Mandy rides TOMRV

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best – Ernest Hemingway

TOMRV - Tour of the Mississippi River Valley is a ride put on by the Quad City Bicycle Club and it is as old as I am.  I don't remember how I heard about this ride, or what made me think I could handle the "challenging" hills.  Somehow I got it in my head that I could do it, and so I talked it over with my husband and signed us up back in February.

As the weekend approached, I was really excited.  I had all my gear ready and my nutrition all planned out.  I had been telling people about this ride for months!  Then on Thursday morning, my husband came home ill from work.  He had a bad case of the stomach flu, and it didn't really occur to me until Friday around noon that he would not be able to do the ride.  I panicked because I have been so looking forward to ride.  I trained (ha!) so hard and was ready for it (so I thought.)  I really didn't want to miss the event, but I also didn't know if I was mentally ready for the solo challenge.  After talking to some wonderful, supportive friends I talked with Jay and decided that I would go myself and attempt to ride 69 miles the first day and 46 miles the second day.

I came home from work, loaded up the car with my gear and bike.  I stopped by the bike shop for one little adjustment and then headed out to my hotel room in Savanna, IL.  It occurred to me while I was there that I have never stayed in a hotel room alone before.  I have always traveled with my husband or friends.  Since I don't have a job that requires traveling, I have never really had any reason to go somewhere alone.  I enjoyed sleeping in the middle of the bed and going to the bathroom with the door open LOL

the nicest Super 8 I have ever stayed in

On Saturday morning I got up early, lathered sunscreen over every exposed inch of skin, filled my camel back with ice water and headed out to Preston, IA about 16 miles away.  As I crossed the Mississippi River at about 7:15am, I started getting nervous.  It was a beautiful day, not one cloud in the sky and it was already in the neighborhood of 75 degrees.  I was really hoping for a few clouds to help block the sun!!  A few miles into Iowa, I started seeing folks on bicycles and I got really excited!  I was paying attention to the hills I was currently driving into town and looking at them in the rear view mirror thinking I would be riding up them shortly.  They didn't seem too bad and I wondered what I had been worrying about for so long.

I found Preston and the park where I dropped off my overnight bag to be delivered to Dubuque by truck and then I picked up my wristband.  The wristband is what gets you into the ride sponsored rest stops.  I then checked the air pressure in my tires, got on all my gear and attempted to take a picture of me and my bike:

well, that didn't work out so well.

I stopped at the shelter one more time to ask the volunteers about signage.  How will I know where to go?  What do the signs look like?  I was told to look out for orange signs with black arrows; they will be nailed to sign posts and telephone poles.  So I headed out on my way.  I was feeling pretty comfortable, and happy to be finally riding TOMRV!!  I rode some decent rolling hills and then came to the river valley.  I coasted down to island town of Sabula pretty much the fastest speed I have ever gone before.  In Sabula, you ride on a two lane highway with no shoulder.  The best I can describe it is a land bridge through a whole bunch of lakes before you get to the actual river crossing.

riding into Sabula, IA

Sabula Lakes

After the narrow ride out of Sabula, I ended up on the Savanna-Sabula Bridge.  I had read that this bridge is very slippery when wet, but since it was dry, I attempted to ride my bike across. 

the grates on this narrow bridge made me very nervous

About 3 minutes into riding on this bridge I unclipped and walked my bike across.  The skinny tires on the bumpy metal were making me tense and worried that I might fall.  I was especially nervous of gaining speed by going down the other side.  In the end, I was safer and happier walking.

the mighty Miss

Now in Illinois, and shade :)

The Illinois side of the river was much cooler and the tall cliffs provided some of the only shady roadway I would encounter all day.  Just north of Savanna, IL is Mississippi Palisades State Park where I relaxed at my first ride sponsored rest stop.  It was 9:45 and I was at mile 18.  I was so excited to get some fresh water and some food.  I had some fresh fruit, a snack from my own bag and dropped an electrolyte tablet in my water bottle.  I checked in with my support system back home and headed back out on the road.    The next ten miles were pretty flat, and somewhat boring to tell you the truth.  My only problem at this point was that I was feeling the wind on my face and I was told I would have a tail wind on Saturday.  I tried not to focus on the wind and enjoy myself.  It wasn't really that bad, after all.

