Trans Iowa Stories: Assessing The Events So Far

The Subaru Forrester of MG's after T.I.v13

"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 clicking on the "Trans Iowa Stories" link under the blog header. Thanks and enjoy!  

Post Trans Iowa v13 I had a raging headache and my back was a mess for about five days due to all the bouncing around inside of Matt's Subaru for about a full day plus some. But this time I escaped the dreaded post-event emotional meltdown which I had gone through before a few times, at least. The event itself was considered to be one of the classic, epic, 'definitive' Trans Iowas by those who were riding in it or were there to witness it. At the time, I was calling it the toughest Trans Iowa ever. After all is said and done, I think I can still stand by that statement. 

The other thing I think that even I did not realize fully at the time was that by circumnavigating Des Moines with the event, and by getting covered bridges on the event, I had knocked off two of my biggest goals for the route planning. Not to mention how the event had run for 2017, which was pretty much flawless in terms of its execution by my standards. The volunteers were top-notch, the course was well received, and all the participants were accounted for and safe. I really couldn't have asked for anything better, except maybe for a bit nicer weather.

A quote from my blog containing a quote sent to me via an email from Michael Roe, a participant in T.I.v13.

"It was perfect", I was told. The stories about v13 were spilling out on social media and in reports sent to me by riders. It was, oddly enough, a more powerful response than v12 where I had over 40 people finish. But that's the way of this event- people wanted it to be crazy-hard or it wasn't what they thought it should have been in terms of the experience. 

Maybe these folks wanted stories to tell that would be over the top nuts and so impressive that the hearers would not believe them. I guess riding a triple century, plus some, with no sleep, and all in one go isn't enough. Maybe? I don't know.....

A Facebook post sent just before T.I.v13 happened.

I had done it all. Why bother with one more? Well, there were the people that were out there. The people that still believed in Trans Iowa and in what I had created it to be. That was a hard thing to deny and even harder to consider ending. There were those things associated with the event which I cherished. The recon, the figuring out of routes. The camaraderie I shared with volunteers- friends, people who became like family to me. How can you end relationships like those? And there were the people who came year after year to Trans Iowa. How could I disappoint them? 

I had experienced events and circumstances which had changed my life. Obviously, Trans Iowa was set up to give opportunity for the riders to acquire those life-changing experiences, but I was not immune to those either. How could I just walk away from ever having those chances at those types of experiences again? 

Myself and Greg Gleason at the finish of T.I.v13. Image by Michael Roe

But I had another side. Every year the care, the love I poured out into this event was draining, exhausting, and hard to recover from. My family saw what that did to me. My family! They were changing before my eyes and soon I would have adult children. I felt the pressing need to savor every moment with them that I could before they might spread their wings and leave. 

My wife, who doggedly supports every thing I put my hands to, was also the person I needed to listen to when she would tell me she wasn't keen on how much Trans Iowa was hurting me. The worrying, the stress, the times I was gone and she silently would suffer her jealousy of that time lost with me. I knew it. The time was coming that I had to say 'goodbye' to it all. 

And after v13, why not just call it? I had done it all. Everything I wanted to accomplish, at any rate. I had set goals after Trans Iowa v7 and I had achieved every single one of them. I had put on the very best event I could for six years straight. There really wasn't much I could have done to improve upon the pattern I set. 

Plus, times had changed vastly since I had started this journey back in late 2004. Gravel events were mainstream by 2017. Technology had radicalized the social fabric of.....everything- and that affected what I was doing to a large degree. Trans Iowa was really set up to be run in the 1990's, truth be known. But this was the 'twenty-teens' and you couldn't do things that way anymore. The world was a much different place, and myself and my event were anachronisms, reflections of a time past that most people didn't want anything to do with. I felt out of step, to be honest, and despite the many congratulations for what I had accomplished, it was hard for me to see beyond the depressing, heaviness of what I felt my event meant in the grand scheme of things. 

So, remind me- Why did I decide to do just one more again? 

Next: Coming To A Head