Ray Torrey, you must be a masochist, designing a route like this...      
 
For now, that's all I can say...  

I love the route ,one of my top 2 or 3 LSR routes. Great roads & beautiful scenery. The story of the day(in my opinion) was Peggy. She's just tough. She was battered & bruised after he biopsy on Wednesday, tackled this tough/challenging course.
 
We finished with a course time of 10 hours,57 minutes(and that include 1 flat at the Forrestburg control & 2 unscheduled stops for her to catch her breath). Bike time-8hrs,51min,39secs-14.8 mph avg. Max H/R-173,Avg-130. Top speed-43mph. My computer read 131.10 miles.
 
 We took a relatively leisurely pace & rode with Nelson ,Ray ,Mark & Linda. We got separated from Mark & Linda(we stopped at the Spanish Fort High school for a little rest break when Mark & Linda pulled up. Mark had a flat on the course. A piece of grass/straw punctured his tire). We re-group at the high school.
 
We all rode together until Nocona. Ray had injured his foot at the gym earlier in the week,his foot was feeling pretty sore at the control in Nocona. Nelson was/is fighting the effects of a head cold. They wandered over to a Subway for some rest. Peggy was feeling pretty tired & wanted to finish. 48 miles to the finish,with a lot of hills into Forestburg. We took off with Mark & Linda & a few miles ,Peggy & I got separated from Mark & Linda(I believe Linda was suffering from asthma & leg cramps-Ugh!).
 
The section into Forestburg has some tough climbs. The control closed at 5;00pm. We arrived at 4:20pm. Peggy & I usaed the facilities & bought a Dr.Pepper(Bud ,no RC) ,& an ice cream cone. 25.10 miles to go.  
 
Again ,the climb out of Forestburg to Bolivar had some tough climbs. Peggy was really feeling it at this point. She kept going. With about 9 miles to go,we were riding in total darkness. No problem, click on the Phenix lights(on high) & we pedaled to the finish.
 
We pulled in the last control at 6:27pm. The control newly opened & modern with a grill. Fantastic burgers & onion rings. We were waiting for everyone to come in. Appox. 30 minutes later-Ray & Nelson arrived. Then about 20 minutes later ,Mark & Linda arrived.
 
We ate & shared our experiences of the day. It really wasn't as cold as forecasted. I saw a bank sign in Nocona that read 63 degrees. It was sunny as we arrived in St.Jo(Control#3).  
 
Thanks to all  for a great day. I would like to say special thanks to Ray(route owner). Great ride. Now ,Ray is having surgery to repair his Achilles tendon on Wednesday. All the best. He's going to be off the bike for a while(& the new bike is on it's way). Everyone overcame certain challenges on this route. Congratulations to everyone. Bud ,you were missed.
 
Nelson ,take care of the cold.
 
 
 

Thanks Nelson for putting together this ride and to Ray for a great route. I would not have missed this for the world. We were one banged up group!! I tried to get Steve to ride with Paul and Greg, Steve would of had no problem hanging at that pace , He rode so strong all day. I don't like to think that I hold him back . But It's always great to have him with my when I started to get down on a ride he knows just when to push me and when to hold my hand ).
 
 Because of trying to protect my upper body I had to change the way I climbed hills using only my legs and pushing with my upper body against the seat . This put a lot on strain on my knees, by the end of the ride my knees hurt more then anything else", note to self don't do a ride with this much climbing and change how you ride" .  I think that even with all the hills this is a must do ride . Great roads no hills that are to tough(nothing like goatneck or cherry pie hill) just lots of hills .
 
 Ray I would love to ride this route again in the spring.Ray I don't know how you rode with your foot the way it was.  As always you amaze me. Nelson with that very bad cough.  Nelson, you may need to see the doctor for that cough.  
 
Mark and Linda, it was great to get a chance to ride with you both. Thanks Mark for changing my tire and for looking out for me all day.
 
                                                           Great day with even better people(minus Bud) !!!!!!!
                                                                               Peggy

Congrats, everyone. It sounds like everyone had their share of challenges to overcome.

