So, TransIowa was really hard. Sure we knew that going in, but after grinding it out for 12+ hours, we knew we weren’t going to finish the whole ride, so we stopped. We rode about 150 miles at about a 12 mph pace while riding. With very few breaks we made the 135 mile check point around 4:15, well before the 6:00 pm cutoff. We took a pretty long rest/food break at that town and then kept going. By the time we hit the next town(slightly more than 10 miles away) we were pretty gassed, and the route was only getting farther from Decorah. We figured if we lined up a ride at that point we’d be able to ride another 30-50 miles if we needed to so we could get said ride.

Overall I’m feeling pretty good. I know I did a huge effort, but I’m not incredibly sore. I’ve got some weird lingering pains that come and go in my left foot and left hand, and my neck is pretty stiff, but otherwise I’m mostly fine. I’ll write more and post some pictures once things settle down a little, and I get more of the experience sorted out in my head.