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| (L-R) Matt Aker, Walter Zitz, and Jackson Hinde finish T.I.v13 (Image by Jon Duke) |
Greg Gleason had no sooner loaded up and left when here came three riders, Matt Aker, a rookie to Trans Iowa, Walter Zitz, the co-winner of v12, and Jackson Hinde, a top finisher in v12. They finished together and me, being none the wiser, figured that this trio had been together for much of the event. However; that was not the case, as I found out later on.
Walter was a great long distance cyclist before he tried Trans Iowa and, as it turned out, he was great at Trans Iowa as well. So good that his finishing place, to me, was a bit curious as I expected him to at least hang with Gleason and Hughes. However; an untimely puncture put an end to Walter running up front with those two riders. In fact, Walter was relieved to be freed from riding, at what he said was, an 'infernal pace'. He fell back in the running to Matt Aker, himself an accomplished long distance cyclist, but a 'rookie' to Trans Iowa. The pair found themselves at times riding with Jackson, who, as I have stated here, was a front runner in his rookie attempt at Trans Iowa two years prior.
Jackson possibly had the most fortunate of finishes as he related to me that just prior to reaching Checkpoint #2 he had been laying in a ditch vomiting! How he recovered from that and still caught up with Zitz and Aker is another amazing story from this event. By all accounts, Hinde should have fallen prey to his gastrointestinal issues and in combination with the awful weather, he had basically no chance to finish, except that he did.
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| Jackson Hinde gets the handshake . Image by Jon Duke |
The flurry of activity from the time where Gleason finished to when the trio of Hinde, Aker, and Zitz left the finish area marked the best of times at the end of Trans Iowa v13. What followed seemed to be a tortuously long wait in solitary confinement for the two o'clock finish to Trans Iowa.
When Aker, Hinde, and Zitz finished, Jon Duke, who I had allowed to go out and shadow the finish of T.I.v13, came in and reported that he was done. The weather and the remaining riders not being good enough for him to withstand being exposed to the elements, which were still rather extreme at that point. The wind was still strong and it hadn't really warmed up much at all. Being out of doors was still a very poor choice on this mid-day of the end of Trans Iowa v13.
Before Jon left me there though, he reported that there were at least two riders still coming in. One 'might make it' by 2:00pm, the cut-off for the event, but the other guy was pushing his luck on the limits of time. Jon was unsure either guy would actually make the finish on time. I thanked him for his information and for his work on imagery, (which afterward I was astounded by), and he left.
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| One of my all-time favorite images of Trans Iowa- Mark Johnson near the finish of T.I.v13 by Jon Duke |
When Jon pulled out of the parking lot, he left me with three cars besides my truck there. One vehicle contained my volunteer, Sveta Vold and her daughter. The second and third cars were support people for the two remaining riders in Trans Iowa. We all huddled in our vehicles, engines running to warm cold bones, and we waited, and waited.......
I suppose this time period was really only an hour and fifteen minutes or so, but that hour and fifteen minutes seemed interminably long. I had been up for 35 hours by this point with no sleep, so things get a little weird by that stretch with no sleep. I was alone with my thoughts and trying to keep my eyes open was a real struggle. All I wanted to do was to go home at this point. The event was not 'fun' anymore, all my friends had left me and gone their way, and even the weather conspired to keep me isolated due to the circumstances.
One thing really stood out to me about this time period. As I was sitting there stewing over the situation, riding herd on my volatile emotional state, a knock came on the fogged over window of the truck. I could vaguely make out Sveta Vold's figure motioning for me to open up my window. I obliged her and she offered me some hot tea and a couple cakes. It was a sweet gesture and it really made a big difference to me in terms of my emotional state. Funny how a little thing can really make all the difference in the world.
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| Mark Johnson finishes T.I.v13 with ten minutes to spare. Image by Sveta Vold. |
Time was running out now on Trans Iowa v13. It was getting close to 2:00pm, the traditional cut-off time for the event. This time was set for two reasons. One- the event needed to have a timing goal for participants for the challenge part to make any sense. Secondly, and most important to me, was that by having a time limitation, you could set goal posts for your volunteers. They could know when they were going to be done helping you.
I always was flummoxed when other event directors would waffle on holding to time limitations. I mean, on the one hand, you have a sort of deep empathy for those who are 'close', have the physical abilities to actually come in under their own power, but are not meeting the time goal. You maybe feel like 'giving that person a break', but - in my opinion- that is cheapening the achievements of those who did make it under the time limit. I mean, if you aren't going to hold to your set time limits, why would you expect any riders to try to meet them?
That seemed obvious to me, so when it got to be 1:45pm, I was starting to pack up my papers and get organized for my hour and a half drive home. But just afterward, I saw a figure on a bicycle. It was a Trans Iowa rider, but this figure also looked more than a bit comical with plastic bags flapping from handlebars and from underneath his coat. It was the lone single speed finisher of T.I.v13, Mark Johnson.
