Finish this up already

The last quarter of the race was highs and lows. Tired legs but an "extra" rest stop as everyone passed by number three again somewhere between four and five. Quick through this one as I figured number five rest stop was supposedly at the 90 mile mark (no need to stop 10 miles from the finsih!). Just after passing rest stop five we went into the woods for the final bit of singletrack. I believe we were in the Mohican state park at this point as the trails were definitely groomed and well-used. Fun up and down, twisty trails rejuvenated the legs partly because of fun, partly because the end was oh so close. Wound around the ridge and began catching some of the 60 milers. They were courteous enough to jump out of the way so I could keep my roll on and I knew that soon the trail would come oh so close to where we had set up camp. I clicked the computer to "mileage" just to see and realized that it read 96 miles just past our tents and thought "oh shit" we are going to go all the way around this F-ing campground just to get 100 in. Sure enough, through the upper reaches of the campground and up this crazy hike-a-bike on what looked like a trail that had been cut the day before, back out the ridge aways, then finally around the outer reaches of the campground to come into the finish area. Crossing the finsih line in these all day events is always good, but even better when they call your name over the speakers then hand you a pint glass. Luckily the beer was close by and I had two in me before I fully realized that I was done. 9 hours, 23 minutes for myself, 9 hours 13 minutes for dholmes, and 10 hours, 27 minutes for the legend ED!

The post-race food was awesome-unlike Cohutta-although the beer ran out pretty quick. Luckily I always have my own. Once we were all settled, cleaned up and such we went down to the pizza place again as they had an adjoining sports bar so we could watch the NBA playoffs. Two pitchers of yellow beer, bacon and cheese fries and a big ride in we were feeling large and in charge. (Cleveland sucked it up and lost of course, much to the locals dismay) Next morning we loaded up, hit the Mickey D's by the interstate for a quick b-fast and the worst excuse for coffee ever. Drove for awhile until almost TN border where fuel was needed both for the race squirrel and ourselves. Killed the hell out of some Subway and came on home. Damn this stuff is fun!