First off... Krista...where were ya, sweetie?? I looked and looked for ya at the start. If we just missed eachother, I'm so sorry!! I really hope that was the case and not that your ankle kept you from riding. I'm really bummed we didn't get to meet!! The weather kept me off the century. DARN IT!!!

Rather than type out my ride report...please allow me to just cut-n-paste what I wrote to my "old" cycling mentor. He'll be 83 this month and is a complete SPITFIRE. He did HHH this year...in 10hrs...but he did it!! Amazing man. Anyway - here's my report

WOOM,
You and I have done this ride... a "dam near perfect ride." I remember how you'd look forward to this one. This is my 3rd in a row since my gloried return to our beloved sport. Also...out of the 17years this ride has gone on, the last 2 in a ROW have been rainy! I never much liked riding in rain...much less in COLD and rainy conditions. It was 59 degrees at the start of this puppy! Did we turn back? HECK NO. ha ha

I didn't stop at the first rest stop, but at the second and third, I SERIOUSLY considered hailing a cab! That freezing cold rain really took a toll on my brain. I forced myself, however, to "just make it to the next rest stop"... repeat...repeat.. Well, you know "THAT HILL" on DamJam? The long nasty one that pitches up steeply for the last 1/3 of the hill? (by the way, I saw a few men walking that hill today! hee hee) As I topped that hill - with my marvelous triple - the clouds parted and a huge ray of sunshine poured out on me. It was such wonderful timing, it had to be a gift from the heavens.. Up until that point, I'd been rained on fairly consistently since mile 15. This sunshine was at mile 50.

It was at that point that I told myself "all bets are off". I busted my tail to make up time that the rain and cold had stolen from my psyche. I rode inbetween 16-22mph for the last 22 miles. And the hills weren't over (check the ride profile attached). There was a new part of this ride that took us up a short 14% honker (passed another man walking it) which I didn't remember from yrs past.

I am pretty sure you and I did the 3/4 Dam Jam when we last rode together...but that had to be at least 11 yrs ago. I haven't done the 3/4 DJ since then. I did the 1/2 in 2006 and got completely rained off the 3/4 last year, only able to do 46 miles because they closed the route. We had to double-back over our outward track last year.

Anywhoo.... my friend...hope I was able to give you a humorous glimpse into my day AND your memories of DamJam. Can you believe...my friends want to do a 70 mile MS150 training ride in the morning?? Woof....

Love ya and miss you,
WCF

Here's the ride profile from my Garmin:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6698233

By the way... WOOM and WCF are monikers he assigned us 14yrs ago.. LOL He is WOOM (Wild n Wooly Old Man) and he called me WCFBRP (Wild n Crazy Female Running and Biking Person). Everyone should have a wiley older friend like him.