How I Feel About Winning the Lottery

Well, the RAGBRAI lottery anyway.  It’s not quite as lucrative as Power Ball, but still …

Well, blog fans, drum roll please. Today was the day the Register announced the results of its lottery for week-long riders in RAGBRAI, and I’m (tarum tum pitty-pat tarum) in.

Gulp.

So, again, your correspondent will be riding more than 400 miles across the state of Iowa in the hottest part of a Midwest summer in a time of global warming. It’s the 18^th shortest and 11^th flattest, with a tad over 16,000 feet of climb and just a smidge over 471 miles. I don’t know what that will translate to in terms of volume of sweat or gallons of electrolyte drink consumed, but it’ll be a lot.

It must a good idea, or why would more than 8,000 lottery winners do it?

Sure, you can comment and answer, but it’s too late now, I’m in.

There’s still time for day riders to register for RAGBRAI, by the way. You don’t HAVE to register, but I think it’s a good practice for several reasons.  Registering gives you a wristband that gets you places where others have to pay to go. You are eligible for sag wagon services. And, you’re paying a fee to support the overall event that you’re participating in, which feels better to me than just showing up.

Anyway, I won’t really focus much on RAGBRAI for several weeks. I have to finish the spring semester at MMU, first.  I hope the MMU riders will do some regular practice riding this summer, but I certainly will be trying to pile on the training miles to get my aging body ready for this ordeal.

But, I honestly don’t have much anxiety about it.  Last year, it was an unknown. This year is my second time around.

I’m not ready, yet. But by late July, I can cycle those 1,000 practice miles. I can be ready.

RAGBRAI, here I come!