A fairly good day of riding. Became sleepy at one point and drank a 5 Hour Energy. It helped, although I did not quite transform into "Super Dave" as I had at the Cascade 1200. I ate a substantial breakfast and drank coffee at McDonalds before starting. I started the day as late as I dared given the timed control at mile 57 (a 7-Eleven). I was familiar with this stretch of the route from the Surf City 600k I did two years ago, and from the Green Bridge info control to the 7-Eleven, there can be significant headwinds, which I took into account. While there were headwinds, they were not significant until close to 11AM (or was it 10AM?). I had even built in about an hour extra in case of trouble, like flat tires, and, in fact, had a rear flat at mile 12.3, which cost me about 40 min. of time. I really need to get faster at fixing flats, but much time was wasted trying to rule out whether there was anything left in the tire which might cause another flat; I was unable to find any mark in the tire, which always worries me. I would much prefer finding a piece of glass or something stuck in the tire, in which case I would also probably elect to perform what I call and endoscopic repair, just pulling out a fold of the tube and patching it without even removing the rear wheel. I caught up to a rider, Steve Royse (from Kentucky), who had a problem navigating with his Garmin and evidently put in a lot of extra miles, and I was concerned about whether he would make the time; he did, with maybe 10 minutes to spare, and he in fact DNF'd later on in the day in Lucia before reaching the Ragged Point control. After the 7-Eleven in Salinas (shortly before Monterey), where I stopped for about 50 minutes, the next timed control was not until Ragged Point, which gave me plenty of time to relax. I was sorely tempted to take the scenic 17 Mile Drive through the Monterey Peninsula, but that seemed a little too extreme of a bonus during what is already a challenging endurance event. LOL I next stopped to refuel at Big Sur, where I was for 22 min., and visited some with the fellow dressed all in yellow with contrasting orange markings, including leggings in this color scheme, to provide maximum visibility. ?. I stopped again for only 7 minutes 25 miles later at Lucia where emergency vehicles were located (I had been filled with dread that they were there for a car vs cyclist incident, but not this time). I had intended to buy a Coke, but I passed when I saw they were charging $4, and only used the restroom, and made use of the energy stores which I was carrying instead. I rode on to Ragged Point in plenty of time, passing six more riders. I stayed there for about 45 minutes eating Chef Boyardee's canned ravioli until they cut me off, saving a little for some of the riders still to come. The volunteers there had been on the Cascade 1200 and were very appreciative of the same ravioli provided at a penultimate stop late one day on that ride. I put on my visibility vest, arm warmers, and rode the final 58 miles to the overnight control quite happily. I was at the overnight control about 7.9 hours between checking in at SLO and starting to peddle on day 3, but this included a 40 minute trip in the morning to get breakfast, and then back to my room. It was a significant hassle staying at a hotel that was 2 miles away, as I had 3 duffel bags of luggage which a volunteer was kind enough to drive over to the Motel 6 for me. Thereafter, it was a matter of riding an extra 4 miles each day.