Not exactly sure why I continue to do this ride but I find myself at the start line waiting for the clock to hit 0. Away we go, had to take a couple nature breaks going to Marion, three actually, and two of those times I had to work much harder than I wanted to catch back up. The yellow line rule was not in play, saw several guys playing chicken with on coming cars but thankfully there were no accidents. In order to post a sub 6 hour time my Marion split needs to be 3:15 because I climb like an elephant, unfortunately we rolled into Marion at 3:38 and I knew my hopes of a sub 6 hr ride were all but gone. I stayed with the front group about halfway up hwy 80, at that point I went into survival mode. Getting off hwy 80 was nice but the parkway is far from flat. By this time my legs were heavy and could only sustain a moderate pace, I was watching the time tick by on my computer hoping my legs would recover so I could try to make up some time but it never happened. At mile 90 I had a nice cramp flair up in my right hamstring so I had to stop for about a minute to stretch it out. By now it's very obvious that I am not going to reach my goal of sub 6 hours so I'm just riding for pride. I eventaully crossed the line in 6:36, disappointed with my results but thankful to be done.
