self inflicted??

the short story

when you run a 1x8, and this happens to your 1, fill in the blank......

the really long story...
About 11 miles in to the 100. First thought, damn, I'm gonna be really drunk by noon. What else can I do? Aid station volunteer? Go back to camp, change clothes and do kitchen help?
That walk of shame heading back to Aid Station 1. Judging from some of the faces I saw coming the other way, I was having a pretty good start for a change. The new bracket start worked well for everybody. Walked back to 1 and checked out the bikes there, not a lot to choose from. Hitch a ride to AS-2 where I knew there'd be some support and maybe some parts, or maybe I'd find a friend there volunteering whose bike I could borrow. On the way there we see another dejected rider with his thumb out and head down. He blew out his rear hub. As we loaded his bike onto the rack, I couldn't help but notice that perfectly serviceable triple chainring he had. I asked for it, and he said sure. I felt bad though, as I could easily give him my rear wheel and then he's back in the game. I offered to draw straws, my wheel or his chainring, but he wasn't that interested, said it's all mine. Thank you Blaine from Charlottesville. I couldn't get his middle ring off w/o crank removal tools, so I took his big ring and bolts from him. Barry had come across me earlier and we attempted to do this same procedure. Yes, BQ was willing to give up his big-ring to me. But we didn't have enough of the right size bolts to make it work for both of us.

So, backtrack on the road to AS-1, and then get back to where I was and back in the game. Enter the Lynn Trail climb behind the 3 sweepers starting to take down arrows, solidly in 550th place. At the bottom of Wolfe Ridge Trail, I was in 546th place, and the rescue litter was headed up for the one girl I passed in that section. Dropped my chain off the outside numerous times down Wolfe and even a few times on the gravel after Wolfe. It took me a while to learn I could only use the 2nd and 3rd cogs on the back if I wanted the chain to stay on. The gear killed me on the paved climb to 2, the sharp edge of cramping with a lot of race left. Passed a few more people and realized that all those I'd been passing were planning to finish in the dark and had their lights in their drop bags at 5. Started worrying about 4:20. If I missed that cutoff I'd have to scavenge or borrow some lights.

When I rolled into 2, they were happy to see my #61, as there was some radio chatter about that rider. That paved hump right after 2 was wicked in that gear, and I easily passed a few people on it. I figured I'd have to walk almost all of the Hankey climb, which I'd actually been looking forward to doing this year with my bling 1x8. I also figured I'd walk all of the Braleys climb, and most of the end to 5. Couldn't get 4:20 out of my mind. Up Hankey I started catching riders in tennis shoes, a rider with a pop-40 radio blaring, some noisy old bikes, and other riders with their own tales of woe. 4:20, 4:20.

Found my 3rd savior of the day at AS-3 in Jeffro, the uber-busy neutral support friend who gave me the middle ring and bolts off of his own bike and we made beer plans for later for the swap back. Found Crouse and Nick at 3 getting ready to hit Braleys, they had a beer hookup and latched on with them up 250 to Mountain House. Things were all good then, I had the right ring, all 8 gears worked, the chain stayed on, stomach's working, and only needed to think about 4:20.

Braleys was great, and I rolled the Dire Wolf road section really fast singing that song in my head (pleeeeaaaase, don't murder me.....). Slowed a bit on that middle section, thinking about the right turn and 4:20. Humped it up the last 5 miles to 5 as fast as I could. Our buddy Marshall was the man in charge at 5, and he laughed when he saw that I was the rider #61 he'd been hearing about on the radio.

There's no way in hell I would've finished if I hadn't had the 32 put on. If I had to walk most of the 25 miles to 5, I wouldn't have made the cutoff and my mental game would've gone down with the legs. I was very lucky. I benefited all day from the kindness of many people. Lucky. Thanks people.
Congrats to Mike and Barry for #12.