my family if I can, wherever they are. I've got some in Japan, some here in the U.S. For the U.S., they're very far. There's one in Seattle and one in Florida, so literally the opposite corners of the country. I'm thinking I'll try to connect with them more and talk to my little sibling. Honestly, I know that a lot of people have a goal of something they want, but I prefer to just kind of see what happens and then be happy about it later because if I set a goal and I don't get it, I'll be upset. I would rather not say any goals and be like, “wow, I did so many great things,” you know?
How have you surprised yourself since New York City?
I think I've surprised myself physically for sure; especially with the asthma that I did not know I had until I signed up for the ride. When I went to my physical, they were like, “you have asthma.” After that, I was worried that most of the time I would just be sitting around. I feel like my asthma is more manageable on rest days now. I feel like a more normal person because I've been exercising my cardiovascular health so much. So that surprised me a lot.
My hill climbing skills… very surprising to me. Even though I take them all really slow, I get up all the hills now and I don't feel pain. It's just a thing that's harder, but it doesn't hurt. That's really cool to me!
Also, I think socially and mentally… Going into the ride, I was like, “Uh-oh. Only 3 girls… A lot of these people have not been friends with many women in their lives. A lot of these people have very different backgrounds from me. What if I hate everyone?” Definitely earlier in the semester, I was like, “what if I really hate all these people?” I remember I was talking to Lauren the other day. It was in New York when we were hanging out and I was really scared that I wasn't gonna like her. I don't know, if I don't like any of these people, it's gonna be rough. I've surprised myself with my ability to adapt socially and talk to different people about different things and share experiences with people who I would have never thought to talk to otherwise. My friend group is pretty similar to me in a lot of ways, and this group of people, not very similar to me in a lot of ways. That is something that I hope to carry with me. Also, when I go back to university, because we have so much diversity on our campus. I would love to talk to some more people. That includes from different places and different age ranges. Ehsan is 30 and we're like besties and that's crazy to me! Then also, different backgrounds.
Where is your hometown? If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?
I'll just say the Chicago area. I was born in Chicago. We lived in Berwyn for a bit, which is just outside of Chicago. My mom lives in Oak Park now and my dad lives in the city. Pretty much I'm from Chicago.
If I had to say the food that I wish I could eat every day, it was what I requested when I first got home. For context to the fans listening, the stayover in Chicago was my mom's house, which is in Oak Park. What I requested when I first got there was this pork soup. She calls it pork soup, but she makes it with chicken for me. We've just always called it pork soup, but it's like my favorite thing in the world. All the vegetables are soft and it's got protein, but it's also got potatoes, and it goes really easy in my stomach. If I could just eat that every single day instead of the pasta, that would be awesome! So it's my mom's food.
How is the ride progressing for you?
Everything's getting easier every day. Everything's getting more fun! Also, the cause is really important and every day I realize that more and more our portrait today was really cool. She was so cool. I really liked the way that she told her story about all these different roles she's had with cancer. I think that was such a cool story because I feel like it showed us aspects of cancer we haven't seen. Most of the people we've talked to are survivors so far and it was really interesting to hear from someone who was like “I had to just watch my family wither away over and over.” That's something that's important to me. So I think more and more, the more portraits we do, the more I connect with them. I remember Tada's mom was a big one for me. Afterwards, I didn't know what to do. She really changed my perspective on everything and because of her, I think the ride has actually become a lot easier for me. Even just thinking, “I get to do this.” And even though it hurts sometimes, I get to experience this pain and I get to eat whatever I want, and I get to, you know, see all these things, I get to hurt in ways that she doesn't. You know what I mean? That really changed my perspective on things.
What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?
I've heard from a lot of people that I have a lot of energy and I'm very uplifting even when things get really rough. I'm always here to have fun, and I think that sometimes the fun rubs off on other people. So I think that's kind of my role. I play Ultimate Frisbee and on the team I’m known as the most fun teammate to have around. I'll always be there to be like, “You got this! Come on! We got this! You can do it! Don’t worry about it!” I know Lauren has told me that that's really helped her. I know I've helped Aadit with that too. So just being able to, like, hype people up.
What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?
I really like those Ritz Bits. Like the little ones that Randy gave us. They're like little crackers with the cheese in the middle. And the Yoggies are fine. They weren't as good as the Ritz Bits, though. I think I ate the last ones today, and I always just pack them in my bag. They're also really easy because they're not like chips which if you put them in your jersey will just fall apart, but they taste like chips. They're small and you can just eat them. Those have been my favorite things. Even though they have cheese and I'm lactose intolerant and I probably shouldn't be eating them. They're my favorite van snack.