I thought  my next stop would be in 20 miles at the next ride sponsored rest stop, but in the town of Hanover, IL a little church put on a rest stop.  For a very small fee, I had a delicious turkey sandwich sans bun... I can't tell you how good that homemade food tasted!  There were other sandwich options plus apple pie (OMG I really wanted some!)  I made friends with a gal named Allie then I filled up my bottle again with water & electrolytes and headed out to what I had heard was a very large hill starting the ascent to Chestnut Mountain.  Now, I wasn't going to be fooled, this is IL after all, not Colorado.  How big could this hill really be?  Well, I was sure I got a picture of it, but it turns out I didn't.  As I approached this hill, I knew immediately I would not be able to get up it.  I was already in mile 31 and the hill was 350ft up.  I heard later that it was an 11% grade.

see that hill at mile 31? 

This was the first hill I walked my bike up.  I saw Allie ahead of me walking her bike, and even though I knew she was a stronger rider than me, it made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one walking.  Some folks commented that it’s harder to walk than ride as they passed me.  I thought that was pretty rude, but I ignored them and silently thanked myself for buying all-road shoes that have the clip hardware recessed.  This means I am walking up the road on actual rubber sole instead of metal that clips into my pedal.

When I got to the top of the hill, I found some shade with Allie and we drank a bunch of water to cool down.  It was a difficult hike up that hill!  Knowing that the next rest stop wasn't far off, I enjoyed the next rolling miles, it didn't bother me that they kept going up because there was always a little down to go with it.  The next rest stop was at mile 37 and at 12:30 it was getting a lot hotter outside.  People enjoyed popsicles among the other treats that the volunteers had ready for us.  I filled up on water and electrolytes once again.  I sat under a tree and let my supporters know how I was doing.  I also ran into Phat Jilly, a Coyote friend of mine.  I was so happy to see her and her friends, who started out in Bettendorf that morning.  Yes, they rode 38 miles more than me and met me at mile 37 LOL.  Chatted with them a bit and found out that the decent off of Chestnut Mountain is very dangerous... they reminded me to control my speed and take it easy.  You can see from the chart above how crazy that drop off is.  The road isn't in the best shape either, so it definitely scared the crud out of me.  I pulsed my front and back breaks evenly until there were no more curves and I could actually see the road ahead of me stretch out.  Then I let go and enjoyed the ride :)

It didn't take long before I needed another break, this time I found a tree at the top of a hill and sat down too cool off and drink.  Several other people thought this was a good idea too and joined me :)

Here was my view of the beautiful NW IL countryside

My view of the riders coming up the hill

I continued to ride on Blackjack road and arrived in Galena, IL at 2:00.  When I realized I was there and when I saw the flood gates I got a little choked up.  Even though I had 24 miles still to go, it seemed like I was so close to Dubuque!!

Downtown Galena: 45 miles into my trip

It turns out that you should have at least 1000 miles under you before attempting this ride, and I had just a little more than 500 in the flat lands of north central Illinois.  The hills that I consider challenging at home turned out to be the warm-up hills of TOMRV.

while I was getting iced green tea, other riders were enjoying some cold brews

There was a very large hill outside of Galena that I had to walk up and once I started riding again I came across these folks.  I thought their bike was pretty cool and had to get a pic.

tandem recumbent

As the miles wore on, I became more and more tired.  The heat was really getting to me and I was riding in a lower gear than I normally would.  This meant that when I got to a decent sized hill, I didn't have much room to shift down.  In the 55th mile or so I hit a hill at least a mile long on a quiet country road that I hiked up with my bike.  It was just me and the cows at this point.  I was still enjoying myself even if I had to hike up the tough hills. The scenery was keeping my spirits up.

pretty countryside vista

I felt too tired to take pictures, but I tried to keep shooting anyway, to distract me from my fatigue and the heat.

my husband doesn't understand why I like to take pics like this LOL

I approached the last rest stop at 4:00, 56 miles into my journey.  I was pretty exhausted, tired of reapplying suntan lotion and sick of rest stop food.  I wanted real food and a shower.  I enjoyed chatting with people at this rest stop and lingered here a little longer than the others.  I used the hose to drench my head and try to cool down.  Drank a lot of water and of course got my electrolyte tab in my bottle.  I did a shot of pickle juice with some other fun riders.  It tasted really delicious after the long day on the road.  I was trying to keep my chin up, the support from home kept rolling in cheering me on and celebrating each of my mini victories of 10 miles or so.

As I made it into the last leg of my journey, I hit this hill at mile 58 and I just laughed.  It was another one of those mile long hills and I was not in the mood.  It was at this point I was entering SW Wisconsin and the SAG van came up along side of me to see if I was ok.  I told them I was good, and that I just wasn't prepared for hills of this size.  Plus it being late in the day, I was pretty tired.  They offered me a ride but I kindly refused.  My two feet were going to get me to Clarke College one way or the other.  Preferably pedaling, but if I had to walk I didn't care.  There was no way I was getting in that van unless I was really feeling sick.

