Finishing Trans Iowa was a little emotional which was a surprise to me. I’ve done lots of bike races over the years. I’ve raced in some pretty cool places and I’ve challenged myself with the distance or the terrain or both. Trans Iowa was different.  If you’re a bike geek like me, you can appreciate the race for what it is and all the obstacles it presents. To non-geeks it probably seems a little silly and a waste of a perfectly good weekend.

Trans Iowa was about attempting something I really didn’t know if I could finish or not. No matter how hard I prepared or planned, I knew I would encounter things on the road and in my head that tried to prevent me from reaching my goal.

I’m lucky, blessed, fortunate or stupid enough to have had this opportunity but there’s nothing special about me, that’s for sure. This is the sort of thing people do every day in a much bigger way than a silly bike ride. I see people that drop everything to take care of their ailing parents, or open their hearts and homes to a troubled child, or decide they want to change the world and cure malaria. For heavens sake, just deciding to have a kid and be a parent is a huge leap into the unknown. Humans are amazing and we all have the capacity to accomplish amazing things. Most of us do it without anyone else noticing.