Sveta hopped out and congratulated Mark, and his support person was there to give Mark a hand as he was a bit out of sorts. Mark was happy, but he was also - most probably- suffering from exposure to the elements. After almost 34 hours of being in that hellish storm, I was perhaps more astounded by Mark's ride than by Dan's.
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| Volunteer Tony McGrane's truck after T.I.v13 |
Mark was quickly taken into the waiting warmth of his support person's vehicle, and rightly so. No time for extended conversations when you have someone bordering on hypothermia, if in fact Mark wasn't already in the throes of hypothermia. That car sped away. I bid Sveta goodbye as well. There was no chance that anyone else was going to finish Trans Iowa now, as it was only a few minutes before 2:00pm.
The only other car there had Dan Lockery's support person in it. (It may have been his father, as I recall) So, this was a moment which I had a couple of sharp points made for me. One was somewhat obvious, the second, maybe not so much.
Dan's support person pulled out his cell phone, and he showed me something I found to be a bit of a discouragement. He had a map with a beacon showing the exact location of Dan on the roads near Grinnell. Now- of course- only Dan and I knew the exact course into town, but I immediately saw the possibilities for cheating here. Uggh..... That was pretty much my mental reaction to seeing that technology. "Here's something that is going to be a big problem in the future for events like mine.", and then I had to ask this man to repeat the question. He wanted to know how long I thought it might take for Dan to finish.
I looked at my watch, and I flatly stated to the man that he wasn't going to make it. He'd probably be ten to fifteen minutes after the cut-off, if he was holding a decent pace. But I said that it didn't matter to me. The gentleman looked at me aghast and said something to the effect of, "You mean you are not going to wait until he finishes?!" And I replied, "Nope! Trans Iowa is over at 2:00 o'clock. After that you are on yer own!", and I turned, hopped into my truck, and started the long drive home.
Next: Assessing The Events So Far
3 comments:
I hear you about the GPS/satellite tracking, but it's just the way of the world now. Maybe like cell phones on Tour Divide... is it outside help/encouragement? Sure. But the genie is never going to go back into the bottle.
Do you feel that there are any positive aspects of the satellite tracking? I remember you saying how emotionally vested you were in the event, and that rider safety was one of the things that kept you up and night and mentally drained. To me, having outside help available in case something went wrong would be a layer of comfort. Like if they had a crash and were out of cell phone range; they could contact outside help or their support person could find them easily. If people are going to cheat, they are going to find a way to make it happen, regardless of how easy the newer technology makes it. Just my opinion!
@DT - It's a conundrum, right? Technology, the "genie out of the bottle", and what risks we are willing to accept. It all has to be considered as part of the answer to your questions.
On risk: In the pre-2000's, having groups of people doing touring, races in remote places, and well.....just training- was not a "track-able" thing, right? We didn't have any way of communicating our distresses/emergencies at all unless we could find a rural residence. Risk assessment was a TOTALLY different animal back then. You wouldn't have thought twice about putting on an event like Trans Iowa from that aspect, but would I have worried less or cared less about riders? Probably not.
Fast forward to the 20-teens. Now you are held to a different standard BECAUSE of technology. Had something went awry- let's say we didn't find Charlie Farrow during Trans Iowa v8 when he was temporarily 'lost' - Well, what do you think everyone sitting in their homes, all warm and cozy, would have judged in that case? "Guilty! Why didn't you use tracking technology!" It wouldn't have mattered a whit to anyone being self-righteous behind a keyboard that Charlie eschews technology and wasn't carrying a cell phone because he was willing to accept that risk.
See what I mean?
That is part of the reason I was dismayed at the beacon I saw that afternoon on that man's cell phone. It was people like him that were the issue. NOT the riders. It was all the people judging Trans Iowa from behind a keyboard that would never, in a hundred years, ever attempt such a challenge.
It is the reason I say that Trans Iowa was really a pre-2000's event stuck in the post-modern world. You cannot do an event like that anymore, just as you say when you mention 'the genie'. There are events that try to be similar, and you even have Iowa Wind and Rock trying to keep the flag flying, but there just isn't any way it could be the same as it was back in the 2000's. No ding on IWAR here, but it is what it is now.
As an aside- I had a laugh when I saw coverage on the recently held Old Man Winter gravel event in Colorado. There were media saying it wasn't a fair course to racers because of a certain snowed in section of trail on the course that forced riders to walk two miles in slushy snow. It wasn't what made a "gravel race" and had no business in a race of that caliber. The media were saying this. Were the media folk in the race? Did they not understand that the Old Man Winter race makes a big deal out of that very section of their course as being hard and possibly unrideable every year? Doesn't matter. Not to the "observers" outside of the event.
Does that make sense?
Cheating? Well, that would happen no matter the 'era' or the technology. But in my opinion, technology makes cheating easier. Your mileage may vary there.
Sorry for the long-winded answer, but this is a big question that cannot be answered simply.
Thanks for the thoughtful response! It definitely gives me more perspective now, and your comments are pretty much in line with what I was guessing anyways.
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