Team New Jersey Excursions Unlimited, Inc. (NJEU)
RAGBRAI 2012 Planning

• Jul 18th - pick up and pack van for travel to Iowa (see Travel To/From Iowa details below)
  
• Jul 19th - early departure for Iowa, meeting RV crew outside Philadelphia and "caravaning" west
  
• Jul 21st - arrive in Iowa at END town
  
• Jul 21st - leave van in END town; riders take charter shuttle to START town; RV crew drives their own vehicle to start town
  
• Jul 22-28: RIDE! RIders sign up with a charter (Brancel or Porkbelly?) for weekly support; RV crew provides mid-way sag support (or all day sag support) to those who need it and camps as close to Brancel as possible
  
• Jul 28th: van & bikes & gear depart for NJ; RV crew heads west

Here is a route overview with town populations, cumulative feet of climb, and Mary's notes on campgrounds and room reservations. Day 5 (Thursday) looks to be the most challenging day. As you can see, there are three days in a row of 75+ miles:

• Sat 7/21: Sioux Center Pop. 7,048
  Mary has booked one room 2 queen beds at Rodeway inn.
  Note: there is usually camping available in the start town prior to the ride.
• Sun 7/22: 54.4 miles, 1,583 Ft climb, Cherokee Pop 5,253
  There are very few camp areas with ammenities in Cherokee. The closest campgrounds I found were 32, 36, and 50 miles away.
• Mon 7/23: 62.0 miles, 2,062 Ft., Lake View Pop. 1,142
  One campground in town and one 20 minutes/11 miles away
• Tues 7/24: 81.2 Miles 1,724 Ft, Webster City Pop 8.07
  One campground town and 2 27 min/20 miles away.
• Wed 7/25: 77.1 Miles 2,018 Ft., Marshalltown Pop 27,552
  One campground town, two 30 min away
• Thurs 7/26: 84.8 Miles, 3,576 Ft., Cedar Rapids Pop 126,326
  One campground 8 miles 13 min. away; one 10 mile/17min two 17 mil 24 min; one 16 mil/26min; one 18 mil/26min.
  Also reserved are two rooms in Cedar Rapids at the country Inn & Suites for a total of $291.18.
• Fri 7/27: 42.2 Miles 2,272 Ft., Anamosa Pop 5,533
  Three campgrounds are 27/min 17 miles; two 17 min/12 mil; 2 are 25 min/20 miles
• Sat 7/28: 69.9 Miles, 2,890 Ft., Clinton Pop 26,885
  Have two rooms booked.
  Note: I may have mis-read emails, but my preference would be to finish the ride, get in the van and start heading back home rather than stay overnight and depart the next morning.

• we can turn handlebars and remove pedals from bikes so they take up less space
• At this point it sounds like we'll have two vehicles going out to Iowa, but only one coming back. We need to make sure we can accomodate all of the gear & people on the return trip. So.... I have reserved a 15-passenger van with Enterprise in Somers Point. It was a total of $550 from Jul 18-Aug 1st with unlimited mileage. The reservation doesn't cost us a thing, and we can cancel at any time, again at no charge. This seemed too good a deal to pass up, and there's no financial obligation, so I went for it. Here are more details, including insurance:
  • The cost for the entire rental with full coverage (vehicle, people, liability & roadside assistance) would be $1290
  • The cost for the entire rental with basic coverage (vehicle, people & roadside assistance) would be $1089
  • It is $10 per day per additional driver
  • Each driver should call their own insurance carrier and verify that his/her liability transfers to a 15-passenger van. This is required to rent the van, we cannot complete the rental paperwork without it.
• Mary has provided the following passenger van info:
  Pick up in Union, NJ
  12 passenger
  Unlimited mileage
  $1,689.94 based on 2800 mile round trip
  Price does not include rental insurance. Each of us needs to have coverage for passenger van. AmEx covers passenger vans but not sure if all of us would be covered under one card.
  Pick up 5:30 p.m. 7/18
  Drop off 5:30 p.m. 7/30
• A VERY rough fuel estimate would be: 3,000 miles round trip to/from Iowa
  assume 15 miles/gallon mileage
  therefore, 200 gallons of fuel consumed
  assume $4/gallon for fuel
  total of $800 in fuel costs for travel to/from Iowa
• Someone from NJ contacted me via the forum; she might be interested in riding out & back with us if we have space. Folks are usually looking for carpools such as this, and if we do have space it could help defray costs.

• Started training in mid-March
  
• From mid-March to the start of the ride, I totaled 1,400 miles
  
• That is a daily average of 10.75 miles
  
• Over the course of that time, I rode a total of 80 days
  
• The daily average for those 80 days was 18 miles
  

Here is a 2011 RAGBRAI Training Plan which was posted by a cycling coach on the RAGBRAI site. Note that this coach's training blog from last year is still on the site and contains some useful advice. He'll be starting a new blog for 2012.

And finally, I am posting (with permission) the training plan for team NJEU's most mature rider to help shame you all into getting out there and logging some miles.

