The weekend started off with the pre-race "meat-up" at the Grinnell Steak House. The food was great, the Comfort Inn was very nice, and the weather was going to be a disaster! As always seems to be the case for me before a big event I don't sleep well. When the alarm went off at 2:30 AM, I felt like I had not slept at all. I got up and ate Chinese take-out that we brought from home, there is nothing like sweet and sour chicken to help wake you up. Joe and I got dressed understanding that it was going to rain very shortly. We loaded up the bikes on the car and drove to downtown Grinnell for the the neutral roll out.
It was very foggy when we heard the beeping of horns and we left town. Within a few minutes we were all off! The rain held off until about 5AM. Then the sky opened up, we experienced sideways rain and lightning in such close proximity the Weather Channel would have been jealous. The sky was filled with lightning! We passed a couple groups of people stopped and trying to decide what to do about the weather and mostly out of not having anywhere to go, we pressed on. Close to seven the rain had stopped. The fun all really started when we got to the "b" road. For anyone who does not know, a "b" road is mostly not ride-able, and especially not if you have more than an inch of rain the day before and then you soak it again within say a few minutes of you wanting to ride it. The mud was so sticky that it almost pulled my shoe off in one spot. We had to carry our bikes for a mile! That made me question why the road was on the course, I feel like bike race means should be able to ride it. I have no problems with CX racing where there can be some hike a bike in a very technical sections, but this was just stupid. When we got to the other end of this road my bike was stuck in the big ring, could not keep it in any other gear with out it jumping. Joe and I finished off the last few miles, but we missed the time cut off by at least half and hour.
The race volunteers told us that about a 1/3 of the field made it through in the 4 hour time period. Many of us sat down in the park in Monroe, Iowa all repeating the same two stories, lots of mud, and lightning! Joe and I got a ride back to town with Al Brunner and his brother that we call Save :-) We got back to the hotel that we stayed at the night before and luckily for us, I forgot to check us out before we left for the race. We got into our room and took showers. This is the dirtiest I think I have ever been at a race. I had mud inside my shorts? How is that possible? I guess it is. I would love to put up pictures, but my camera was ruined in TI. (I am hoping its still under the extended warranty I bought, so maybe when I can read the card I can put up some pictures.)
After showers it was time for Mexican food, which made everything seem better. We ate lunch with Save and Al, and then headed for home.
The race was sort of a bust, but on the upside its never a loss when you get to meet new people and share good food.
A couple weeks ago Joe and I tried out road "racing." As I said before it was my 4th time on a road bike. 50 miles later my hands were pretty sore. Joe wrapped my bars with a thicker padding that has a gel insert where my hands were the sorest. We will get to try it out tomorrow and see if it makes a difference. The weather forecast for this weekend looks so much better than last, sunny and low 70s, some wind. We'll take it. Tomorrow we are riding in a 300K brevet that starts in Le Claire, Iowa, and follows the Mississippi north to just south of Dubuque, then we turn around and ride back. 
