Trans Iowa V6: Thoughts Part IV

Meeting Time: This Wednesday there is a meeting taking place that should help define a few key points in regards to T.I.V6. There may even be some recon as well. If all goes well, and there is no reason to believe it won't, a lot of dominoes will start to fall real quick in regards to how the rest of recon will go, and the key parts of the event should be well defined.

Registration: One of the immediate outcomes of this upcoming meeting will be the announcement of Registration. I suppose you could say this is an announcement that there will be an announcement! At any rate, look closely for that directly after the Wednesday meeting.

You can expect that I will be letting in past participants first. This means you took the starting line at a T.I. before. Then after about a week or so, the registration will be opened to anyone else interested that gets a post card in for one of the remaining spots. A daily tally will be kept so that those of you waiting to know what is going on can keep track. Again, we'll be letting in 75 people, and a "Waiting List" of any overflow will be kept to fill in any roster spots that become available through attrition. I'll do this swapping in from the "Waiting List" until 1-31-10. After that point, no fill ins will be taken on, and the roster will be allowed to contract if folks drop out after that point.

Registration will be by post card only. You can get your post card in by whatever means you want. In the past I have received overnight express packages, pizzas with cards attached, beer with cards attached, cards slipped under the Europa Cycle and Ski's front door, drop offs by courier, and of course, by regular mail. You can bring your post card by donkey or carrier pigeon, but it has to be a post card. Also, there is no "official post card". You can make your own up, or have someone else do it for you. You can buy "el cheapo" post cards at the Post Office, or use fancy-schmancy ones from far flung travel destinations. Again, it doesn't matter, but the more fun, the better.

Finally, I will be asking for specific information on that post card. Every item of info I ask for must be on the card, and it must be legible by me! Important point folks! If I can not read yer writin', you are not gettin' in. I won't warn you, or let you know. You have one chance to get it right. Don't blow it! Write legibly or lose! I will announce what the specific information I want is at the time of the Official Registration Announcement.

Volunteers: We'll be relying on volunteer help to put on T.I.V6. If you can swing it on the weekend of 4/23-24-25/10, then we would love to hear from you. You can volunteer for all or part of any of these days. Here's a breakdown of what we usually have a need for:

• Pre-Race Meeting help. This might include stuffing bags for racers, hauling stuff into and out of the pre-race meet-up site, and facilitating the handing out of race packets/bags.
• Start Line Help: This requires an early riser, as you'll need to be "on point" by 3:30am in the morning of the 24th! If this suits you, we will need some corner marshalls to safely get folks out of Grinnell. Plus, you'll get to witness the spectacle of riders streaming down the road with blinkies blazing. It's pretty cool!
• Checkpoint Help: This is the big need. We will have three checkpoints in far flung places in rural Iowa. The first checkpoint will require the most help, and will take the least amount of time. It happens in the morning of the 24th around 6am and should be over and done with by 8-8:30 am. We'll likely need about 5-6 folks to handle a constant barrage of folks in a hurry. The other two checkpoints can easily be managed by two or three patient folks. You may be "on point" for 6-8 hours depending upon where in the loop the checkpoint occurs. The second checkpoint usually goes from about 12:00-2:00pm until 6:00-8:00pm. The third checkpoint can go from 7:00pm till 2:00am depending. At any rate, you can see that it might be a long, lonely wait between riders.
• The Finish Line: We would like to have two folks minimum to man the finishline and again, it can be an early morning for this job. We will likely see some folks attempt a sub-24hr Trans Iowa, which means you might be called upon to be there around 3:30am! The Finishline festivities will last till around 2pm in the afternoon or so.

If you would like to find out more about volunteering for Trans Iowa, or anything else from today's post, leave a comment, or e-mail me.