And the last 15.5 miles.
Quite the adventure.
Here's the route. And
here are all the possible routes. Most are the same year to year, but the mystery routes (short and long) are new each year.
Did the first 25 miles with Phil. But then we got to an aid station, and he likes to take a few minutes, whereas I prefer to refill bottles and then keep moving. So after that I was on my own, and totally happy. Lots of other riders around, almost always zipping past me. Pretty much the only ones I passed were at the aid stations.
I think I did a good job of pacing. It was really really humid, not that hot but I was still soaked. And that was before it rained. Rain some but not too much, and never hard. I would have been happy with more as it made it cooler. Fortunately no sun, also no thunderstorms.
Riding time was about 9:35 to 9:40. Time in aid stations totalled about 14 minutes (including lunch)
And no ailments other than a touch of chafing (only aware of it afterwards). Otherwise things felt fine, though my legs will take a few days to recover.
And a really fine day.