Here are some details on the 2012 route:
Total Miles 471.1
18th Shortest Route
Total Climb 16,125 Ft.
11th flatest route
(First three days climb this year is the same as the first day last year.)
9th easiest

A nice, flat easy training ride is anything in Village Harbor. Cross route 72 at Jennings Road, then either go to the end of Mill Creek Road (~12 miles round trip from our house), or go all the way out on Jennings Road and back (a little less than 10 miles round trip). Wind can be a factor back here since you're riding close to the water, but I find riding into the wind actually helps my training.

There are some short hills in the development back behind the high school and I'll ride around back there hitting as many uphills as possible. I usually end up doing a few loops to get more miles under my belt.

There are also some short hills in the development next to the fields at Doc Cramer. This is another place where the only way to up your mileage is to do a few loops. I sometimes tag team this with a ride along Oak Avenue and then out to the end of Cedar Run Dock Road and back (formerly known as the Luv's Deli Ride).

If I have time and really want to get a more challenging ride with some significant miles and a few relatively easy hills, I do the following:
Go south on route 9 into Tuckerton
Turn right onto 539 north
Turn left at the first light (towards Pinelands Regional HS)
Take that road to the end & turn right onto Poor Man's Parkway
Take Poor Man's Parkway to the end, then turn left onto 539 north again
Take 539N back up to 72 & turn right on 72E
In Barnegat, bear left onto West Bay Ave
Turn right onto Nautilus
Take Nautilus back down to 72E

Note: the route above is not quite 40 miles; there are plenty of options to cut corners off this route by turning off 539 to go through Stafford Forge, or Warren Grove. Note that the midway point of this route goes right past the Warren Grove Snack Bar (a.k.a. Lucille's) which is a great place to stop.

The causeway is the longest, steepest hill in town. It also has hardly any shoulder, so when I do ride it, I try to do so when there is very little traffic OR when the traffic is all backed up. Once over the bridge, I usually decide whether to go north or south based on the wind. Obviously it's all flat riding on the island, but again, training into the wind can help make up for the lack of incline.

And lastly, here is my bike'n'beer training ride, created specifically to prepare for RAGBRAI:
Start in Beach Haven (or HOlgate); first hydration stop: the Hudson House
Bike north to Surf City & stop at our friends Kristi & Rich's for some liquid refreshment
Head off the island and stop to rehydrate on Cedar Bonnet Island at Tommy G.'s
Note: Probably better to walk over the causeway at this point
Next stop, Mel & Eric's in Mud City (kegerator!)
Head up Hilliard and left onto Stafford Ave stopping at Chris & Marty's
Continue home from Stafford Ave for one final hydration stop

• I spent approx $18 per day on food. The charter I was with had dinner included on two nights, so it's probably safe to plan on $20-$25 for food each day.
• I spent a total of $60 on souvenirs/tee shirts
• It was an average of $5 to swim in any of the host towns that had a pool.
• I spent $1 per day on beer. I know that sounds real low, and that's because the charter had cold beer in camp at no extra charge. I probably had 2-3 beers over the course of each afternoon/evening, so it would make sense to budget maybe $5-10 per day for beer.
• Tips - I threw $50 in to the tip jar for the charter. It was hot, they worked their butts off all week, and they never ran out of patience or a willingness to help. They earned it.

I had put a post in the forum on the RAGBRAI site seeking advice about bringing a camper on RAGBRAI. Please read the responses as they contain some very interesting advice and comments. I'm quite certain we could contact any of the folks who responded (I can send them a private message via the forum) and ask more specific questions.

I had a very interesting and informative email exchange with Bob Brancel from Brancel charters, a portion of which I'm including below. Based on his comments, I think all of our riders should sign up with Brancel charters, and our team should request a vehicle pass for the non-riders. I am leaning towards Brancel just because of a gut feeling, it is significantly cheaper than Porkbelly, and they seem open to the scenario described below (which could work very well for us). The sag support folks need to buy into this though, as those of us riding would be depending on them for a sag if we don't want to ride the entire route on any given day. We will want to think this through & discuss in more detail next time we get together to make sure everyone feels comfortable with this approach.

To: Bob
From: Caroline
Here's the (small) dilemma I have. I've done the ride twice, I have a couple of team members who are strong riders, I have a couple of team members very intimidated by the mileage, and then I have a couple non-riders who don't want to totally commit to doing all the grunt work to provide complete support for the rest of the team (ice, drinks, laundry, etc.) I'm leaning towards having those of us who are riding sign up with a charter, while the non-riders get a vehicle pass and do their own thing (and also provide sag support from the mid-point/meeting town to whoever needs it). We could try to camp close to each other, and no matter where we each camped we could still meet up in each host town. I just don't want to break any charter "rules" - I understand completely that the whole point of the charter is to decrease the number of vehicles. What is your reaction to this? Acceptable? Unacceptable? Something in between????

