Finally, an O2S recap!

I was going to wait til I had some pictures to do my report, but the Thd team photographer dosent have them "ready" yet, but, the blog must go on.

I felt decent at the start, not terribly strong on the road roll out, but I never feel strong for a few miles anyway, so I just put my head down and tried to get warmed up. The plan was to go out hard, get up over Lucy hill I think it is, and just settle into a decent pace. After we hit the trail from the road it was thick with riders, So i had to sit back in the group, decided not to waste a ton of energy passing, as the first big climb will seperate the group. Which it did, i rode it without much problem, then the trail opened up a bit. Tried to draft when I could, was feeling pretty good around Ishpeming. Then we hit the water... A two track about 200 feet long, maybe 12-20 inches deep. My derauiller somehow jammed up and was all the way forward. Had to stop in the water, which was almost knee deep on the side, pull my chain down, rinse it off in the water, blah blah. Got it freed up and continued on to the power lines, arguably the hardest part of the race. They were tough, it was hot and I was getting warm. The pace was fast through there. I looked at my time, about the same pace I was on last year. Cruised to misery hill, which is where I think I lost it. Walking up the sun was beating down, I was sweating a ton more than normal, just baking. Had an ice cold gatorade at the top, hopped back on for the decent, rode the next few miles really hurting. I felt dehydrated, hot. Shitty actually. Tried an endurolyte, some cytomax, wasnt helping. Seen Angie about 23 miles in, and I probably should have bailed there. Ended up going another 10 miles or so to the aid station after those lovely road climbs. I debated just suffering on, but I had some blurry vision, and felt like I just wanted to lay down, was sweating something fierce, just decided to throw in the towel. Wasnt my day, and normally I would be pissed for quitting, but I still am glad I did. No use getting hurt, crashing, ect. While in the truck riding back to Marquette I was amazed at the number of people getting medical treatment for heat exhaustion, dehydration. I was looking at my Garmin data, thinking maybe I went out too hard or something, but that didnt look like the case. My average HR was the same as it was last year. Think it was just hotter than I thought, and I have been having trouble in the heat this year. Oh well, get em next year! Was still an awesome weekend in the UP.