Ragbrai Update #3

Team Livestrong was welcomed by an incredible Iowa summer morning on Wednesday as we crawled out of our tents outside the gates of Iowa State University in Ames. Cool temperatures and sunny skies were a welcome change after a couple of warm and stormy days. The route for the day proved to be arguably the toughest of the week - 75 miles of constant rolling hills into an unrelenting headwind. Fortunately, there were towns every 6-10 miles, per usual, that were fully prepared to refuel riders with an array of home-cooked goods. I am certain that a few teammates and a piece of Shoo-Fly pie in Albion sustained me to the finish.

As our team rolled into Tama-Toledo one-by-one into the evening, I met one of our riders named Kelm. He lives in Iowa and is 18 months out from being diagnosed with a rare form of nasal cancer. Like many people diagnosed with cancer, he received varying opinions about how and where to be treated. A friend of his had referred him to the Livestrong website and it was not long before he received a survivorship notebook. Something he read in the book helped him make the difficult choice about where and how to be treated, a decision which may well have saved his life. Kelm couldn’t thank me and the rest of our organization enough for the support and help we provided to him. It is a tremendous honor to work at the LAF and to have an opportunity to affect peoples lives - an honor that is really brought to life when you meet someone like Kelm in person.

3 days to go for the rest of Team Livestrong until they reach the Mississippi! This morning, a few of us slogged our way to Des Moines to catch a flight to Columbus for the Summit. Here’s hoping the rest of the team avoids the rain. I look forward to hearing the stories when they all arrive victoriously at the finish. Cheers!