The Ride

Let me introduce myself, my name is Alisa, I’m a Multimedia Producer here at WHO-TV. I walked into my boss’s office not too long ago and I said, I want to ride RAGBRAI and tweet/Facebook my progress and this is how the conversation went:

Boss: OK

Me: no, I mean like I’d have the days off to ride it…

Boss: You wouldn’t be “off” you’d be tweeting and Facebooking…

Me: ok, but I want to ride it

Boss: YES! Yes, yes, yes. Whatever you’re pitching, I’m saying yes.

So I ran off and solidified the decision by registering with Team Skunk and paying the registration fees. Once I registered it set in… I’m actually going to have to ride RAGBRAI.

I’m not new to the saddle; I rode RAGBRAI as a child behind my parents in the Burley, and then later on a tandem with my dad. I grew up around cycling with my parents racing in Iowa Games and going on long training rides from Ames to some Casey’s in the middle of the country with the promise of a doughnut at the destination.

I vaguely remember riding RAGBRAI but I’ve heard many stories over the years of losing a tooth and being paid in beer cans by the tooth fairy, calling team Gumby lazy because they were riding past us in a converted school bus as I was playing with my Barbie in the Burley.

Just the other day my mom remembered a story when I rode in the Burley all the way up a mile long hill. The whole way I was saying, “mom, mommy, mama, mom, mommy, mom…” Too winded to turn around, she listened to me all the way up the hill and finally stopped at the peak, thoroughly aggravated, to ask what I wanted... “I just wanted to see your face.”

I plan on making my own RAGBRAI memories as an adult, and I hope you’ll follow my training progress here on my blog, and on twitter @alisa_who.