A long day, but definitely a success for Huntsman
Looks like donations were made today and last night. Wanting to address these with more detail, I will do that tomorrow - when I'm not completely wasted. As far as the race goes, success is somewhat binary; either you finish, or you don't. It wasn't the prettiest, but it was an official finish. I'll take it.
Start time was cold and dark. I rolled out of Logan with a solid red tail light, arm warmers and insulated long finger gloves. At Preston, you could see everyone's breath. A lot of guys were only wearing open finger gloves and were having troubles shifting and braking. The group was pretty fast and stayed intact quite away up Idaho 36. I finally let them go about about six miles up - about 45 miles into the race. From there it was generally a long time between groups, and only got worse as the day wore on. Coming off the back side of Immigration, speeds got very fast quickly. I hooked on to two Women's racers and finally overtook them, I stayed out front for several miles, but they dropped well before Liberty. As the day wore on, groups became harder and harder to find. Conditions tended to vary throughout the day, but generally weren't too bad. I didn't check to see the total miles, but I think it was something closer to 204 for the day. The detour out of Hoeback was interesting. We had to take a steep downhill onto a bridge, off a crappy gravel road. This was after a considerable climb that no one expected. Add to this some out of the way detours at Afton and Thayne, and you had a longer, harder ride.
The last 28 miles just seemed to go on forever, but eventually I did make it in - with authority. I can honestly report, as dark as things got today, I really never did lose focus, or drive. I did spend a ton of time in all the feed zones, including four neutrals. That never helps. If I had to grade this race subjectively, I'd give it a C+. Nothing was mailed in, but nothing was pressed too hard either.
I will also provide a more in depth review and and explanation in a few days. For now, I'm calling to quits for the night. I'm wasted.
Take the rest of the night off...........
