The Untwinked Level 99 Progress Thread, Revenge of the 99ers

Reina is now 94. Level 93 was fairly clean. Had 3 deaths overall, one at the middle of the level where I was trying to grab some dumb item that would have been Jamella fodder if I had found it and 2 nearer the end of the level when I was trying to rush Reina through the end of the level. We're definitely at the point now where any death will cost us far too much time, and a much greater caution will be exhibited going forward, much to Reina's chagrin.

Not too much in the way of drops for the past level and a half for Reina, who's badly in need of a Vex rune at this point but neither of us have had the desire to run LK. We'll probably hit it in the buildup to 95 to make sure we get a Heart of the Oak going sooner rather than later. Really difficult to have a Call to Arms Crystal Sword and a Spirit Crystal Sword so you can't tell your switch from your main weapon except memorizing what your life total should be!

We also need to acquire some gold. Jemali has done a fine job of forcing us to pick up safe drops in order to resurrect him, so hopefully we can get enough money to buy enough amulets to craft something useful. I think a good bit of time before this level really kicks off will go into item acquisitions. Run Andy for some possible ring improvements and general money, than hit LK for the Vex (and maybe the second Ber? Still no Infinity base worth anything and a runeword that expensive I'd want to be in as good a base as possible!). After that, go back to killing Vizier than Infector, which appears to be the opposite of Pb_pal :)

Anyways, the few finds are below:
CFhNoXS.jpg

Very shortly after I found the Griffon's this bad boy drops. Reina is very happy about her new ugly head gear!

sYeqTvG.jpg

Whatever @T72on1 can do, I can do as well! Also, I almost missed this Cham, due to all of those monsters around I had actually teleported away before Vizier died. Reina decided that we should just completely verify nothing was left behind. Good thing I listened to her and not my better judgement!

caq23LL.jpg

This Guillaume's Face actually represents 50% of the grail being complete!

Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy    Perkele         SC      Barb      97             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       96             No          901        339            1          147
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      95             Yes         459        232            11          65
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       94             Yes           -        273            9           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      94             Yes         503        255            -           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      87             Yes           -        114            -           -
Southpaw    Njord           SC      Druid     82             Yes           -          -            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -

[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
Great stuff everyone! I enjoyed reading about all the finds and progress thus far. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that these drops are a great motivator as the experience gains slow to a crawl.

As for myself, not much to report after that DWeb except for a measly Vex. Envying those Cham runes so far.
Interesting 5 unique drop. (Antlers were triple durability.)
Also found my 4th trap GC for a little more damage.
 
@Pb_pal Congrats on the SoJ !!! And on getting to the 96.5 mark.

@hasuprotoss Nice progress. Congrats on the Cham. And yes, you're really starting to get to a point where you don't want to die.

@NanoMist I agree. The drops are what keep you motivated when the xp gets to a crawl. O yes, and I'd trade my Cham rune for four skillers any day at this point in Neverland's career. Still sitting at zero myself :(.
 
Njord has hit another landmark at 90, primarily hammering on Shenk and Eldritch at /p8. He is also a Pat now! Several HR and nice uniques have dropped, mostly down in Shenk's area with the high concentration of bosses and champions that convene there. On my phone, so I must keep it short.
Edit: @Pb_pal Congratulations on finding the sweet jewelry!
Edit: On behalf of T72on1 the HR I've found in CS, Shenk, Eldritch, LK (till eyes bled) and Pindleskin have amounted to:
Ist - 3
Gul - 1
Vex - 2
Ohm - 1
Lo - 3
Ber - 1
Cham - 1


Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy    Perkele         SC      Barb      97             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       96             No          901        339            1          147
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      95             Yes         459        232            11          65
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       94             Yes           -        273            9           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      94             Yes         503        255            -           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw    Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      87             Yes           -        114            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
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Been meaning to share my experience tables with everyone. I used it to help theorycraft my Baal runs and it's fairly accurate. My 95 -> 96 stretch was done via Ancients + 177 P8/P3 Baal runs. Without Ancients it would have taken 215 Baal runs, extrapolated from the 177 count. My table gave me 216 runs to 96, so it's very close to reality. As expected since clearing P1 throne is negligible in regards to additional experience.

I also have CS exp. numbers, but it's trickier due to random monster packs that are normally killed on the side. As always, it's best to do in game testing here, like Gripp. Still useful to see the exp. breakdown by seals and Diablo. Vizier + Infector contributes a major percentage of the total exp at sub-98, but that is something already known long ago. Although most leveling strats have already been dissected in the past 99 threads, it didn't hurt to reconfirm the strat or do a minor variation with our untwinked characters. Factor in actual run times for best use, although deaths, random monster packs, exp. shrines, etc will change the numbers.