I was glad the start temperature was ~42 instead of the anticipated ~32, it made for a much more pleasant start...  Greg and I had decided to go off the front after 10 miles or so, but he and Ray started to do that almost immediately, so there we went.  After 10 miles, we took a nature stop, and Peggy, Mark, and Linda caught up, but then Greg and I went off ahead after that, only seeing the others briefly at the Forestburg control for the rest of the day.
 
We had a nice tailwind all the way to Spanish Fort, which helped climb some of the hills we encountered...  This route uses some of the Muenster rally, but apparently with lots MORE climbing... A few times, there was no shoulder, and traffic backed up behind us while we chugged up the incline at 8mph or so....
 

 
 But also some very nice downhills -- there were at least a half dozen times we were coasting at 35 or greater, and once with a high of 44 for me...  Very nice road surfaces, in general, by the way...!!!  But even with the climbing involved, Greg and I had an almost 19 mph average by the time we got to the Fort.
 

 

 

 
THEN, you get to go west for a few miles, but eventually turn back south, into the wind, for the next ~60 miles...  and encounter LOTS more hills, and a fairly steady 1% overall grade, since you're coming back up from the Red River basin...  Nasty, nasty, nasty...  And many times, you climb one hill, to immediately see another one looming in front of you a mile away.  And all this, into a ~15 MPH wind...  
 

 
Greg had mentioned that there were several 10% or better climbs... I believe it.  I felt pretty good overall, keeping 10mph or better up even the nastiest of them...  then, for the last 20+ miles after Forestburg, the backs of both of my legs started to revolt during climbs -- hamstrings, etc. trying to cramp up...  But we pressed on, through a couple last nasty climbs into Bolivar and on to the finish.  That first half average of almost 19 had dropped to 16.6 at the end...  you do the math...
 
[Side note:  did you folks find/use the water bottles we left for you at Forestburg?]
 
Our overall goal for the day was to get finished before dark, and we just made it, rolling in about 5:10 or so...  but stopped out front to take a couple pictures with the big Texas flag before it got too dark, before getting our cards signed inside.  
 

 

 
 
My left knee was hurting, and was really stiff with I got out of the car at home later...   (but felt good enough this morning to do the GDB Sunday ride)
 
That's definitely the hardest 200K I've done to date, mostly due to the 2nd half -- constant uphill grade, hill after repeating hill, and the headwind all combined.  And Greg actually seemed to feel stronger than me the last 10 miles - not sure where he found it!
 
Thanks for the company, and glad everybody finished safely.   My pics are at:  
 
 http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g73/flyinglazboy/SpanishFort/

Just for funsies, here's a comparative elevation chart between the HHH100 and the SFort 200K, set to the same relative scale dimensions...   And may I emphatically state that the downhill you see from Mile 98 to Mile 120 on SF is a deceptive buncha BS...  it's only ~0.2% overall...
 

I'm very glad everyone made it back ok - Paul and I ran into some traffic those last few miles and with the blind turns and such it might not have been the best after dark route, so I was calling everyone left and right to make sure everyone made it back safe.  
 
Elevation in itself isn't such a big deal - gear down and spin - but it's the length of the grades and the wind that makes Sp Fort a beast.  That 12 mile stretch of winds with a solid incline just wore my behind out.  Then you get to do it again for another 8 miles before hitting that nasty stuif on the way back to forestburg.  My legs were toast on a couple climbs and I was just spinning the cranks.  Thankfully my body recovered a bit by Slidell - enough to turn the pace back up a bit and take the last sprint from Paul, who just flat out turned on the motor and sailed up every hill.  The man is part billy goat on wheels.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Ray, but I doubt I deserve them.  As proven on this very ride, many people were able to just just as much with a whole lot more things going on, including yourself.   I definitely needed yesterday and today to recover though - I couldn't even open a bottle of water yesterday.  
 
I'm sad I'm going to miss the 400k this weekend, but we've got to plan a ride Dec. 6th!

Bah, don't believe the hype - Nelson, you are an animal!  
 
I actually found the Cleburne 200k to be easier than SF.  It's the wind in your face for so long that gets me.  If it had been a windless day Saturday, I'd count it #2 behind Cleburne.  
 
Y'all need to check out the rest of Paul's shots - pure genius.  Paul, did you get those two videos you shot of my leg extension at all?