Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here it is!  The long-awaited and far too long overdue ride report from Carrie & Nathan’s experience with Get Your Guts in Gear – The ride for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.  If you followed our pursuits up to the ride – and presumably you did in some amount since you donated to our cause…THANK YOU HEAPS AND MOUNDS – then you already know the back story.  In short, and for a quick refresher, Carrie lives with inflammatory bowel disease and is also the coordinator for the West-Central Illinois chapter of the United Ostomy Associations of America.  Through her connections with the latter, she found out about GYGIG, and vowed to do the ride one day.  This year, the organization opened up a new ride so close to home, that we simply couldn’t not do it.  Away we went…

 Lots of training, as you might expect, and only 3 flat tires all year.  We both rode as much as we possibly could from early spring, right up to the final days before the ride, which was October 2-4.  At 210 advertised miles for the 3 days, we couldn’t just rest and expect any success.  We found out a lot about cycling, and how necessary cycling-specific “stuff” is.  Things we may have scoffed at early – even at the type of bicycle we could possibly need – became well-understood and no laughing matter the more we got into it.  Oh, definitely these things were “smiling matters,” though, as each new discovery or revelation merely added to our new-found enjoyment on two wheels.  For me, the bike became so much more a lifestyle change and much less about the ride for which we were training.  It’s been absolutely tremendous.  I love it.

The weekend “Guts” trip commenced on Thursday, October 1^st.  We needed to be in Libertyville, IL (the Midwest ride starting location) for check-in, and a pre-ride meeting.  After a relatively sleepless night, we arrived at our starting location sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 am.  Various individuals, ride sponsors and the ride director gave appreciation speeches, pep talks and the like, and a complement of bike ride breakfasty items were laid out for our indulgence/fuel-up/pocket stashing, etc.  I actually opted for half a dry bagel, which I nibbled on for about 2 hours, I think.  Not a lot of sleep, and being a bit jittery about the task at hand no doubt contributed to my lack of wanting much on my stomach.  I don’t recall how Carrie felt, although neither of us slept well.

The riding began right around 7:00 am, I believe, and Carrie and I planned to stay together.  I’m not sure what happened, but we separated very early.  We’d only be that way for a couple miles, or so, then would stay together for the majority of the ride.  This was great.  Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let me start again.  Libertyville routes were treacherous.  Dangerous.  Local law enforcement was on hand to stop traffic for this group of 43 cyclists (who were spread several minutes apart), and for that I am most thankful.  Anyone in Libertyville reading this, truly, Thank You Libertyville police for your help.  I do appreciate it.  I think there were other officials who helped in this regard, but I can’t say for sure what communities we rode through where it was necessary.  In Chicagoland, for me, one town just bleeds into the next.  I just wanted to make the correct turns on the route, and not get run over! 

Once we got to the Wisconsin/Illinois line, things mellowed out nicely, and would remain that way until our return trip into Illinois on Sunday.  As I started to type earlier, Carrie and I stayed together for virtually the entire ride.  And it was great.  I loved riding with her.  We found rest stops, as promised, every 12 to 15 miles, that were fully-stocked with Clif bars, graham crackers, Gatorade (which I found when starting in powder form and mixing with water is a bladder irritant for me), bananas, oranges, peanut butter, jelly (good combo on the graham crackers), gummy fruit chews…what else?  Mixed nuts and Goldfish crackers.  I think that’s it.  Water, of course, was always there, as well as smiling faces.  The crew members on this ride, which may have outnumbered the riders, come to think of it, were a super bunch.  They were so encouraging and would attend to “your every need.”  I exaggerate a little, but really, they took very good care of us.  Thanks crew! 

After rest stop 3 or 4 (lunch) on Friday, I needed to stop pretty quickly after leaving to either put on a jacket or take it off, so we pulled off into a parking lot.  Carrie came to a complete stop, but kind of forgot her cleats were still engaged in her pedals.  She tipped.  It was to her left and pretty hard, such that her right knee – her “up” knee, as it were – hit the pavement when she went down.  It set her up for a rough rest of the day, but she would still put in another 25 or 30 miles before calling it quits.  Riding all but the last leg the first day, Carrie accomplished a distance 3 times her longest training ride.  A pretty significant thing, I say.  She wrapped up her first day at 63 miles.  I left the last rest stop by myself, then, and hit it pretty hard for the last 11 ½ miles.  While I really dug being able to hammer away, I found I really missed Carrie out there.  I was so glad she had the courage to quit when she did, but I missed her.  Perhaps that contributed to my “brilliant burst of speed” (L’il Abner anyone?), as I wanted to get done and join her at our first night’s camp site. 

