Trans Iowa Stories: Changes And Evolution Part 2

Among Jeff Kerkove's many talents was his ability to design graphics. This was for T.I.v2

Last week I detailed some of the lessons learned and the changes those lessons led to during and after Trans Iowa v1. Going into the first one, I was completely blind and awestruck. By the end of it, I had a steely determination to make things better. In other words, I felt I had little purpose or reason to be anything other than a "go-fer" at the beginning, but immediately afterward I had a focus and a fire lit underneath me which gave me the motivation to grab more responsibility for the event. Jeff could have pushed back, and rightfully so, but he had his own priorities which were drawing him down a different path. This dynamic is what eventually led to Jeff leaving me Trans Iowa and going to Colorado to work for Ergon.

Side Track Story: Ironically, Ergon played a big part in the first Trans Iowa and it was this sponsorship which Jeff secured for the event which began his relationship with the company he has worked for up until this very day. Ergon was an unknown company in 2004. They had a presence in Europe, specifically Germany, which was their home country, but in North America, in 2004, no one had ever heard of them. They were trying to crack the market here with a new, radical grip which they said would revolutionize cycling. They had made some overtures to the endurance crowd when, by some way I am still not aware of, Jeff made a connection with them. Whether or not Jeff instigated the relationship or Ergon did is not clear to me, but at any rate, they sent every registered rider a pair of grips to be stuffed into their "goodie bag". This was their initial introduction to the North American market, and it was a major coup of sorts for such a weird event to pull off that sort of deal.

But that wasn't the only big deal Jeff put together. He also was aware of an upstart eyewear company by the name of Tifosi. He managed to get them to send every registered rider a pair of one of their casual wear models, which, as I recall, were orange framed and kind of styled after the classic Ray-Ban glasses. So, for your $20.00 entry fee, which was what it took to cover our insurance bill and nothing more, every rider received about $80.00 worth of goodies, once you include the other bits and baubles Jeff procured from sponsors like Hammer Nutrition and others. That didn't go unnoticed by the riders, by the way.

During v1 I had time for lighthearted stuff, like leaving gnomes alongside the road.

But I digress..... By 2005 in the Summer I had plans to make the next Trans Iowa a much better, much smarter run affair. Jeff was in the throes of a busy, sometimes international, race calendar. The responsibilities of organizing some things began to be my realm. I actually did a recon or two by myself. Route finding was refined. How the checkpoint was going to be facilitated was radically changed with the drop bag idea. The finish line would become our responsibility, and the plan was for Jeff and I both to be there. There were to be two course observers within the last third of the course. We weren't going to miss anyone this time!

Furthermore, after much discussion with riders and the Decorah folks, we decided to move the start time to 4:00am on Saturday and to plan on a 2:00pm Sunday finish to facilitate the longer course and still have a relevant conjoined finish celebration with the Decorah Time Trials. Besides the finish ceremonies, we would have no connection with the Decorah event at all. This was mostly at the Decorah folks insistence, since we were not quite on the same page with regard to organization as that longstanding event. But that said, it was Richard "Deke" Gosen's idea that we have a "DNF call in number" that we were to enforce riders to use in the event of dropping out or emergency. This we did by using my personal cell phone number, which stayed in use throughout until the last Trans Iowa.

Other than upping the entry fee to something like $30.00 due to increased insurance rates, there were no other significant changes to discuss going into our second try at this.

Next: Tales Of v2 Part 1