Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

July 25, 2016

RAGBRAI 2016 Day 1: Glenwood to Shenandoah, 49.7 Miles



I won't brag about the great sleep we got last night. The heat and humidity were crushing, and overnight temps stayed above 80.  Hopefully that will be the worst weather of the week.

Today's ride had a lot of rolling hills. After our monster training hills in Utah they felt very small. Other may have had other opinions judging from the people walking. 

Jim and I, his sister Judy and partner Abby got off to a good but late start about 7 am.  The road was choked with bikers and finally we were actually riding RAGBRAI!  

After walking through the crush of people in the first town, Jim got a flat several miles later. Unfortunately he ended up walking back to town for a fix. I went ahead but then rode back to make sure he got back in the saddle. Our phones weren't working much because 10,000 people tend to mess up normal bandwidth usage!  From there it was a delightful day, with some tailwinds, and nicer weather than the previous days.  As always the people watching was the best, and we saw skateboarders, a dog and other crazy bike setups.  We cooled off in a fire hydrant and drank cold smoothies for lunch. 

Jims best few miles of the day were drafting off a tandem in a crosswind. I could barely keep up.  Soon we were coasting into Shenandoah, very happy that there were showers next door!










Here's some interesting facts about todays route from the official RAGBRAI Pre-Ride back in June:
http://ragbrai.com/2016/06/05/ragbrai-route-inspection-pre-ride-day-1-glenwood-to-shenandoah/




No comments:

Post a Comment