An extended interview with RAID creator Ryan Parlee

Ryan Parlee rides into Oskaloosa on May 14th 2011 (photo by D.Hubbard)

Over the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to talk with the RAID, or Ride Across Iowa in a Day creator Ryan Parlee on different aspects of the ride, his motivations for creating this event, and the things that motivate him personally in wanting to do this.

When did you start riding, and what was your reason for taking up riding? “Two years ago I decided that I wanted to do triathlons and started biking, running, and swimming. I found that I really enjoyed the biking and just kept doing more of it.”

We move on to the obvious question, what made you want to create such an event? What was your inspiration for it? “Let me give you some background on this event.

My dad was good friends with Bob Breedlove. They were weight lifting partners for many years. I grew up hearing these stories about Bob and all his cycling accomplishments. I was impressed, but being young I didn’t really understand just how far a particular distance was; I couldn’t relate to 100 or 1,000 miles. So my dad would tell me the story of how on the last day of RAGBRAI, Bob would wake up early and ride the entire course; riding in 1day what it took everyone else 7 days to accomplish! This was something I could understand and I thought it was amazing.

Well, as I said before, about two years ago I discovered that I really enjoy cycling. I think it was on my first 50 mile ride that I started thinking again about those stories of Bob and mentioned to my buddy Chad that some day we should try and do what Bob did; ride across Iowa in one day. We both thought it was crazy because at the time we could barely make it those 50 miles.

But one year later (last fall) we found ourselves riding the 100 mile Bob Breedlove memorial ride. We loved it! And at about mile 80 we started talking about the possibility of a one day ride across Iowa. Of course, Ann Peterson, Bob’s daughter, who works with Chad, thought it was a great idea and helped us put the pieces together.

Jim Legvold (left) and Peter Laing (right) are seen here pulling into Oskaloosa on their ride across Iowa.

So there’s the rest of the story. Bob, my dad, Bob’s daughter Ann, and several other people (Dave Foster, Wes Chaplin, Chad Johnson, Kurt Hantelmann, and many more!) have been instrumental in getting this event off the ground.

What was the toughest point you had in your race across the state? “About 15 miles to Indianola I reached back to grab some food and realized that I didn’t pack enough from my last checkpoint, which was about 40 miles back. I thought that I had a bottled water and protein drink in my pouch but they weren’t there. I was thirsty and low on calories.

I kept thinking that I’d find a gas station to fill my bottle but I pedaled for a couple more miles and nothing was in sight. I got a little scared because I know that if I let my body get past a certain point I’ll end up on the ground unable to move and needing help. I had it happen on an 80 mile training ride while preparing for RAID and I was concerned that it was going to happen again.

I ended up making it to the Indianola checkpoint but I felt sick and ready to give up. I had pushed myself too far and didn’t know if I could recover. I knew I needed calories but didn’t want to put anything in my mouth. I made myself down a Pedialyte and protein drink. I still felt sick but just hoped that I’d eventually get over it.”

I wanted to know what Ryan would do to change the event, and he seemed to echo what most everyone had to say about Saturday. “That’s easy. I’d make it 20 degrees warmer, no rain, and make the wind blow East. :)”

Look to see this event again. As with most events the first year is the roughest, and compound that with exhaustion it would be difficult to say you want to do it again. But after he started getting the feeling back in his hands, and several others asking for it to be run again, if I were a betting man, I would lay odds on seeing the RAID Riders again.

Posted by on May 18 2011. Filed under Local News, Local Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News