Spoiler tag for wall of (intimidating) numbers:
First table contains P8/P7 Diablo and P8/P3 Baal.
View attachment 3243

Same as first but with P1/P7 Diablo and P1/P3 Baal. Included due to P1/P7 Diablo being a common 98 strat.
View attachment 3244

The P8/P3 Baal runs are fairly close to jjscud/reborn's table, which is a good sign. Let me know if there are any mistakes and I will correct it. For example: the number of minions.

Developed the spreadsheet with the basin exp. page and german d2 exp. online calculator as the references.
 
Got my first ever Lo rune, out of a corpse in LK. Still the chests are stuck on Tal drops for some reason (or so it seems I suppose). I would have taken a screenie but I snagged it and S&E about a second later after a single swipe from what must have been an extra strong minion or an aura enchanted normal winged nightmare took about 65% of Battleforge's life. I didn't feel like playing around with him after getting it. Not sure what I'll do with it though. Perhaps I'll make a Fortitude for the merc after he no longer needs the speed from his armor slot (i.e. I find an ethereal elite polearm that can get 6 sockets and make the BOTD for him).

Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy    Perkele         SC      Barb      97             No            -          -            -           -
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       96             No          901        339            1          147
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      95             Yes         459        232            11          65
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       94             Yes           -        273            9           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      94             Yes         503        255            -           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw    Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      89             Yes           -        236            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
@Southpaw8668 Wait, what? You sure go fast !!! Congrats on 90. I didn't know that Eldritch and Shenk are such good targets for xp and drops. Btw, I'm curious to read what those HRs and nice uniques are, so I hope you'll find the time to post some of them later on :).

@NanoMist Thanks, very interesting.

@OldSoldier Congrats on the progress and on the Lo.
 
@NanoMist - Awesome work! Always cool to see how the numbers stack up. Much appreciated.

@OldSoldier - I'd hold on to the Lo just in case you want to cube it to a Sur if you need a last one for Enigma/CoH etc. Of course, Fortitude is also a great choice for the merc too, so you can't really go wrong.
 
Approaching the mid point to 94 here doing mainly Baal runs at p1 (with the boss at p1-p8) leavening the time with activity in the Crypt, Mausoleum, AT and the Durance.

Dropped a firebolt and a lightning Ormus, a second poor lightning facet, treks and finally gambled a nice rare amulet which replaced the Tals once some Trangs had been found and a small charm reshuffle made.

View attachment 3249

Blew 81 gems rolling a trap skiller. Merc now wearing Guillames, Treachery and carrying an insight normal great poleaxe most of the time. Still looking for a Baal GC, a +5/+6 orb, a suitable armour and gambling amulets and headgear.
 
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@OldSoldier - I'd hold on to the Lo just in case you want to cube it to a Sur if you need a last one for Enigma/CoH etc. Of course, Fortitude is also a great choice for the merc too, so you can't really go wrong.

I will definitely hold onto it for now. I just found my first ever Ohm rune too! Of course another monster was hot on my heels and I just had enough time to see the orange flying through space and grab a few piles of gold to see the rune, grab it and run. Hmmm perhaps I should only do LK runs where I am in hot pursuit (Dukes of Hazzard reference there)
 
Congrats everyone on your latest achievements! As for me, I just reached 97 2/3 tonight.

2lJExiK.jpg

(my progress on the exp bar appears to be over 66,7%, but numbers suggest that I'm exactly at two thirds.)

So what happened during this 89m chunk of exp? Nothing much tbh, slow progression and no interesting TC87s or grailers, but still some cool drops every now and then. Runes were the biggest surprise, since I got 3 nice drops in a short period of time, maybe less than 200 runs. First, I got this:
9akJiJS.jpg
followed shortly after by another nice present form Baal himself
YPz0c0W.jpg
and then it finally climaxed with this
FC4rxSd.jpg
Nothing else higher than Ko ever dropped, so it's crazy luck there... or bad luck, because I just need Lem and Ist right now. o_O I was able to cube another Zod, which brings me to a personal record of 4 Zods farmed with this character alone.
I also got a random blue amulet to be used against Nihla's vipers:
Code:
Rainbow Amulet of Life Everlasting
Amulet
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xd33d8490
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +11
Damage Reduced by 23
I hope it helps.

See you at 98!
 
@Tarantella That's a lovely amulet you gambled there. One question: your merc doesn't have life leech. Isn't it hard to keep him alive?

@OldSoldier Congrats on the Ohm !!!

@zticazzy You are nuts ... 4 Zods. That's 8 Chams, right? Or did you actually find a Zod as well? Or cube up various low level HRs (now that sounds silly). Good luck on getting to 98. And yes, that is a lovely amulet.

@Southpaw8668 Cool !!! Still curious to see which HRs you found :).

I finally managed to play some more than off and on yesterday, some 3 hours in total. I should check the xp numbers, but judging from the xp bar, I'm somewhere at the 95.33 mark now. My highest every !!! Probably still not as efficient as many others here in running the CS, but I'm really starting to get the hang of it. To break things up a bit, I have started to run Diablo as well, whenever Infector doesn't spawn cold immune. Which is about 1/3 of my runs I'd guess.

