RAGBRAI Route Announced!

The route came out today.

Below I-80, just as we suspected. Time to start looking for parking spots for the "Legal".

Event Dates

Check out the calendar below. I have included some race dates for the year. You serious triathletes out there likely have your races picked out for the year, but if you are still looking you may find some events that catch your eye. I would like to get a group of us together to compete at a few things this year, I thought the first good one could be the April Fool's 5k in Waterloo on March 28. Anyone interested?

Austin City Limits

We are in the Austin metropolitan region after a little over 400 land miles this month. We are working our way through Texas, only 240 miles until we go international.

We passed through Oklahoma City early on in the week. Did you know that Oklahoma City went from a population of zero to a population of 10,000 within a 24 hour period? We passed through Norman shortly thereafter. Norman is the home of Oklahoma University, which of course is the alma mater of the one and only Stacy Dales. She is right up there with Brittany Spears, and Tara Reid in competition for blonde celebrity that Becky hates the most.

Moving south, we fought the traffic in Dallas, survived, and continued down to Waco, home of Chris, Megan, and Mad Dog Ruf. Waco was named after a local indian tribe (Hueco), and it was also the original name of the beverage Dr. Pepper (which was formulated in a Waco soda shop).

As noted, we came to rest within the Austin city limits. Seems like a great place to hang for a while before we make our push into Mexico.

This week was out best water week yet (19.9 miles this week, 51.1 miles total) with great help from Mike Wente, Lauren, and Renee. Also, I'd like to recognize some of the Lanesboro folk: Mark "Speedo" Peterson of Iron Nads III t-shirt fame logged 9 bike miles, Dan "I wish I was related to Clay" Peterson put in 12 miles running and 20 on the bike, and Mike "The baby maker" Lukkason took a break from impregnating his wife Dee and put in 8 miles running this week.

Good work by everyone again.

630 miles down, 30,170 left

This past week's (January 12-18) adventures have carried us through the hearland of America.

We passed through Kansas City, MO, which apparently is known as the "City of Fountains." Its 200+ fountains are more than any other city in the world but Rome. It also has more boulevards than any other city but Paris, France. So it has that going for it, which is nice.

A little further into our trip we passed through Cassoday, a town of 130 that is the self-proclaimed Prairie Chicken Capital of Kansas. Eventually we made our way to Witchita, the largest Metropolitan area in Kansas. I had no idea how much Wichita has going for it. Not only is it known as "Air Capitol of the World" for all of the aircraft coorporations founded and headquartered there, but it also was ranked among the top 10 big cities within which to live by Money magazine in 2006, and it was ranked the #1 most affordable city by MSN real estate. They also have some pretty cool history, a thriving cultural scene, and they are the birthplace of Pizza Hut and White Castle. I am thinking about making a move.

We ended up at Perry, OK, home of the Ditch Witch, one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century. Not that we couldn't have had the trench dug in a couple of days with our spades, right Rick? And some all-you-can eat Burger King and minimum wage is all we would ask (only 2 people will actually understand this reference, the rest of you should just smile and nod).

Mike again led the way, but I would like to note strong performances by Rob, Sandra, and Rachel.

Renee Sedlacek has joined our pack and already contributed some swimming miles, and Chris Ruf is also in (I expect that 15 minutes of biking so far to be the beginning of something big).

All Precints In

Everyone has now reported their mileage, which added an extra 57 land miles onto our trip. This moved us from Bethany, MO to Lathrop, MO. I would throw in some interesting tidbits about the I-35 route through northern Missouri, but that is liking trying to squeeze blood from the proverbial turnip. So in lieu of interesting tidbits, enjoy this recipe for turnip soup.


Good job by everyone for this first week. Let's stay healthy out there.

We're on our way!

There are probably a couple of people who have logged some miles but not yet reported, but according to all of those that have reported we have gotten ourselves out of Iowa in the first week and a half of 2009. We covered 221 land miles in all (150 biking, 71 running), largely in thanks to Mike Wente (though he characterized it as a "slow" start for him). We have come to a stop in Bethany, MO.

Along the way we passed by Ames, IA, home of the Iowa State University of Science and Technological Arts. ISU boasts such notable alumni as Clifford Berry, co-creator of the first digital electronic computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), as well as Ed Droste, co-founder of Hooters. Making our way down I-35 we swung around the Iowa capital, Des Moines. Des Moines is french for "of the moines" (actually means "of the monks," pardon my Farley tribute).

We also passed through Lamoni, IA, home of Graceland college, which is affiliated with the former Church of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ). Lamoni is the name of a pacifist king from the book of Mormon, and it was the home of Joseph Smith III (son of the founder of the Latter Day Saints).

We have also accumulated 16 water miles, enough to get us from Venezuela to Trinidad and back, the first part of our water journey. Trinidad y Tobago is the birthplace of steel-pan drums, calypso, and the limbo. With that little round trip out of the way, we will now head out across the Atlantic.