I didn't have any time goals again this year so Sean and I started in the Silver section.  My polar shows a temperature low of 38 degrees.  Definitely on the brisk side and I was glad I had my full finger glove liners on.  It took just over 3 minutes after the start before we got moving.  Right away I noticed my cadence sensor wasn't working.  Seems like I always have some kind of odd mechanical problem on big events.  I probably need to change the batteries on all my sensors since they are all several years old now.  When we finally got moving we kept a relatively easy pace up to the first river crossing.  People are getting more and more bold about relieving themselves.  There are a number of big bushes near the far side of the river crossing that I've used myself on occasion, but this year people were just running 10-20 feet off the side of the path and letting it go next to the smallest bushes.  Women included.  Jeez...

Anyway after the river crossing Sean mentioned that he hadn't even worked up a sweat yet, so I picked up the pace a little, keeping a low aerobic heart rate and starting to pass hundreds of people.  The start was apparently pretty tame because I was surprised that I hadn't seen any accidents.  There was a sudden slowing at the turn onto Los Reales Road and two cyclists touched wheels and went over just in front of us, but we were almost at a stand still, so no harm was done.  Right after we got onto Kolb road I had a front tire flat.  After changing it we continued to maintain a pretty good pace.  Along Kolb and Irvington there were a lot of accidents being cleared (ambulances were required at several) and more groups of people with flats than I've ever seen on a ride.  I don't know what was happening along that stretch before we got there, but it wasn't good.  Like last year I pushed the climb on Freeman Road.  Sean surprised me and was right there with me at the top.

We hit the descent down to Snyder road pretty hard, but I couldn't break 40 mph like I did last year, the wind wasn't quite right and I didn't have Elliot with me to trade slingshoting past to increase our speed, but we still maintained mid to high 30's.  On the way to the second crossing we picked up quite a pace line, but I just stayed up front.  There's a support stop halfway through the 1/2 mile - 3/4 mile hike across the stream and we filled our bottles there.  When we got back to pavement I stripped off my leg warmers and glove liners.  One of the guys who jumped into the pace line introduced himself (Eric Mitchell from St. George, UT) and waited while I finished getting ready.

I warned Sean and Eric about the steep climb when we got back to Snyder Road, so we took it easy to the top.  Sean had a 11x21 cassette on, so it was probably toughest on him.  We rested at an easy pace for a mile or so, then I picked the pace back up and we started to build another big group.  I checked back occasionally and Sean and Eric were both right near the front all the way to the turn on Oracle.  I kept glancing back to see Sean's shadow, so I assumed he was right there, but when we hit the top of Rancho Vistoso I turned to look back and it wasn't Sean.  So I pulled off the front (I had been in front pretty much since the first river crossing) and let the group go by.  Eric said we dropped Sean a way back, but he pulled out with me to wait.  I called Sean on his cell phone to let him know we were riding easy waiting, but got his voice mail.  So Eric and I pulled into the next rest stop to fill our bottles.  Still no sign of Sean, so we started to walk over to the porta-potties, when Sean's group went by.  No porta-potties for us.  We called out to Sean, but he didn't hear us.

So we started chasing the group.  There was a team leading it and one of their members was playing domestique and had stopped at the rest stop to fill a bunch of bottles.  He passed us and we jumped on his wheel.  He closed the gap fast!  I went back to the front until the descent down Tangerine then members of that team and I traded the front.  At the bottom was another stop and one of their domestiques pulled off to fill bottles again.  I checked with Sean and he was running low on fluids, so we would stop at the next support stop.  I kept my pace up along the frontage road and an older gentleman offered to take the front for a few minutes.  At the next support stop we did a pretty fast water fill and had less than 20 miles to go.  I looked at our time and was very surprised to see that we were well under 5 hours at that point.

There was a bit of a headwind and Sean said he wasn't sure how much he had left in the engine, so I maintained a steady pace heading towards the final rollers.  A small group past us and we jumped on the back.  They were rotating the front, so I took a turn and told Sean not to stay up front very long when I went to the back.  He stayed up there for a minute or so then dropped back.  Eric also took a short pull then went to the back.  I didn't realize but they both dropped off.  Luckily Sean called out loud enough for me to hear, so I dropped back.  We probably had less than 10 miles at this point, but there was a bit of a headwind.

About 5 miles from the finish there was a lady struggling into the headwind on her own.  I gave her a few words of encouragement as we went by and told her to jump on our line and we would pull her the rest of the way.  About a mile or so out I should have changed to my big ring, but went to my small cog and the chain slipped off and got jammed between the frame and the cassette.  That's never happened before!  I told everyone to keep going and get a good time, but Sean stayed with me while I put the chain back on. 

Sean and I finished with a time of 5:28:44, way faster than the 6-7 hours I told my wife to expect!  For his first century and running a 11x21 Sean did amazing!  If he had a cassette with a 25T or 27T cog I don't think he would have dropped off on that climb up Oracle or Rancho Vistoso.  At the finish he said next year he'll be thinking about a platinum time.  Hmmm....