The quick, quick summary: The ride went very well. I had a great time, and my crew did a great job. I managed to finish in 12 hours and 50 minutes. The ride distance was 136 miles, however it has 3 major climbs and the heat/cold to deal with.

Left San Diego at about 2:30, approximately on schedule. Tim and Barry came along for moral support, picture taking, and doing whatever else they did that I never saw which made the weekend a success. Driving went well for quite a while. Engine light came on, we stopped tossed in some oil and water in the radiator. Kept going. About 7:15 pm, a little over 40 miles south of Lone Pine (our destination), there is a little shudder of the car. The amp light turns on and the power steering goes. Since the car is still running fine, I just turn off the headlights to save the battery and we head for the rest stop just a mile down the road or so. Pull in, car stalls. Hear the sound of boiling fluid under the hood. Open the hood to find that main belt has come off, and radiator is boiling over. We put in coolant and manage to get the belt back on. I'm impressed with our mechanical abilities. Car won't turn over, battery is low. Call AAA, an hour later haven't shown up. Call again, they went to wrong place. 30 minutes later, I try starting car, it starts, but we hear bad noise, and notice waterpump/fan is wobbling all over the place. AAA guy shows up in pickup truck, can't tow us, goes to get tow truck. I manage to get a hold of Lee (friend down from davis to crew for me) at the hotel in Lone Pine, he starts driving down to pick up the people who won't fit in tow truck. AAA guy shows up in tow truck, says he can tow my car to his shop under AAA coverage, but not to lone pine. But he says he can't fix my problem, wants 125 to take us to lone pine. So we abandon my car at the rest stop and Lee takes everything back in his van.

We discuss the rules/plan for the next day briefly and everyone goes to bed. In the morning Tim and Lee manage to find someone to fix/tow my car, letting my sleep a bit and work on my bike. Barry also tries to find alternate ways for us to get back, looking into uhaul and having his wife drive up from San Diego.

The crew takes care of everything perfectly, allowing me to pay attention to myself and my bicycle. We drive out to bad water, death valley. It's overcast, but warm ~104-106? at 4pm. The ride starts, and I stick to my preplanned heart rate program. There is a tail wind, and the riders spread out quickly, unlike last year when some pace lines were attempted. I'm drinking my food and water and feeling pretty good. My legs and body start to get back into the rythm of bicycling, after so much time off recently being sick. We go through the first check point, and have a water bottle and camelbak changeoff just down the road.

Keep going through the desert. The tailwind is nice, and I'm making nice time, even though I'm taking it fairly easy. After all, the day is _very_ young. Do some rolling water bottle hand offs. Once, I confused myself and said 'got it' before I closed my hand, but got taken care of. :) I make the mistake of returning some of the water I've been drinking just into a corner were the wind direction is changing. Luckily I manage to recover gracefully. We hit the check point in about 40 miles, at stove pipe wells. This is just at the base of the first climb. I pull over, and suddenly head lights are going on my bicycle and blinking red lights get turned on behind me, and my camelbak changes, and I get the calcium pill I asked for. And I'm back on the road w/o blinking. I truly believe that I had the best and most professional crew on the ride.

The first climb turns into a bit of a death grind, because the pleasant tail wind is now a head wind. I had noticed some loss of strength of my recent sickness (lost 4 pounds) previously, but it became clear here that this wasn't going to be an easy ride. Not that it was ever going to be an easy ride. Pedal up the hill, sun sets, Lee reminds me to turn on my headlight over the external speaker system on his van. Stars start to come out and I see the milky way. It's amazingly clear out, and the moon won't be rising for a while (even longer before I see it due to mountain ranges). I start to worry about if I'll be able to finish when I start feeling queasy. I later think that my stomach problems were altitude related. Eventually get to the top, where I notice that my rear derailer is not shifting correctly.

I down some food, and we go down the hill after sticking my bicycle in the ''down hill'' gear. On this descent, the van is allowed to follow behind the rider. So I go down at up to 45 mph, with Lee's van behind me lighting up the road. I don't use my breaks along the descent, avoiding testing if the new rear break pads I put on that morning worked. :) At the bottom, Lee, Barry and Tim change the pedals from my bicycle over to the spare Lee brought. I start up the next hill, and enjoy the fact that Lee's bike has a bit lower low gear than mine.

As I climb, Lee drives Tim, Barry, my bike and tools up to the checkpoint at the top and leaves them there. Once he catches me, he plays some big band marches on the external speaker system, and leapfrogs me up the hill. I'm feeling a lot better now, and realize that I'll be able to finish. Get to top eventually, and my bike is fixed! Eat some hot food, get on my bike. Go down the back side, making pretty good time. Start seeing some blinking red lights far in the distance. Eventually they get closer, and so I push it a bit. Once I realize that I'm going to catch them, I mention this to my crew. Lee reminds me that there is still the last climb to do, however tiny bit later I hear the Rocky theme blasting out in the night behind me. So I go a bit faster to catch them. I ride with them for a while, it turns out to be the two fellows from Oregon who I'd been near during the desert. I figured I'd not see them again after they flew up the first hill passing me.

We get to the check point in Lone Pine, at the base of the last climb up mount whitney. I eat a little bit of food and we change bicycles again. I'm going to use Lee's bicycle on the last climb, since it has a lower gear. Start to climb. Get near the two oregon guys who passed me while I was stopped in Lone Pine. The faster of the two goes ahead, and I pass the slower one. For the rest of the climb, I barely see the faster one's light just far enough ahead to not want to chase. Not that I could have anyways. The climb is very slow, very long, and I can't breath. After I nearly swerve off the road, my crew tempts me with caffiene. I say no, then after finding myself playing the "I'll just close my eyes for a second" game a couple times I agree. I drink down an ice tea. About 15 minutes later, my eyes are pinned wide open, yet my legs still are exhausted, I still can't breath, and I still want to go to bed. :) Soon, it turns into stops every 10 (?) minutes or so when I get off my bicycle. The sky is amazing. We (except for Barry) see a great shooting star. Lee follows me up the last 3.6 miles of the climb, worried that I might fall asleep. With bribes of snickers bars, I'm pushed on and eventually reach the top. It's 4:50:35 Sunday morning in 7th place. 3rd through 7th place all came in w/in 30 minutes of each other. The first two riders came in a a couple hours ahead of that.

It was a great ride, and I had a wonderful time. I can't thank my crew enough. Everything went amazingly smoothly. The only obvious thing I'd do differently would be not try to get sick so close to the ride. :) I rode as well as I could, and am happy with the results.