What do they call the medical student who finishes last in his class? Doctor.
What do they call the bike racer who gets to the line after everyone in his class? Finisher .

I finished it. As expected, it was the climbs that killed me. I finished the 50k course in 2h 35m, burned almost 3000 calories, hit 96% of my max heart rate, and climbed almost 1700 feet. I had to walk up some hills. My legs were pretty tired toward the end. I'm good for the distance, but climbs .... I keep saying that, don't I? It was fun. I had a blast.

The guy who won the 100k finished in 3h 20m. Quite a ride! They were approaching Suicide Cliff, the first climb on the 50k route, as I was heading into the last 20k, which was thankfully predominantly flat to downhill.

There was a big contingent up from Guam for the race. They placed well, but a guy from Saipan was the winner.

Thankfully, the rain in the morning was minimal. We started at the top of one of the climbs, so the descent was pretty wet. I took it carefully, which means I kept it under 30 mph. The asphalt here is impregnated with coral as a filler to reduce the cost. And I mean rock-sized chunks of coral, not a ground up powder. This makes the pavement more slippery than pure asphalt when wet. Add to that droppings from trees with the rapidity of decomposition here and the fungus/algae that grows on the road where there is standing water or even runoff paths, and things can get very slippery.

Next was Suicide Cliff, which took us from about 100 ft elevation to almost 800 ft elevation in about 2 miles of road. We detoured to Bird Island, the Grotto, and Banzai Cliff on our way back toward sea level. Each of these is basically a downhill toward the ocean from the main road. At Banzai Cliff, a group of local kids, I think some sort of sports group, acted as a cheering squad for the racers; that was fun. After Banzai Cliff, the 25k start, it was pretty easy going.

I hung around for awhile to see the other racers come in, then biked back to the apartment to cool down and clean up. Suka will be here in a few minutes. I'll drive her back to work then go to PIC for a luncheon for the race.