Hills = bad. Yes, they were bad. They attacked you relentlessly.
Stupid Garmin stopped after mile 40 to 45 somewhere due to low battery, even though I charged it up the day before.



Nada. I'm not a serious athlete. I had fun. If I was selfish, I would have left my friends, but that's not what I do.
Really check to see if the Garmin's battery was completely charged.

BEER!
Oh, yeah, and Culver's ice custard! YUMMERS!


Age. Not being serious. 82 deg. F. and humid! Didn't really care to go faster.


Beer and food were good and plentiful. The 2 aid station stops were stocked and volunteers friendly.

I spy with my little eye, the following peeps:
Tripletmom (Tammy) behind me in the parking lot, with donnawiz and her two friends Dan and Norm(correct?). There was Tony 2Goggs, Lazymarathoner (Kristen), Whizzzzz and MissKelly, Craig and Amyjo (caught them around the 2nd rest stop, Wavedog (BEER!), mndiver and his Kelly, bertgwen, Schmize (what a kick-azz biker, doing the 200K in a great time!), Holly and ****bb(??) (dude, I need to clean my ears and try to remember who you are, sorry).

Well, it was calling peeps, trying to figure out who's getting together and where, and yada yada. I went down to the start, and everybody already left. I waited for awhile, but didn't see anyone. Had a toidy break in the port-a-potty at the start, waited a little longer, then took off. Followed a couple of people and we missed the first turn! Unbelievable. So had to backtrack a little and get back on course. Got called a couple of times by Kristen wondering where the heck I was. Found out later she started in the other direction and missed the first part of the course where I was.
Eventually caught up with AJ, who was having mechanical difficulties, Craig, Kristen, bertgwen, and Wavedog. Saw Whizzzzz and MissKelly at stop #2.
Miserably humidity and unbelievable long, hard climbs made this a grueling "event" (thanks, Whizzzzz ;) ). But, with good peeps around, I couldn't have been any happier.
Yep, I wore arm warmers, and some peeps gave me shat about that. Guess what? My arms weren't all sweaty, the arm pads weren't soaked and slippery, and when I needed to wipe the salty sweat from my brow, I had the arm warmers to whisk it away!
I didn't walk up any of the hills, but I did have cramps a couple of times, and had to walk once on a flat area. AJ stopped and waited for me - MUCH APPRECIATED! I was a little worried about Kristen's chain slipping a couple of times, and AJ's asthma kicking in due to the humidity.
Craig wanted to see me eat for once. I disappointed him. Maybe next time, when you bring the bullhorn. ;)
Oh, on the 2nd to the last MAJOR hill, some brute of a guy with 45" pipes of arms gashed the heck out of his right calf when his gear slipped or something and his foot unclipped and dug into the front crank or pedal. It was a huge, very deep gash - pretty serious. It looked like a flap with a big, red horizontal smile. He toughened it out and continued on the last 2 miles or so. I'll give that guy credit.
Oh yeah, a shoutout for Kristen's final surge from behind in the last 30 yards and "chicking" me. Stinker. ;)