Thunderstorms rolled through the area beginning around 5am. Thankfully though they fizzled out by 6 or so and the start was clear, but wet for the first two hours. For some reason the Ultra wave didn't have a police escort for a neutral start, which I figured would mean that we'd go really fast from the gun. Instead this was the most chill start of any Ultra I've done. This helped me out greatly as i really am hurt by doing lots of hard efforts early. The long and flat highway 9 section after White's Gap was pretty reasonable and not blazing fast and I even did a few(brief) turns at the front. We picked up several groups of century stragglers(they all start before the Ultra wave) until at the climb up highway 78 to the Skyway we had at least 50 people. Surprisingly again, either I had good legs or the pace was chill up to the Skyway and even all the way to Horseblock Mountain. A little of both probably. I didn't really have any trouble staying with everyone which was nice. Most of the group stayed together till the climb up to Cheaha and we broke up into our own paces. I felt good on the climb and instead of stopping for water I decided to actually take a bottle hand up for once. Ice cold. I downed most of it quickly and then tossed the rest on my body. It was developing into a very hot and humid day and I knew I needed to drink more than in previous years. I was solo for the trip down to Adams Gap and I grabbed another cold bottle handup here as well. This allowed me to make it till the top of Cheaha the second time for my first stop and a full refill of both bottles. On the out and back trip down to Lake Chinnabee I determined that was in seventh and I had about 5 minutes on the next rider. I was pretty happy with this and decided my goal for the day was just to maintain this. I felt pretty good by now and after drinking some Dr Pepper at the rest stop at Cheaha I was able to ride the return trip back down the Skyway at a pretty good pace. I also did the entire return trip on highway 9 all alone, a rarity, and still managed keep a good pace. I was almost out of water on Bain's Gap but I managed fine. Filled up yet again at the rest stop on the other side, and got more Dr Pepper. It perked me up for a bit but by the steep part I was hurting again. I really began to feel the efforts of the day by now, and my pace slowed. I did a respectable climb up Cottaquilla and then enjoyed the gradual descent back to town and tried to psyche myself up for the final and hardest climb up Chimney Peak. I counted riders on the way down and determined I was still in 7th and nobody close behind me. I tried to climb it as fast as I could to maybe set a PB or something and mostly felt ok but it was extremely hot and basically totally exposed to the sun. I finally reached the top(without walking, a win always)and instantly bombed back down. After the descent I looked at my time, and to my surprise it was actually really good. It was one of my best Ultras! Certainly the fastest since they changed the course three years ago and added another climb. So I tried to finish strong and rode in at a decent pace. Definitely gave it everything I had. I went in to it thinking I'd be slower this year because some of my other races didn't go as well as I would have liked. I'm really happy I came away with such a great result. A new course PB for me of 7:22:06 and 7th. 2nd in my age group.