Drove part way up with Tim the night before. Stayed north of Ft Wayne. Conveyor belt pancakes at the hotel 🤣 Got to Hastings early since we didn’t know how long things would take. Found parking right away and packet pickup was like a well-oiled machine so we had time to kill. Got bikes ready and rode to the start to watch the 36-mile start. Then headed back to the car to finish getting ready. It was only in the low-mid 40s with 18mph winds so it was cold and forecast to stay that way all day. Became mostly cloudy later too. I didn’t have to take any layers off all day. Got into the chute in the front row as we’d ended up in the last wave. Took off in front and was feeling excited pushing it. Latched on to Tim’s wheel but when we hit 3 Sisters he was off. I only saw him briefly at the first rest stop and not again at the finish. Decided at this point I was going to keep pushing it and see what happened. Thankfully there were still groups to work with as we headed west into the wind. Worked together with a few different people off and on, then came Shaw Rd. The sand was too deep to be rideable so everyone walked. My calves, which had been tight all week, didn’t like this and nearly locked up when I remounted. Thankfully I managed to keep going and some paved sections helped me recover and find people to ride with again. Still we were only 10 miles in, so it was worrisome. Sager Rd was much more fun. I was able to ride the whole thing which felt good. Calves were still problematic though, and would threaten to cramp for the next 30ish miles. Came into aid 1 at mile 22, saw Tim and Katherine. She’d started in wave 2 so I felt good that I’d caught her. She headed out and I hustled through the stop, skipping the line for the one(!!) portacan. Only a couple miles after we went through the cyclocross section at the youth camp, which was really fun. But things were really broken up at this point and I was mostly riding solo. There were plenty of other people around doing the same but no groups formed and no one seemed the right pace. I think maybe I was catching slower folks from earlier waves. After “the well” I finally caught Katherine, probably mile 30-35, which was a welcome relief. We stayed together until aid 2 at mile 43. It was great to have company. The most interesting parts of the course were done at this point and we were out of the recreation area too. It felt more like riding in Ohio and I didn’t enjoy the roads as much. The rollers also just never relented and were wearing me down. By aid 2 I could barely eat and they were out of bananas! Also still only one portacan. Seriously? I had to go so I waited—probably 10 minutes. Katherine headed out and with such a head start I never caught her. The last 21 miles were just a slog. I’d pushed really hard all day and just wanted to be done. Calf cramps were actually subsiding but nausea was taking their place. Just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling. Kept yo-yoing with a few riders but never managed to get help for long. Was still able to push, though. The lights never went out, and I could still stand on climbs. The roads also just seemed so rough at this point. More washboard or maybe just my mind tricking me because I wanted the jarring to be done! Somewhere in this leg is where I came upon the drummer and dinosaur, which I just couldn't pass up. A quick selfie and I was back on my way. At the very end I managed to kick my speed up quite a bit once we hit pavement so as to avoid some groups catching me (where had they been all day?) and cross the line strong. Tim saw me cross the line—I had the keys so he had to wait and watch!—and Katherine found me almost immediately in the finishing chute. She’d finished only a few minutes ahead but since she started in an earlier wave my finish time was actually faster, by just less than a minute. I thought I was going to feel completely wrecked but I think my body decided “oh thank goodness we’re done!” and let me be. My legs didn’t lock up and the nausea subsided. We went and changed and came back to the finish, but sadly it was mostly wrapped up. I’m sure some headed out due to the weather, but also the weird start staggering meant we came in pretty close to the end out of all 4000+ riders. We were shocked how low we placed despite riding hard. Even Tim, who went 16mph, wasn’t even top 50%. I was 874th out of 1068. Oh well. I was hella proud of what I did. This was the most I’d ever truly raced, over a significant distance, in adverse conditions. And I made it through, overcoming challenges, and still having some strength at the end. It reminded me, though, that I prefer doing harder rides at slower paces. Due to riding so hard I missed enjoying the scenery and camaraderie with other riders. Anyway we hid behind the mobile DJ truck to be out of the wind, bobbed out heads to techno, cheered on some stragglers, and ate our choice of food trucks: pizza for Tim, grilled cheese with killer bbq potato chips, extra pickle spears, and a brownie bite for me. Then we headed out. Made an Arby’s stop on the way home for more calories and got back by 10:30. Great trip! Note: Tim and Katherine's GPSes both had ~4600ft climbing, my Garmin had over 5500, so I replaced in RWGPS