Sunday, November 29, 2020

Trans Iowa Stories: The Wind, The Hills, The Lightning!! Part 3

The view from my truck at Sunset on the first day of T.I.v10.

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

As the day was swallowed up by the oncoming storm, and eventually, nightfall, I was constantly checking in on my phone for weather updates and being required to stop periodically to record the ever mounting list of names on the DNF list. Being that I was driving, managing volunteers, and managing race communications as well as doing this rider accounting, I was rather busy. To keep track of DNF's I had a very crude system of record keeping. Essentially, how it worked was that I had a pen or pencil stuck under my hat, a blank sheet of paper, (usually the back of a roster sheet, actually), and I would simply jot down the names and the time when I got the rider's message or phone call letting me know that they were out. This may or may not have been the time that the rider actually quit, by the way. Sometimes these were text messages and I would learn that the rider was out for dinner with their support crew back in Grinnell, or in worst case scenarios, I'd get a text for a DNF on Monday after the event when the rider thought to remember to let me know that they were okay. That was always a great experience for me! 

Another aspect of this was that I had no information, many times, as to whether or not the individual in question was getting a ride, trying to ride back themselves, or if they were in any kind of a bind. So, I happened upon a very simple thing that always elicited a response and gave me a lot more peace of mind.  A typical text would go like the following:

"Riders 91 and 384 pulled out at mile 110"

Me: "Thanks. Hope you guys are okay."

"We are, thank you. ......."

A simple question was all it took. No "rule" or edict would have worked so well. That was an actual text I received, by the way, which I still have on my phone from 2016. The rider went on to tell me what caused their demise and thanked me for the event. I have several like that on my phone messages to this day. Anyway....

At any rate, you never really knew if the call or message came out on the course unless it was a voice-to-voice communication back in the day. As the years wore on, text messaging became the norm, and to no one's surprise, actual 'phone calls' were a rarity by T.I.v14. But during T.I.v10, a fair number of folks still actually used their smart phones like, you know, a phone. So, I was stopping a lot during the early evening hours. I'd get four or five names and times rounded up, then I would text Jeremy back at Checkpoint #2 with the names I had gathered. He would, in turn, give me names of people who were quitting at the checkpoint, of which there were more than a few that did that as well. In this way, we were able to keep tabs on the bodies still out there pedaling away into the night. 

Ralf  Stormer, a resident of Germany, who came over to ride in T.I.v10. Image by Wally Kilburg
Jeremy Kershaw captures the pathos and the beauty of a moment here in this shot of Andrea Cohen during T.I.v10

As this was going on into the early evening hours, I was reaching a point in the course which was traversing West, then North, across Tama County. The course then took a brief Eastward leg into what was supposed to be a big climb North up the same road featured in the film, "300 Miles of Gravel". I approached this climb from the South and I made the slight bend around the corner where a small bridge should have been crossing Wolf Creek. But to my surprise and dismay, the bridge was wrapped up in barricades and big "Road Closed" signs greeted me instead. Great! NOW what?!

The bridge out as it appeared during T.I.v10.
I immediately texted Jeremy that this bridge was out and to let any remaining riders coming through the Checkpoint know that they should be aware that there would be a reroute. Jeremy responded famously with a text, "Get to staking!" Typical smart-alack remark from him, by the way, and as I read it I could see his smirk a hundred plus miles away. The reference to staking was from how we rerouted the course which would allow for riders to self-navigate through a new section to avoid such a thing as a bridge-out situation. 

And 'get to staking' I did! I quickly identified a simple reroute and then executed the reroute plan, all by myself, running like mad to try to make sure I didn't have a rider miss the reroute and end up standing at the bridge which was impassable. My plan was to end the reroute back into the original course and then I was going to park at a place just where the reroute would take effect and warn any riders coming that this was happening. 

Well, as I have said already, I was very busy without the reroute, but with it I was absolutely slammed. I'd drive, literally only a couple hundred yards at a crack at times, before the phone would go nuts with riders dropping out. Then I'd race up the road as fast as I dared to my next stake position, hurry up and construct a flag out of ribbons, and then pound in a stake with a big rubber mallet I had. Hop back in the truck, race up the road, rinse and repeat. 

This reroute finally was accomplished but I desperately needed a flashlight now as it was dark and I couldn't find the one I thought I had brought. I was frantic. I had no time to look through the mounds of detritus in the truck or rummage through the plastic tubs in the back of the truck. I needed that light NOW! I knew that there was a convenience store in a small town called Gladbrook not far away, but they were going to close at 11:00pm and it was 10:15 when I decided I needed this light. I raced up the road, only to get stopped again and again by phone calls. One of which was Greg Gleason, the leader of the event, who wanted to know what to do since the bridge he was looking at was closed. Drat! I relayed the plan to him, asked him if anyone was there that he could relay the info to, and he said there was no one. Well.....big news! The three-up lead group was no more! But I had to get that flashlight!

I finally made it to Gladbrook where a young lady was in kind of an excited state to close up because she and her boyfriend had plans. She was nice enough, but she wanted to chat and well, I was in kind of a hurry at this point! She was a bit miffed by my rebuff of her conversation, but I was finally equipped with a light, albeit a cheesy cash register trap model, and off I went screaming Eastward on Highway 96 when wait.......what was THAT! I turned around and when my lights flashed back Westward up the road I clearly saw the blinking light and reflective bits of a cyclist. I ran back to the intersection to find it was a Trans Iowa rider! It turned out to be John Williams, waaaay off course! What?! 

Well, John had flatted and his Hutchinson tire would not come off the rim so he could repair the tire by inserting a tube. It was set up tubeless, but apparently the tire had too big a hole for the sealant to deal with it. John said he was in the lead and then the other two passed him, then more passed him, and by the time he had finally gotten the tire repaired, he was behind by quite a bit. He could have continued, but if he wasn't in the running for a win, he was done. I asked what his plans were. He said he was going to Gladbrook and getting picked up there. Once I knew he was going to be okay I bid him well and jumped back into the truck to go man my 'station' to warn riders about the reroute. 

The reroute worked out well. In fact, several others in the front of the event figured it out without my being at my 'station' and without calling me. I was really glad to have heard that. Meanwhile, the storm gathered and the wind blew and the lightning flashed. 

Next: The Wind, The Hills, The Lightning!! Part 4

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