To: Caroline
From: Bob
That sounds like a perfect idea to me. The non riders can offer the sag support to those that are intimidated by the mileage. RAGBRAI does provide sag service but with so many riders a lot of times you wait along time for it. I think it would be more enjoyable if the riders that might need the sage could meet in the meeting town. All the riders can sign up for our service and technically the non riders could on most occassions camp close to us. Depending upon the town and campsites they should be able to park somewhat close. We don't do the wristband thing to identify our riders and we cap the number of campers between 375-400. Once we get close to the ride like mid June you could email me to see where our campsites are and I can let you know. Then the the non rides can use this along with a printing out the town map for each overnight town that is on each towns website and I would also recommend they call the chamber to get a real map. Sometimes the website maps are so so. This would help them navigate around some of the overnight towns.

• Bike stuff:
  • helmet
  • two water bottles
  • 3 spare tubes/patch kit/irons/CO2 cartridge & a small all-purpose tool
• Camping stuff:
  • tent & ground pad
  • thermarest pad
  • small pillow, twin size sheet, & lightweight fleece sleeping bag
  • headlamp
• Clothes:
  • 4 sets of biking clothes (bike shorts, tee shirt & socks)
  • one lightweight rain jacket
  • flip flops, sandals & sneakers
  • a couple of baseball caps (one for wearing under my bike helmet)
  • fleece vest (never used)
  • 1 pair long pants (never used)
  • bathing suit
  • "street" clothes: 3 extra tee shirts, underwear & 1-2 pairs of shorts
• Sundry, etc.
• sunglasses
• handful of extra ziploc & plastic bags, including a couple of big garbage bags for packing the tent away if wet
• RAGBRAI rider packet (including wristband)
• cell phone & charger
• camera & charger
• a few small bags of trail mix
• iPod & charger
• book to read
• toiletry kit - mine included:
  • a small first aid kit (assorted band aids, antiseptic cream, tape)
  • toothbrush, toothpase
  • sunscreen
  • anti-chafing lotion (you're gonna be on that bike all week!)
  • antibacterial hand wash
  • some tylenol
  • small roll of toilet paper
  • hairbrush
  • lip balm
  • hair ties
  • ear plugs
  • handful of small cheap sponges to use as washcloths in shower & throw out when done
• small pad of paper/pen/sharpie, stamps
• pocketknife
• a few clothespins (to hang wet clothes, bathing suit)
• pack towel
• passport wallet - I used this to carry cash, a credit card, ATM card, health insurance card & camera on the bike; then if I stopped for a break I just carried the wallet with me (I did not want or need to bring my entire wallet)

1. Click on "Registration" under the RAGBRAI green and blue header on RAGBRAI homepage www.ragbrai.com
2. Click on "Complete an entry form online"
3. You will be on a page with "3 easy steps to enter RAGBRAI". Click on "get started by creating your profile" at the bottom of the page
4. Create profile. Enter "desired login name" and "desired password" and retype password exactly. (This will be your username and password. They are case sensitive. Use this username and password to access your RAGBRAI registration.)
5. Enter your "email address" and retype it exactly. (We will be sending you automatic emails about your registration and RAGBRAI updates.)
6. Enter your "birthdate": month, day, and year. Be sure you enter the correct year. Enter your "name": salutation, first name and last name. (This will become your unique id.)
7. Click "submit" at the bottom of the page.
8. Click on "find a group to join" under "group options". The group contact must know that you are joining the group.
9. Enter the group number (#39007) or the group name (New Jersey Excursions Unlimited). Click on "find groups".
10. Click on the group name that you want. Click on "join this group now".
11. This will take you to the "group home" page. Your name will be highlighted. Make sure that this is the correct group that you want to join. If it isn't the correct group, click on "click here to remove myself from this group" at the top of the page and you will become an individual again. If it is the correct group, click on "entry not submitted" in red under your name.
12. You will be on the "entry form". Enter your ride information, order your jersey or cycling kit and souvenir pack. Enter your "Personal Information". Check your entry to be sure that everything is correct. If correct then click on "confirm entry" at the bottom of the page.
13. Your "electronic online waiver" will come up for you to fill out. Click on "submit entry" at the bottom of the page. This will submit your registration and waiver.
14. Send your payment (a check made out to the group contact: Caroline Scales) to the group contact as soon as possible. The group contact will submit just one payment for the group. You will be sent an automatic email when the group has been processed. NOTE: we can coordinate collecting payment at a later date, but no later than mid-March.
15. The group contact will receive the wristband and merchandise package in June for the group. You will get your wristband and merchandise from your group contact. If you have any questions or need to request a refund, contact your group contact first.

• The 2nd time I rode I was 45 and I wanted to prove to myself that after having two kids, I was still physically capable of completing it.
• Forces me to get out on the bike and stay in better shape.
• It restores my faith that people are basically good. Over and over again during RAGBRAI I was struck by how truly kind and friendly people were. And I talked with plenty of other people who also expressed pleasant surprise at this as well.
• Riding RAGBRAI keeps a bad day at home or at work in perspective. That day I rode for 3 hours when the heat index was over 100 degrees? THAT was difficult. Dealing with office politics or a child's temper tantrum? Piece of cake.