Conditions looked like they were shaping up to be perfect a few days out. Plan A wasn't to 'race the sun' but though I should go for it anyhow. My fitness level isn't good enough but I thought there might be a 10% to 15% chance of success. If I didn't go for it I'd always look back and regret it. Plus I had a couple of folks to ride with so working together, who knows? Important rule of the Dirty Kanza: The DK holds Veto Power over any plan you may have. 3am the morning of the race the very southwestern tip of a northeast to southwest storm line hit Emporia. 5 miles further east and everything would have been dry. As it was the first few miles of the race had standing water and muddy roads. At the first real muddy spot on the road it was like somebody threw a grenade in the peleton. Bikes were dying everywhere. People were carrying their bikes BACK to the start. Both my riders ripped off their derailleurs. Still held the pace I wanted through the first two legs. Leg two was the toughest but leg 3 was a lot easier than expected based on Jan/Mar DK maps. And leg 4 was longer and flatter with lots of fast gravel. So the plan was pace myself through legs 1&2 and make up time on legs 3 & 4. Once again, the DK holds Veto Power over all plans. When the race turned north after Rocky Ford outside Neal we were riding into the teeth of a 15 to 20 mph wind. This force first the realization that racing the sun was out and second that I was going to run out of food and water before the last checkpoint. At one point my mile counter said 127 and the race highlights list on my top tube said 'Madison II - 161' and it seemed an impossible task to make 30+ more miles. When I rolled in I was in a bad, bad state...completely dehydrated & glycogen at zero. My crew asked how I was doing and I told them. Before the race we agreed nobody would ever say anything negative but let me just say things were very, very quiet at that moment. At that moment I remembered when Contador broke his leg but got back on the bike to ride another 10+ miles. After the crash he told his teammate he couldn't continue but the teammate said 'Just try.' So, yeah...just try. Eat. Drink. Just try. I changed my posture & started saying positive things. 'We've got this. It's getting cooler by the minute. The wind is dying down fast. This is the shortest stage. This is the flattest stage. Just feed me and water me. I can do it. This thing is in the bag.' Boy, can positive thinking really work! By the time I rolled out 30 minutes later, even I was believing it. And it was a lot cooler. Fought through some cramps for the first 8 miles outside Madison but other than that, no problem. From that point on I was just enjoying the ride. If the goal was just to finish bombing downhill and riding on the rivet are counter-productive. The only chance of not finishing was crashing or mechanical failure. Crashing and mechanical failure happen most often on downhills or high speed cornering. So it was a nice ride into Emporia followed by a great few moments with my team.