I’m always envious of people in on the ground floor of something. Like the guy who can tell you not only did he run in the Boston Marathon, but he ran in the first very one.
The authority of having been there at the start! Back then, he might say, we ran with duct tape around our wooden clodhoppers and used pig bladders to carry water.
This summer I rode my bike on the RAGBRAI, the awkwardly named Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. This was the 46th annual ride and as they do every year, they trotted out the founders of the ‘BRAI and cyclists got off their bikes and braved a long line to stand next to Mr. Karras and shake his hand, maybe take a selfie.
It’s not that he’s unusually handsome or an accomplished cyclist, it’s just that he was there at the first one, he rode his bike across Iowa in 1973, before the streets were paved with Amish Pie and Craft Beer. Imagine!
Which is why I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s ride, the first annual TOSOC, or Tour of Scenic Ogle County, benefitting the amazing Village of Progress. The TOSOC ride affords cyclist an opportunity to ride either a 10, 32 or 62 mile route, all on the beautiful, gently rolling farm roads of Ogle County.
The best part for me? By being on tomorrow’s ride I’ll finally get in on the ground floor of something. In 40 years people will stand around my bed at Pinecrest and ask me what was it like to ride on the very first TOSOC.
I’ll blink the letters to spell out that it was awesome, and that back then people had to pedal their bikes and drink water out plastic squeeze tubes instead of having the molecules synthesized through a phone app.
I’m Dan Libman, and that will be my perspective.
