Been eyeing this event for several years and finally decided as an ORG it was time to do it. And it was a good thing there had been prep work; riding longer distances, etc. ... There was climbing, friends, quite a bit of it. Not as much as the three-quarter or full century or even the metric version, but plenty for this crew of OGs. Turns out the half-century was the right choice in terms of fitness and how we felt at the end. Well, two of us anyway. One OG (not your reporter!) suffered cramps starting about 47.6 and had to abandon at 49.9, just two miles short of the end. He was retrieved by his colleagues after they returned to the vehicles. There was a threat of rain, but no precipitation was seen. Not terribly sunny, but we didn't mind as it kept temps tolerable. For once no headwind to speak of. Contact points held up -- the two stops at the Fairfield and Barlow nozzlehead stations helped with that. Legs were strong the entire way -- the tough climbs at 20 and again at 23 had us using alllll the teeth in the gears. Hadn't used that lowest gear in quite awhile but was extremely glad it still worked. w/Dan, S. Randolph