RAIN...with rain.

Well...it's done. Not my best year by far. It started raining on us before we even started and continued for 20-30-ish miles. Lots of mahem in the front group. Tires were going like fireworks on the 4th of July.

In between the unexplained slow downs and general squirrells out there I ended up t-boning a dropped bottle. Popped it open and covered myself in the brownish contents....most likely Hammer's Perpetuem. Nice.

I was hauling butt then I flatted about 17 miles in. Then I hauled butt again to almost the first stop. The sun came out and everything turned into that oh too familiar Indiana mid-July pressure cooker. Easy to do when everything is covered in water from the rain.

On the South side of Indy dehydration set in. That coupled with poor nutrition made me start to question what I was doing. I was thinking: "I have already done this thing 3 times. I will not be setting a record of any kind this year. What do I have to prove to anyone? " I called for SAG to meet me where we re-join 40 on the East side of Indy.

I figured I would see how things went while filling bottles and cooling off in the car. Well....I popped some gels, refilled and hit the road. With a gel every 30 minutes towards the end I ended up finishing strong.

Actual saddle/ride time was decent, but the extra needed stopping put a cramp in my overall time. Took 11:05. Ride time of 8:44. 160.7 miles at 18.4 mph. Boo...

Highlights of the day were people recognizing me from the jersey. 2 people came up and said something adding the "hey psimet" in there. I have fans ;).

I skipped the TT on Sunday because we got back to Chicago so late (1:00am by the time I got home). Too bad too because the Zipps I borrowed looked absolutely delicious.

Pics to follow. Now I just have 2 races tomorrow morning. :(

- need to work on my setup. With lost weight this season and the attempt at using non-worn out pedals I realized that my saddle is still too low and I really need to work on position. Staying away from the ultra long events will help me change positions more effectively.

EDIT: Finished 447/911 Boo. That puts me at 49% of finishing field. Not my best, but actually second best. Past history:
2005: 74.9% of field
2006: 69.5% of field
2007: 32.9% of field
2008: 49.1% of field