I signed up as a Scorcher with the goal of riding a sub 4:30 for the 100m course. I lined up 25 yards behind the start line, got there an hour early. As I passed the start line I could see up the road to the bridge, I could not believe how many people where up a head of me, it was an endless wave of riders. Of course, none of there folks had timing chips because they started after the chip scanner, so I new the majority of these folks were leisure riders and realized this could be a bit dangerous. I stayed all the way to the left, basically the fast lane, behind other riders trying to make good time. Last year when we hit mile 20/25 things thinned out a little. This year at mile 25ish it was still wall-to-wall riders. This was then things turned BAD for me. I was all the way to the left edge of the road when apparently something up ahead caused the group to bunch. As I was all the way to the left I had no where to go when the guy to the left moved in on me putting his pedal/foot into my front wheel. The next thing I remember was kind folks were all around me trying to help. Long story short… I was ok, a little road rash all over (face, hands, knees, elbows) but no broken bones. I was so thankful I didn’t go down in the middle of the pack and hurt someone else. I new better than to get in the middle of a pack with some of the riders I saw up front. Anyway, as it turned out, my day turned out to be a great day. I found a buddy doing the 100K, so I partnered up with him, we took our time, visited several rest stops and the best part was going through the Air Base. Turned out to be a fantastic ride.

Oh yeah, I got to thank the very kind medical folks that took care of me at the rest stops. At every rest stop they actually came to me and dragged me in for medical care. Really great folks to volunteer their valuable time. I was also amazed at how many other people were being attended to for medical care at EVERY stop.