I started out way too hard and expended a lot of energy just trying to get past people without breaking the drafting rules. I also tried to hammer up the hills in too big a gear at first instead of downshifting and spinning up. This resulted in my having to slow down and take a break, dropping into the middle chain ring (of a triple) around miles 16 then again around mile 19. At mile 19 my energy level took a sudden dramatic drop which Hammergel cured nicely. After that I managed to finish strong. Ty did a great job getting the timing chip from my ankle to Brenda's and a hardly got a look at her before she was running out of T1.

My cornering sucked - after falling last month I am afraid to take corners too fast and I slowed waaay down a couple of times.

Chill out more at the very beginning. Remember that I have a smaller chain ring and use it!

Although things seemed a little disorganized as far as people racking thier bikes correctly and some people not recieving numbers in thier packets I thought this was a great race. The area is beautiful and they limited participation to 500 racers it wasn't so huge that it was out of hand. The atmosphere was one of a small, friendly competition as opposed to a larger venue.

I'm very much looking forward to doing the entire race next year :)