So its all over. I really enjoyed the day, and I was glad that I was able to go and ride. I finished over 8.5 hours, which is pretty much an hour or more over what I had intended.

Next year, I will train harder, ride faster. I followed jonathan pait's advice and did all I could to stay with the pack into Marion. I nearly made it, but fell off some 8 miles short and never really recovered. Truth is, I didn't have enough base miles in, and I should't have been suprised that I didn't have enough gas to go with the big boys. This meant I had to suffer my way through Marion and up to the parkway before my body was able to recover.

I met up with Mark on the parkway, and we agreed there that we needed to work together rather than race each other, because neither one of us would be ending up with a great time anyway... we made it!

This year there was a huge fiasco with the bike returns. It took some people longer to get their bike back than it did for them to do the Assault. This is all some of them will remember about the day...

I on the other hand will remember very little about the day. Tomorrow is the birth of our 3rd child Josiah, who is going to have a major heart surgery minutes after birth... This is my Mt Mitchell, this is the hardest thing I have ever gone through. I am just looking forward to it all working out ok, and being over soon...