400 K Brevet out of Frederick, MD

As I am preparing to go for the 600, I realize that I missed out on the 400 K.
Actually, I was so obsessed with sticking with Young and never having to chase for whatever reason, I took only 1 picture at the start.
Pity, as this 400 was in fact quite pleasant. We started with a light drizzle which protected us from any kind of wind. We took it easy and at first rode with Tom.
During the ride, we kept loosing riders and gaining some new ones. In fact, we would find the same group at almost all the stops.
During the day, the wind blew as forecast, 10 to 20 mph from the West. In my view, it did not affect us too much as it almost never was a head wind, and instead, before it died, became a tail wind as we made our way back to Frederick.
I admired the way Matt rides those brevet and I wish I could stick to a similar game plan. For the first 3/4 of the ride, he goes very easy and we kept passing him. However, he would invariably arrive at the next pit stop a few minutes after us and be gone long before us. And then, on the last leg, he just took off and disappear, finishing the ride 2 and a half hour ahead of us.
Again I had that problem of this big pocket of air blocked in my oesaphagus. I can't wait to see the doctor on Monday and see if this can be helped.
Other than that, I made a bad mistake keeping all my clothing on the climbs through south mountain. I was soaking wet at the top and got very cold on the downhill. So much that I was hoping to be able to rent a room at the hotel where the next control was, take a hot shower and dry my clothes. This turned out to be impossible. Instead, I had three hot chocolate and a hot decaf coffee, and I followed Thom advice and put some newspaper on my chest. That did the trick and I finished stronger than I ever had on a brevet.
The fact that I was able to ride with Doug the whole day made a lot of difference and I hope that this would be the same for the 600, although Doug tells me that he will only be able to do the first 300 K loop.
We shall see. Meanwhile, I am very happy in the way I finished that 400 K, even if I don't forget the very favourable circumstances (nice weather, nice company).