Cohutta 100 Race Report

I was heading into this race pretty pumped up. I had a good dinner Thursday night and a pleasant ride up on Friday morning with my partner for the weekend Boomer. We got checked in, went for an easy ride on some of the singletrack and found some good grub.
My troubles, however, started Wednesday on my easy ride. I noticed some BB creaking issues. Bikes do have a million working and sometimes rubbing parts so noises are part of things sometimes. I decided to take it apart, re-grease, and have all back together on Thursday. Done deal. Creaking, however, continued. It got worse on our pre-ride Friday.
I woke up Saturday morning, predictably, 30 minutes before my alarm. It's always tough to sleep the night before a big race. Bagel and banana down along with other pre race rituals(yeah I take a shower before I race).
It was freezing at the start. Something like 45 degrees. I was cold getting up the road climb the begins the race. I settled into a nice group and watched a few folks ride away. Some riders are just a step(or few) above me and it's best to let them go. I made up a few places and lost some places in the singletrack. The first few minutes of singletrack are always sketchy for me.
Once I hit the gravel I settled in for a nice long day. Kyle Taylor caught up with me and we rode for a while. More and more people seemed to be forming in our group including the women's race winner Amanda Carey. I felt good about being around her knowing that she would probably finish in the top 25 men and was keeping a steady pace(I think she finished somewhere around top 15 men!).
Our group was rolling along well. It began to split up as we hit more climbs and came across Aid Stations. I skipped the first two. At one point I even passed Eddie O'Dea and began to worry that I may be pushing a bit too hard. I snagged some water from the helpful volunteers at the 3rd aid station and carried on.
Things were going well until folks began to pass me I had previously ridden by easily. I couldn't even hold their wheel, but I felt alright. Remember that creaking BB? Well now it was beginning to seize up. At that point I broke down mentally. Suffering is key late in a race, and I just couldn't find a reason to suffer. I stopped and had a pity party for a little while. I took breaks at the aid stations, even indulging in some Oreos. I came across David Ansel's coach(Andy Applegate). I spoke with him a bit, and he was quite positive. Really put me in a much better mood to finish the race. He had a worse go at it than me having what he said to be his worst wreck in the 20 years he'd been riding. He was limping on in with good spirits so why shouldn't I? I finished something around 8:23 in 32nd place. Well outside of the top 25 and shy of my 8 hour goal, I was frustrated but oh well. Some things just don't go your way. Syllamo 125k is next! Redemption?