It’s maybe a little misleading to call this a race ‘report’, as much of that day went by in a blur of single track and gravel. But from what any of us can recall…

Core 4 is the new kid in town–a gravel race in Iowa City brought to you by some of the folks who made Rule of Three what it is today. Iowa gravel + b roads + urban streets + gnarly singletrack = 4 surfaces, all ‘touched’. And some more touched than others.

We had perfect weather for the day, and a mix of HEAT folks doing the 50mi and 100mi routes. All of us to varying degrees experienced gravel riders. But that’s not to say that all of us were quite experienced with riding blue and black singletrack routes on dropbar bikes with no suspension. It was, as they say, a day.

As the saying goes for endurance athletes, there’s ‘fun’, and then there’s ‘Type 2 Fun’.

That’s the fun where you’re a certain kind of miserable in the moment, but you also know, somewhere in the back of your head, that you signed up for this, and you’re going to be smiling and laughing about it later.

Or something like that.

And, to be honest, there might have been some straight up non-Type 2 miserable moments out on the roads that day for one or two of us. 8 miles of underbiked singletrack, 12 for the real gluttons for punishment, can do that to you.

But then you’re back at the finish. There are smiles, there’s beer, good food, and all those friends who

suffered all the same suffering you did. They’re all there, right around you. And you laugh, because you know you’re going to do it all over again pretty soon. That race, or the next one, or the next…

Somehow it’s all worth it  in the end. So come on back, Core 4. We’re ready for ya.