New Finds After All This Time

Trans Iowa v14, the last start. Image by Dori Jaansma

 Last week was filled with Trans Iowa memories on my Facebook timeline. It happens every year, right? Anyone who uses that social media platform can probably nod their head in agreement with how this "memories" thing works. 

My surprise is that even after eight years I am still finding new stuff on Trans Iowa I'd never seen before, or knew about. To me, this is remarkable. 

Images are the most common thing, obviously, but I have found a story about Trans Iowa v14 written by Nick Legan, a fellow Gravel Cycling Hall of Famer, by the way. It is a story about his efforts to finish the last Trans Iowa. I found it fascinating since Nick tabulates some numbers which I had no access to from athletes or from my own research. Things I had guessed at, but now I have some hard numbers to point to. The story, on "Rambleur" can be read HERE.  

Mark Lowe (L), and Nick Legan on the course of Trans Iowa v14. Image by Jon Duke

 As an example, I knew it got really cold the night of v14 going into the Sunday finish. Matt Gersib and I were freezing standing on a Level B Road just East of Grinnell, trying to toast to the end of an era. It wasn't to be as Matt said it was "too damn cold" and he was bailing out. A moment dashed. A moment I was hoping would be an intimate, final farewell to Trans Iowa with him. No hard feelings, Matt. I was 100% with you. I just was wishing it wasn't so cold right at that moment. 

And I never really knew just how cold it had gotten. Now I have a number, thanks to Nick. 23°F! In late April! No wonder we couldn't enjoy that moment! It all just makes so much sense and now, eight years later, I have found some solace as to why this moment did not work out for me. 

My image of the full moon, standing on a gravel road near midnight during T.I.v14

 I used to get asked all the time what the elevation gain was for any Trans Iowa. Frankly, I had no way of knowing this for certain. Especially in the earlier years of the event when GPS tracking was nearly non-existent or so poor it could only be taken as a guidepost. 

Of course, things have changed. Even by 2018, which was the year of the last Trans Iowa, GPS data was much more reliable.  Nick had a Wahoo Elemnt onboard his ride of Trans Iowa v14 and shared this data in the story linked above. His device read out 19,291ft in 350 miles. (Nick admittedly did some "bonus miles" due to a navigational error or two)

While this number may not be all that impressive, consider the fact that Nick accomplished that elevation gain and mileage in under 33 hours overall with no sleep. Plus, he had to do his own navigation by cue sheets. No gpx files. No simply following audible prompts for where to turn. 

Post T.I.v14 scraps. Image by Ryan Simon

Of course, none of this probably hits anyone quite like it does me. I understand this to be true. Eight years later not many folks even think about Trans Iowa anymore. Maybe the riders do. Some of the volunteers might. I don't know. 

It seems to me that the whole thing should have blown away like Fall leaves down a chip sealed street. Tumbling away until there are only remnants of what was once a green, living thing. 

Then those memories posts show up and the old feelings are reignited. Especially when images and words I hadn't see before are popping up all these years later. These new finds make me think about why this all may still matter to some people. Why it still matters to me. 

Jason Boucher, a good friend and supporter of myself and Trans Iowa when it was an event, once wrote to me and encouraged me to keep the event going because "..you give people a chance to change their lives".I know he was right about that. I've heard from people who have said as much to me. I know it changed me too.

And in the end, when it comes to this old stuff concerning Trans Iowa, we can find new things as a result inside our lives because of those times. What those things are may be different for each person who was touched by the event. 

And that is what matters.