Very briefly: I can not impress upon all of you how much your faith in me and your encouraging messages along the way made this possible. "Thank you" is a wholly insufficient phrase, but in my current condition, it's the best I can manage.

I am thoroughly wrecked at the moment. I actually hurt too much to sleep. That's how much I hurt. And while I'm hungry enough to eay just about anything, I've eaten so much food in the past 3 days that the inside of my mouth is destroyed. (I've heard pbp riders talk about this.) I need to go find the earth's biggest smoothie and then buy two.

I promise a ride report, but I just have to say that without Chris (Salsa's husband) and Steve (his riding buddy) I absolutely positively would be writing about my DNF instead of my success.