T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Longtime RAGBRAI rider Tom Kurth of Marshalltown, left, flanked by his friend Lanny Nuese, right, is heading out on his 38th and possibly final two-wheeled journey across the state this weekend. He will turn 80 next month.

Tom Kurth has his son David to thank for pushing him to ride RAGBRAI for the first time all the way back in 1986, and nearly four decades later, the elder Kurth still hasn’t stopped.

The lifelong Marshalltonian, who graduated from MHS in 1962 and retired after a lengthy tenure running the sanitation company he took over from his own father, has ridden the entire route of the event every year — with the exception of 2020, when it was canceled due to the pandemic — since then, and he’s excited to take his bike out again this weekend and set out on the journey from Glenwood to Burlington near the state’s southern border.

The 2024 ride is a momentous one for Tom Kurth, however, as it may well be his last. He’ll turn 80 next month, and he serves as a caretaker for his wife Sara. His attachment to the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, the event’s full legal name, has been a rewarding one, but interestingly enough, it didn’t develop until he was well past his 40th birthday.

Because the family lived near the west edge of town on Highland Acres Road, David became a frequent rider out of necessity before he had a driver’s license, and he developed an interest in RAGBRAI as a result.

“My son was 14 years old, and he came to me. I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was 16, and he wanted to go on RAGBRAI with me,” Tom said. “And I was an athlete, and I thought ‘Why not?'”

Dad started training to prepare himself (David, who was already in prime physical shape as a teenager, didn’t need to) and bought his son a bike that he still rides to this day. On the first day of their inaugural ride — which, fittingly given this year’s route, started in Council Bluffs and ended in Red Oak — Tom joked that his son “went across the state like a jet” with a $20 per diem allowance for meals.

“I thought I’d be all day, and I was pumped. I got in about 12:15 (p.m.), and we had breakfast at McDonald’s. And (David) was already in for a while,” he said.

David didn’t finish the route that year, but his father did. Nonetheless, the younger Kurth went back to school and told his friends how much fun he had, and before long, a group of 11 kids wanted to go the following summer. Tom agreed to be their sponsor on one condition: if they gave him problems, he’d call their parents to come and get them.

The group was “awesome,” he recalled, with no issues whatsoever, and the third year, the number of kids he sponsored grew to 14. Tom was able to recruit three more parents to assist him in the chaperoning efforts.

“We got them across the state, and I said the same thing to them 14 (kids). They were awesome. They were young men, but they were only 16. So then, that was how I got addicted,” Tom said. “David got a girlfriend and a job, and he married that gal. So he ended, but he still goes a day with me basically all the time.”

Over the years, David, who was the valedictorian of the MHS Class of 1990 and now works as a researcher for the Iowa Soybean Association, joked that his father became something of a RAGBRAI celebrity as one of the oldest riders who continued to complete the entire route every year — so much so that he’s even been part of a scavenger hunt. He’s also an avid documentarian of his routes, noting every city and county he’s traveled through along the way.

“That’s why I called him kind of a RAGBRAI veteran. He’s been on there so many times, and people seem to know him. And he’s a talker, as you’ve found out,” David said.

Tom still uses an old fashioned cycle with his name on the back and doesn’t get assistance from an e-bike, and Tom’s friend Lanny Nuese, a fellow rider who joined him during an interview Wednesday, lovingly referred to him as “crazy” but impressive for his seemingly endless stamina. On a more serious note, though, David, now a resident of the Des Moines area, commended his father as a strong advocate for riders and a patron of popular trails like the High Trestle whenever he comes down to visit. Tom has been an active member of the Iowa Valley Bicycle Club and frequently assisted in cleaning the trails around Marshalltown.

“I think he liked it as something to keep him active. He actually rode his bike to work almost every day,” David said. “He’ll ride into town if he needs to go to the courthouse or if he needs to talk to somebody or whatever. And if he needs to get a part for a car and it’s not very big and he can strap it on his bike, he’ll ride his bike into town.”

Because of his wife’s health needs and his advancing age, Tom debated calling it quits before this year’s ride and only secured his registration ticket at the last minute. He isn’t sure if 2024 will be his final RAGBRAI.

“I hope not. I’m gonna go as long as I can,” he said. “(Sara and I) kind of came to an agreement this year. So it might (be the last ride). It could be, but I don’t know, I feel good. I feel good.”

Whatever he ends up deciding, Tom can rest easy knowing he’s made his son proud.

“He always says ‘Every day, every mile and every hill,’ and it’s true. He’s ridden every piece of it,” David said. “Over the past years, I haven’t done every day, but I think every year I’ve ridden at least one day with him. So it’s kind of fun to do that with him and enjoy it.”

After a hip operation two years ago, Nuese and other friends thought Tom might hang it up then, but not to be kept down, he once again persevered. As for advice to anyone who might be interested in becoming a RAGBRAI regular, it’s relatively simple: just do it.

“It’s easier for the younger ones to do it. Some of them want to do it. Some of them want to use their phones and computers and sit by the desk and not go,” he said. “But once they go, it seems like they get addicted. And some of the kids that I sponsored have gotten buses, and they go. They’re in their 50s (now).”

The elder Kurth does have a grand vision for his ultimate retirement: he’ll win the lottery, ensure that the Iowa River’s Edge Trail gets paved from Steamboat Rock to Marshalltown (the city of Marshalltown is currently the lead applicant for a federal grant to do just that), build a nursing home along the completed trail and live out his remaining days riding it in a wheelchair.