The Official Thanks Post

So... I finally got the results posted. It only took a week! Life certainly gets busy!

A few things, since I didn't really do a proper spewing of thanks and thoughts after the big day.

1) 2018....

As of right now, I would say that we're 95% going to hold an 11th edition of this beast. Most likely it will be April 7th. Obviously a lot can happen in a year!

My goal will be to come up with a few changes in the cue sheets. Mainly I am a technological caveman and the rise of folks navigating 100% with their GPS is disconcerting to me in some way. If I'm going to print off 150 cue sheets, I want people to have to use them darn it! (Not faulting those that didn't use them this year, I didn't curtail any use of them in such manner, so no harm done... it's all just me being a curmudgeon.)

2) 2017 Thank you list (not in any order)

A) My wife, kids, and mom and dad. Their patience with me leading up to the race, help at checkpoints, and babysitting assistance all make the day happen.

B) The riders! You all are a joy to put through the agony that is the Rok. It is humbling that folks would keep coming back year after year when we provide so little of the outside stuff (such as actual support, swag, food, water, etc).

C) Mississippi National! I don't know if 1 person actually ended up going in and buying food/beer. They were open for golfers and we used up almost 2/3 of their parking lot. And they were asking what more they could do next year to make it better.... That says a lot!

D) Red Wing Brewery! I totally forgot about the night before check-in until a couple of days before. They were happy to host even with essentially no notice. They are small, and we sort of jam up things... but they are happy to have us every year.

E) Jake! Even though life happened and he had to leave for personal reasons, that he would fly from CO just to help out says everything you need to know. We may be trying to start a ride out in the Front Range sometime in the next couple years...

F) Larry! The help on the day of is always much appreciated! The groundwork that he did in the early Rok editions has made them go smoothly even as he has stepped away from the organizing of it.

G) Mark Stevenson and Chris Skogen! Trans-Iowa was what lit the fire in our bellies, and the first Almanzo was what told us that it could be done.

Anyways... this'll probably be the last blog post here for a while unless I get out on some recon rides for next year. Good luck to all that are planning on doing any of the great rides that are around here. If you have questions about gravel routes, suggestions for making the Rok better, etc. Feel free to drop me an email... isaac.m.giesen@gmail.com

Thanks and have a great year!

2017 Results

Here are the results from last week. Sorry for the delay in posting! It was a fun day and I hope that everyone had a goo

Place	Rider #	Name	Time of Day
1	123	Drew Wilson	1:12
2	147	Ian  Hoogendam	1:14
3	144	Mark Lalonde	1:27
4	181	Nathan Wentz	1:27
5	182	Nicholas Lemke	1:27
6	129	Rick Curtis	1:41
7	170	Todd Foster	1:49
8	101	Brandt Elson	1:50
9	184	Dennis Dresler	1:52
10	141	Joe Meiser	1:55
11	187	Christian Sundquist	1:57
12	198	Ben Hey	2:02
13	193	Charles Wolf	2:02
14	196	Ryan Birkemeier	2:02
15	192	Kyle Sobota	2:06
16	188	Scott Hippen	2:06
17	202	Paul Carroll	2:06
18	159	Dustin Gaffke	2:09
19	161	Steven Deckert	2:09
20	185	Matthew Abel	2:09
21	190	Larry Sauber	2:11
22	120	Matt Riley	2:11
23	163	Steve Soltis	2:23
24	199	Jake Jungers	2:29
25	133	Todd Shanafelt	2:32
26	165	Todd Matchmaker	2:32
27	183	Carrie Seipp	2:34
28	149	Tyler Greenwaldt	2:35
29	142	Ryan Stringfield	2:35
30	143	Sean Mailen	2:37
31	136	Josh Roeser	2:37
32	191	Jeff Shupe	2:41
33	112	Ben Cox	2:41
34	208	Jeff Bushendorf	2:42
35	153	Megan Barr	2:43
36	160	Robert Hest	2:44
37	131	David Weeks	2:44
38	135	Ken Earley	2:45
39	111	Joel Benton	2:45
40	162	Ted Clausen	2:47
41	195	Jeff O'Neill	2:54
42	148	Lee Venteicher	3:02
43	175	Bruce Anderson	3:02
44	205	Joe DeMars	3:06
45	169	Chelsea Strate	3:07
46	172	Luke Brager	3:09
47	173	Jim Garrett	3:09
48	138	Jay Schneider	3:14
49	204	Meredith Rambow	3:14
50	128	Eric Hathaway	3:17
51	126	Mike Watercott	3:17
52	178	Rob Mosimann	3:17
53	124	Maggy Fournier	3:20
54	125	Kent McDaniel	3:20
55	104	Sam Tobias	3:24
56	151	Charles Denis	3:28
57	152	Chris Stuckman	3:31
58	107	Eddie Karow	3:36
59	121	Shawn Cotter	3:36
60	137	Randy Brendal	3:38
61	130	Jonas Nygard	3:38
62	116	Jere Mohr	3:39
63	113	Gary Lindberg	3:39
64	194	Kyle Davis	3:42
65	211	Ken Zylstra	3:43
66	115	Leah Gruhn	3:44
67	134	Dave Knox	3:46
68	186	Tom Ringold	3:46
69	167	Michael Landreville	3:49
70	166	Thomas Erickson	3:49
71	110	Heath Weisbrod	3:51
72	155	Bill Callas	3:51
73	201	Matt Engen	3:54
74	118	Jon Loye	3:54
75	200	Rob Belz	3:55
76	145	Melissa Hunter	3:55
77	158	Andrew Carey	3:57
78	109	Ray Nickels	4:01
79	157	Ben Oney	4:02
80	212	Mark Bushinski	4:06
81	164	Charles Parsons	4:06
82	119	Jon Anderson	4:09
83	156	Bob Cure	4:14
84	105	Andy Wienzierl	4:16
85	180	Robert Tuma	4:16
86	179	Jeff Pettes	4:16
87	206	Ryan Bunkmeyer	4:18
88	209	Daniel Backman	4:20
89	108	John Egbers	4:29
90	177	Lindsay Wentz	4:31
91	171	Cole Rogers	4:39
92	168	Mark Seaburg	4:39
93	139	Jim Ringuette	4:42
94	189	Patrick Sheedy	5:04
95	207	Dan Funke	5:04
96	210	Eric Wiesenberger	5:30
97	102	Kurt Stunek	5:46
98	103	Brain Woods	5:46
99	150	Jermey Thornton	5:49
100	114	Bruce Pletka	5:57
101	122	Matt Webb	6:13
102	203	Max Dingemans	6:50
103	106	Scott Kies	6:51
104	132	Dan Woll	7:17
DNF	140	Frank Thueringer
DNF	127	Charly Tri
DNF	117	David Bell
DNF	154	Derek Van de Velde
DNF	197	Timothy Hoffard
DNF	174	Mark Engen
DNF	146	Matt Denis
DNF	176	Ted Loosen

Next Year

While it is far from a done deal, the 11th running of the Rok will most likely be on April 7th next year.

Some initial thoughts in that vein:

1) Most likely will have most of the same details (start, finish, checkpoints)

2) I really want to change the course even just a bit. That may mean the Zumbro Bottoms are lost. Maybe not. Or I might stay super busy at work and home and the course will stay the same.

3) Will probably keep the roster limit at 150. This year I don't think we actually ended up turning away anyone, so it was pretty good.

4) I need to contact Zumbro Falls and Lake City next year and inquire about the porta-potty and little bathroom respectively. They have been open/there in the past, but not consistently.

This weekend while the kids are napping (I hope they nap!) I'll tally up the results and get them posted. Sorry for the delay!

And for no reason at all... a picture of our 4 yo son riding some gravel by our new house (not on course)