RURAL JOHNSON COUNTY

The annual Courage Ride has turned into a cyclist’s dream, really.

There are no pace vehicles.

No pushing and pushing and pushing toward a finish line.

It’s a bike ride on a Saturday through places like Bayertown and Hills and the rural southwest portions of Johnson County, and then west toward North English and Millersburg. You can do the 9.5-mile loop from Iowa City to Hills, or you can go all the way to Millersburg and back, and top 100 miles.

If you were out running errands last Saturday (August 10), you probably saw them.

Maybe you even rode with them.

And in addition to the smiles and the waving hands and the incredible greenery of the Iowa countryside and hills, you’d notice the blue jerseys and the “fight cancer” messages on them.

This isn’t just a bike ride, 20 years strong now. It’s a quest to raise money to fight sarcoma cancer.

To make a difference.

The ride cruised by the spot in a Bayertown cemetery where Seth Bailey is buried, a victim of sarcoma and the constant inspiration for the Courage Ride. And just across a gravel road, where the Courage rest stop was located, you’d see brothers Jace and Josh Bailey, helping riders with water and other refreshments.

Not far away, tucked into those hills, is the Bailey farm.

That’s what this ride is about.

More than 10 years ago, Nick Appleget was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer after discovering a lump on his leg. Nick’s dad, Scott, has ridden in the Courage Ride every year since then and now takes the lead in marketing for the event.

It is a “good news” story.

“Eleven years later, he’s going great,” Scott said of Nick.

Nick graduated from college. He is engaged to be married. A great story.

Joining Scott Appleget, a Cedar Rapids resident, in Saturday’s ride was his brother, Tim, who lives in Minneapolis.

“I just don’t get to see the Iowa countryside anymore,” Tim said.

He did Saturday.

The brothers turned off 540th Street SW, west of Stringtown and Highway 1, and into the parking lot at Hillcrest Academy. There, volunteers at the Hillcrest rest stop helped riders out with water and bananas and a cool place to rest, even if for just a few minutes.

A bike ride turns into conversations. Then, it’s the wave of a hand and back out on the road. Friends making new friends.

Hillcrest, Scott Appleget says, is where the race (can we call it that?) actually used to start and finish. Now, the event begins and ends at Big Grove Brewery on South Gilbert Street in Iowa City. The day began with registration and breakfast, and then waves of cyclists heading out under clear summer skies on one of five routes. Cyclists registered for the longer routes left early and were followed by rounds of riders doing the shorter routes. Some even used a combination of the routes, which is just fine, because it’s not actually a race.

Riders moved in groups. Or they raced alone.

This is no easy cruise through the neighborhood. Even the middle-distance route, from Iowa City to Hillcrest Academy, is 57 miles. The jaunt to Millersburg is almost twice that.

The ride is also a history lesson. Yes, you start out at a tavern on the south side of Iowa City. You ride near the Iowa River. And then it’s west through dramatic farmland and toward Sharon Center. You see farms and small family cemeteries and historic churches. Historic buildings and farms line the roads. The event includes five rest stops on the way to Millersburg. Or you might just want to stop, catch your breath and enjoy the view.

But the cause never fades.

Seth was just 17 and a student at Iowa Mennonite School (now Hillcrest Academy) when the diagnosis of soft-tissue synovial sarcoma cancer hit in 1995. In the next eight years, Seth lived a life of incredible courage. He played high school basketball after a leg was amputated. He trained as a swimmer with a Paralympic Games dream. He became an intern for the U.S. Olympic Committee. In October 2003, after cancer returned to his lungs, we lost Seth.

Seth’s dad, Tom, an all-state football player at Mid-Prairie, started the Courage Ride with his wife, Jackie. Following the death of Tom in 2019, Jackie and the rest of the Baileys, along with crucial volunteers like Scott Appleget, keep the journey going. Going into this year, the ride had raised $875,000 as seed money for sarcoma research.

Oh, yes. For that, we can all survive a bike ride to Millersburg and back.

Let’s go.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul