Nick were you by chance with a pack of 7 or 8 riders? Around the 90 or so mile mark I got passed by a pack that was going 2-3 mph faster than me. I decided to try to catch them and attach myself to the back of it and hug their wheels back. I put out a huge energy expenditure and was on the verge of failing to catch up when we got caught by the only red light I ever had to stop at. They accelerated hard off the line but I managed to catch up and attach myself to the group. It was essentially the only stretch of road I benefitted from a group on, and I hung on to the end of that group for 3 or 4 miles I think. It cost me so my energy to catch the group, though, that I was barely hanging on for dear life, and when they decided to accelerate to get around some slow riders coming up on the right, I couldn't do it and had to let them go. So I slowed down 2-3 mph to a speed I could manage solo, and even then I stopped at the very last aid station, at the 97 or 98 mile mark, grabbed a couple brownies and a drink of water, and was back on the road in about 3 minutes. I realize it was too late to benefit from the brownies at that point in the ride, but it was a biological imperative.

I then got back on the road and ground out the last few miles at a pretty decent solo speed, and used up whatever I had left going up that final hill from the highway and then "sprinting", or it's 106-mile worn out equivelant, that last mile to the finish line.

I estimate that the group I fell off of in the upper 90s would probably have finished in about the time you did, so I had to ask.