At the 59th mile I was able to hop back on my bike and ride until about the 62nd mile and then my Garmin died.  This was a first for me, I have never had it running for this long before and was kind of bummed that it died just before I got to Dubuque.

Rock Cut Road ;)

I had to hike up another ginourmous hill, and it was a hot one... the pavement was really toasty

At this point I was getting a little cranky and desperate.  This hill would have been doable for me earlier in the day or if it had been 10-15 degrees cooler.  I hiked my bike up this hill and found out that I would be entering the highway by using the exit ramp. This was a first for me on a bicycle and I have to say it made me pretty nervous.  The cars were going about 70 and I swear the choppers were making extra noise on purpose!  I understand there are only so many ways to get over the river, but this felt crazier than the morning bridge.

Crossing into Dubuque

So, thankfully I am in the city.  I can say I made it to Dubuque.  But where the heck is this college?  I heard a nasty rumor that it’s at the top of a hill.  This brought my thoughts to Uncle Larry.  Did he design this crazy route?  He is known for putting finish lines at the top of hills, (just sayin’)  Thinking of UL reminds me of all the crazy things I have done this year, and all the crazy, strong people who stand behind me and cheer for me.  The super strong Coyotes who howl and run through the forest no matter what the temperature, no matter how much snow or mud is on the ground.  These are the unique, crazy people who inspire and encourage me to keep on moving.  Also the two men sitting on a front porch that yelled to me "You go girl, you are almost there!!" :)

Then I saw it.  The hill. It had to be THE HILL because, I don't know.  I could just tell.  My Garmin was dead.  I had no idea of my mileage, but I knew I was there.  Then I had to get off my bike and walk.  My legs were jello, and my eyes were tearing up.  I had to stop a few times on the way up this hill just to rest and get a drink.  I could barely make it up that hill... but I HAD to.

The most beautiful sign I saw all day.

When I snapped this picture I was trying to keep my cool.  I was ready to collapse on the ground and cry. I tried to hold it together, but I did end up crying a bit as I rode my bike to the other side of campus to deposit it in the tennis courts.  By the time I got to the packet pickup, I had lost it.  I felt so bad for the poor girl who was trying to give me my room assignment.  I explained that I was ok, just really tired and probably dehydrated.  She was very kind and complimented me on finishing a tough ride.  I found my dorm room and took the coldest, longest shower ever.  

I thought about my journey and how it was really difficult, the hilliest, longest ride I had ever taken and that I did it solo.  I thought about all my little victories and my friends and family who encouraged me the whole way.  Then I thought of getting back on the bike tomorrow made me sick.  I didn't believe I had it in me physically or mentally to get back on the bike the next day.  I talked with my mom and Jay, and went to dinner with Jilly and the gang.  They were a great bunch of people and made me laugh lots while I chowed down.  They told me that I looked good and I should be really proud of myself.  I mentioned that I might not be able to make it tomorrow, but they assured me I would be fine.  Well, they had done this ride probably 20 times before, and I was under prepared.  I decided it was best to go with my gut.

I decided that night that I was proud of what I accomplished that day and that getting on the bike Sunday would be a mistake.  I called the ride director to try to find a ride home, but everyone he knew had a full car already.  He suggested that get up early and try to find someone who was going back.  So that’s what I did!  I got up at 4:30, retrieved my bike, had breakfast with Jilly's awesome friend Nancy and then proceeded to stalk the parking lot.  About 5:30am I saw a guy in plain clothes walking to a truck so I approached him to see if I could get a ride.  He said no problem and in 10 minutes I had my bags and my bike in his truck. I would never hitchhike outside of this community (well probably the running community too) but it’s great how nice everyone is and understanding of a newbie who got in way over her head.  I had a great conversation with John on the way back to Preston.  He taught me about some adjustments I can make to my shoe cleats and bike seat for a more comfortable ride.  We noted how windy it was and agreed that I made the right decision by opting out of Sunday.  I was so thankful for his generosity and so happy I was back to my car by 7:00am and home by 9:30am

Overall, it was a great experience.  I would say it was definitely harder than my half marathon... probably one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.  I am glad I decided to go.  I learned a lot about cycling and myself.  I will be back again someday, after I find some really big hills to train on for a few years.  Other than that, I think I am ready for my first (flat) century :)