RAGBRAI Part 4

Day three started in Carroll at day break. When crawled out of my sleeping bag I think every joint in my body cracked. My legs still ached. Moving my elbow took effort.  I was excited for the day though. The Carroll to Boone route took me on roads I had driven dozens of times before. I was familiar with the countryside and was ready to conquer it on my bike. The ride was the longest yet, 70 miles, but only had 1700 feet of climb.

It took about 5 miles of biking to get the body loosened up again. I felt a lot more confident about finishing day 3 than I did the prior days. The first few towns flowed together. Breakfast was a sausage and egg croissant at the fire station in Lidderdale. I did a little happy dance when I saw a Greene County roads vehicle at an intersection. Holy crap! I biked from the Missouri River to my home county!

We stopped in Churdan for lunch. I was all excited about supporting some Greene County cause. Too bad the local groups had already run out of food. I settled with a breaded tenderloin the size of my head from one of the traveling RAGBRAI vendors.

After relaxing in the Churdan park we set out to leave. Much to my surprise I had my first mechanical failure, a flat tire. My training included a couple flat tires so no big deal. We pressed on to Paton and then Pilot Mound.

While the day was flat, everyone on the ride was aware of the huge hill outside Pilot Mound. I decided I needed energy so I enjoyed a taco in a bag at the Pilot Mound community center.

Going down the monster hill was scary. I hit the brakes frequently and still got to almost 40mph. Eeek! Getting up the hill was even scarier. By the time we hit the hill I had already biked over 60 miles for the day. My legs were shot. In addition to the quad and elbow pain my hips were hurting. I walked my bike up most of the hill. Even walking it hurt.

From the hill to Boone was slow going. Seventy miles in a day is a long ride. It felt amazing getting into Boone.  Three days done!  I started to wonder if I could actually do all of RAGBRAI. Maybe, almost half done!