I was 20 minutes faster this year as I took it much easier out to Marion with only one stop at Mile 65. My next planned stop was when I reached the parkway at 86. Then I really had no plans to stop again unless I needed water. Unfortunately, while we were riding a nice pace up the parkway, I started to bonk. Not enough nutrition I think and maybe a bit light on the drinking during the first 65. I really didn't want to stop prior to that and was probably conserving my fluids to ensure that goal. I had to stop at 92 to eat and regain some energy. There is a 2+ mile descent at 92 and then nothing the really the rest of the way to the top. At 96 my psoas and adducter on the left leg wanted to cramp. I got nervous because once this genie is out of the bottle it can really wreck the rest of your day. I sent Deb up ahead and focused on relaxing the leg and continued riding and occassionally standing to stretch. Eventually I lost track of Deb and continued on to the park entrance. Deb was standing there waving me on. What a hoot! I told her to keep going and we rode up the rest of the way. The two mile wall into the park entrance gave me a little bit of trouble with the cramping but I was able to overcome it and gather my strength again. We finished strong and I was very excited to see Deb finish sub 9 hrs on her first try. She would've been much faster if I didn't act as the anchor! :)

More eating and one less stop. We screwed up our first stop with a minor mechanical issue and some poor communications regarding the port-a-john. That cost us some time that we could easily eliminate. I would like to try and go for a sub 8 next time.

Dried off, got on some clean clothes and boarded the bus down the mountain.


Possible nutrition mistakes here. We were also adhering to a strict 138 bpm HR limit.


I was not motivated for this event so I approached it with minimum expectations. However, in the end, we had a very good ride. A few mistakes were made but overall I was very pleased with my performance. I would like to come back next year and focus on a sub 8 hr ride.