RAGBRAI Part 6

Day 5 started early. Day 5 was still short, but had a good amount of hills. It was the last day with over 3,000 feet of climb. I woke up nervous. Would the legs hold out for another day of 3,000 feet of climb? The prior day only had 1,100 and it was hard! My legs hurt but I told myself that I’d be fine if they didn’t get worse. I set out knowing I had my phone should I need a ride to Grinnell.

The day went well. It started with biscuits and gravy in Mitchellville. I do love biscuits and gravy.

Colfax had a ridiculously unfair hill on the way out of town. We got sprinkled on a few times which felt amazing and kept the temperature reasonable. It was hilly but at this point the muscles weren’t getting worse. Hills that would have been a struggle earlier in the week became no big deal. Was I getting stronger? Or was I just numb?

By the time we relaxed in Rock Creek State Park we only had 6.1 miles left. I then learned a valuable lesson: don’t listen to the locals when they tell you how many hills are left. I was told there were three more hills once outside of the park. It turns out there were about 10. Either way we rolled into Grinnell alive. We stayed in the lawn of a host family. A shower after the day of biking was amazing. Dinner was at Pagliai's Pizza followed by bed. Day 5 was done.

I only had 2 more days to go. Who knows, I might just be able to bike the whole thing. I told myself if I could make it to Coralville, the longest day, I might actually be able to finish the whole week. At this point I couldn’t quit; I had 5 days done and only 2 left.

Day 6 started early because it was the longest day, 75.9 miles. Again, I was nervous. That was a lot of miles to cover. I remembered how hard the slightly shorter and less hilly ride to Boone was days earlier. Eek.

I’d be leaving out details to not mention that the morning nervousness was complemented a good amount of excitement. This ride would take me through towns that were just a quick ride from my house. By the end of the day I would have biked from the Missouri River all the way to Eastern Iowa. I’d only have one day left. I would have biked farther than ever before.

Day 6 at least had a lot of stops. I took advantage of all of them, except maybe West Amana which I apparently rode past without noticing. Lunch was at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Marengo. The church ladies did a rockstar job for us. I had a loose meat sandwich and a super awesome frozen fruit cup. Too bad they ran out of pie by the time I got there. To compensate I had some key lime pie in Homestead.

The last chunk from Oxford to Coralville was the longest and hilliest of the day. Not fair having such a hard chunk at the end! It was tough but I couldn’t give up that close to the end of a day so close to the end of the week. Just keep biking I told myself.

I made it into Coralville. The town did a nice job of preparing for RAGBRAI. They had a tailgate theme with grills decked out in university colors. I noticed a grill in cyclone colors with Cy on a rotisserie. Way to stay classy UI.

By the time I rolled into the Coralville campsite I was super excited. I had finished the last hard day! I only had one day left! Sure my body hurt like nothing before. My quads, calves, hips and elbows hurt. Walking was painful. I had lost feeling in my pinky finger on my right hand, likely from a pinched nerve.  I hurt, but I beat 6 days of RAGBRAI. I was going to conquer the whole state! I was excited! One day left!