The weather was cold and damp.  Not so like our mid-November day today, but it wasn’t weather I would ever camp in on purpose, so to speak.  To our great fortune, this Girl Scout camp’s lodge was open and available to us.  I don’t think anyone pitched a tent that night, opting for the relatively warm and comfy confines of a bunk in the dorm area, or an air mattress in the common room.  Another early morning await all of us, so Friday ended with snoring commencing somewhere around 9 o’clock. 

I know we surely slept, but it was again not great.  Saturday’s breakfast was as exciting as Friday’s for me – English muffin with strawberry preserves this time.  I nibbled to my nubbins, then we walked back to the bike area.  We made sure our bottles were filled and away we went.  Rest stops were again every 12 to 15 miles.  It was another cool and dampish day.  As the group was really spread out, some rode in measurable rainfall, when others felt nary a sprinkle.  We found – and were ribbed about it by Bruce, one of the sweep vehicle drivers – as long as we had on our rain gear, not a drop would fall.  We started without.  It started to rain.  We stopped to put it on.  So stopped the rain.  It was a bit maddening, in truth, but funny just the same.  Carrie’s by-now super-bruised knee had met its limit, so her day two ended right after lunch at about 43 miles.  Still pretty outstanding, considering.  I pushed hard for the last two legs of Saturday’s mileage, as well, while Carrie got to experience another facet of the ride in a sweep vehicle, which I thought was pretty neat.  What we found to be the case for a lot of these folks involved is they may ride it once in New York State or the Seattle area, then come back and crew for numerous rides after.  I thought it was neat that Carrie got to be rider and crew her first time out.  She remained on the route longer than I did, actually.  I had the idea that I would ride hard to get done and join her at camp, but she was still out in the sweep vehicle. 

Our second night was spent inside of a tent, but our tent was inside of a livestock building at a county fairgrounds!  Never fear, it was super clean…for any building, but especially-so for something that had housed four-legged farm friends a month or so prior.  This night, several folks did pitch a tent outside, but we opted for indoor accommodations.  While it was hardly quiet (if people snored they bellowed; no way could I be that loud…opinions will vary), it was private, and it seemed warmer inside the tent, inside the building.  Not being in the wind that picked up over night was a good thing, though.  About that wind… 

As cool as it was Sunday morning – about 45 degrees – there was definite wind chill, to boot.  Thanks be to God (and event planners) that our route was south and east on Sunday, and only a bit over 55 miles to the finish.  With a northwest wind at our back, and sunshine on our face for a good portion of the morning, everyone made record time on the last day.  We just cruised.  I’d swear it was all downhill, too!  What a great way to finish.  Our friend (and seemingly GYGIG hero/legend), Charlie, rode with Carrie and I the last day.  He typically rides at the front with the racer-types, so it was a privilege that he spent time with us on the last day.  Charlie was the real impetus for Carrie to become interested in the ride.  We look forward to spending more time with Charlie and his wife, Joyce, in the future. 

After a closing ceremony and cookout at a Libertyville park, we loaded up the car and meandered back home.  Okay, I-55 isn’t exactly a meandering route, but after riding something over 205 miles in a weekend, does one really want to do anything but meander… if he has to move at all?  I slept really well for four nights straight.  I think we both did. 

The longer we were away from the experience, the fonder we became of it.  We both want to do more “major” rides.  I’m not sure how soon we’ll do GYGIG again, nor am I sure for what other causes we may ride.  We’ll surely at least be riding for our own cause.  I’ve adopted a motto this year: “Too old to turn pro, and too young to stop dreaming about it.”  I couldn’t be more proud of Carrie’s accomplishment, and I’ve already told you how thrilled I am with riding a bike.  I certainly wouldn’t dream of comparing our work to anybody else’s, on a bike or otherwise.  There are a lot of courageous people out there doing amazing things, and even more courageous people out there simply doing anything at all. 

More power to us all.