WDC and co did a great job of hosting and marshalling and being all around awesome dudes.  Thanks so much for making this happen.   And thanks to everyone else being super encouraging and friendly.  I'm really glad to have joined Kissena.

My wife says,"Everyone in your bike gang is really nice!"

We started out in WDC's driveway and it was freezing. Split up in to teams I got paired with Whitey, Dan H, and David Y. I was under the impression we would keep it friendly for the first 20ish miles. Stokes and Perlberg went early, to stretch things out on the downhill. Things were light and Mike P told funny stories to the peloton and made sure we enjoyed the scenery. Once we hit the first hill that created a little separation in the group and I think we were down to 15 or so. Then came the dirt section where John M was powering away from the pack. There was a chasing group of 7(ish) and everyone had a teammate except me. We were reeling John back in slowly and I wanted to make sure he wasn't with us for the rest (sorry John) I attacked. Mike and Ryan came across with me and it looked as if Alyosha was going to bridge across. After that Mike Ryan and I started working together for a bit and Al told us that we were coming close to the first KOM. I settled in behind Ryan hoping that maybe we could get a gap on Mike and work together to stay away. But once we hit the gravel Ryan would spin out whenever he would stand up. We crested the hill and I saw Al so I punched it got a gap and tired to hold it to the line. Once there we got neutralized and had to wait. On the downhill Mike caught back up. The three of us worked together for 10 miles then we hit the second KOM. Mike went first then Ryan countered and I just tried to hang on and made a jump to pass him at the end. The dirt section that followed was really tough riding, racing cross last year really helped with the unstableness of the gravel. Note: don't try to switch lines while biking in gravel, I almost ate it. Dave V was pretty funny on the bull horn and was narrating any road obstacles and heckling us. With about 15 to go Ryan and I knew if Mike made it to the end of the race we were racing for second. So I attacked and hoped that once I was caught Ryan would attack. I dropped my chain and both ryan and Mike waited for me. I thought that was very gentlemanly of them. We would crawl for a little bit then someone would attack. Over and over. Ouch. With about 6 to go Ryan rolled off the front and I wouldn't help mike chase. He said I cant I'm cramping but any time I would attack him he seemed like he could keep up, so I wasn't convinced. When we got to the final hill we were about 3 miles out and Mike got a big cramp and stopped biking. I couldn't believe it! I could still see ryan up the road so I settled in to try and bring him back. Once I was about 10 feet behind him I attacked and tried to make sure he couldn't come with me. I was able to get around him and he didn't come with me, so lucky! At that point I was ready to be done with the race. I was hurting so bad the last mile felt like forever. As I crossed the line I realized that this race was the first race I've ever won. Woot.