Itemwise things have been very good. I finally rerolled my first Cold skiller. A plain one of course, but still I'm happy with it. I made a second HotO, as a rescue item in case I die. My old one was 34% res all, this one rolled 39%, so that's nice. Also rolled another Spirit Monarch for the rescue set, which got ... 35% fcr :). Tremendous. I'm now thinking about making a CoH to replace my Skin of the Vipermagi. Not sure about it yet though.

Best drops were during my one hour playing session in the evening, when I found my first 2 lightning facets (3/4 and 5/4 iirc, should be useful if I ever change to lightning sorc), a Stormlash (first for a non-tainted character, third in my career, lowest ED% possible, highest light absorb) and my first ever Fleshripper (283% ED). Earlier I had found IK Soul Cage. Not bad for a character with only 174% mf :).

I will post readouts of the items later.

Edit: here they are

Code:
Stormlash
Scourge
One Hand Damage: 10 - 272
Durability: 51 of 65
Required Level: 82
Required Strength: 125
Required Dexterity: 77
Fingerprint: 0x362ad645
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 18 Tornado on striking
15% Chance to cast level 10 Static Field on striking
+30% Increased Attack Speed
240% Enhanced Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 1 - 473 Lightning Damage
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
+9 Lightning Absorb
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 30


Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xa0241cd0
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 41 Nova when you Level-Up
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
-5% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+4% to Lightning Skill Damage


Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x4368224c
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 41 Nova when you Level-Up
Adds 1 - 74 Lightning Damage
-4% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+3% to Lightning Skill Damage


Fleshripper
Fanged Knife
One Hand Damage: 57 - 218
Durability: 21 of 36
Required Level: 68
Required Strength: 42
Required Dexterity: 86
Fingerprint: 0x499dbced
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
283% Enhanced Damage
-50% Target Defense
25% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Deadly Strike
50% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal
Slows Target by 20%


Immortal King's Soul Cage
Sacred Armor
Defense: 1001
Durability: 55 of 60
Required Level: 76
Required Strength: 232
Fingerprint: 0xf4e27fd7
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 5 Enchant when struck
+2 to Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
+400 Defense
Poison Resist +50% Set (2 items): +25% Faster Hit Recovery Set (3 items): Cold Resist +40% Set (4 items): Fire Resist +40% Set (5 items): Lightning Resist +40% Set (6 items): +50% Enhanced Defense

I also found this rare Tiara

Code:
Imp Horn
Tiara
Defense: 49
Durability: 18 of 25
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xde68d1bc
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
Adds 1 - 89 Lightning Damage
7% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
+20 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +30%

Not sure if it's useful for anything, but the dual leech / +skills combo kinda struck me.

So long as I'm having fun with my CS runs, I'll continue those. I might throw some LK runs in the mix sometimes as well, to break things up.
 
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@T72on1 congrats on your rolls man, 35%fcr spirit is sweet! To answer your question, I never found a single Zod, they were always cubed from lower runes, from Cham all the way down to Ohm and Vex. The fact is, when you play a vanilla WWer (no RWM, no ATMA bug) the only efficient endgame weapon available through runes is botd, and once you get enigma you're pretty much done with HRs, so the best way to spend those is by cubing them. The first two Zods went into eth zerkers for ebotd, the third one in etomby, the fourth one is just sitting there in case I need to reroll stuff, not to mention that I could already cube another one if I wanted to -- I would have been the Zod God by now, I know.
 
This thread has been really fun to follow. Some very nice progress. Few of you are on the verge where the real grind starts :)

@zticazzy you Cham magnet! You should start working on that Zod God Grail like, now! (just stash the items away and never touch again, would be like vanilla still, imo ;) )

@T72on1 you triggered me to start counting what am I able to cube from Ohm and up now... We'll see what happens, if anything

EDIT: result can be seen in the Zod God thread. There's some silly stuff ;)
 
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@Tarantella That's a lovely amulet you gambled there. One question: your merc doesn't have life leech. Isn't it hard to keep him alive?

Keeping Oak Sage up most of the time helps a lot. He doesn't kill fast on high settings but is quite capable of holding off normal monsters indefinitely (albeit noisily) whilst Tarasha calmly sifts, sorts and otherwise examines the contents of chests. Life leech from Chains of Honour is an option but a upgraded Greyform, Boneflesh or Skin of the Flayed One would do for p1 Baal runs especially if an eth 4 socket polearm dropped sometime this year.


And of course with orb/ fireball on left click and tele always on right continuous re positioning helps a great deal.
 
I have to admit getting to 97 was a little tough. Exp. bar gains were still noticeable, if ever so slightly. About halfway to 97, suffered my second death to three Burning Soul packs, one carrying conviction aura. Miraculously, I was able to retrieve my body with no further deaths, and was only set back a dozen Baal runs.

Grailers are also slowing down, even with an average of 1.2 S/U per run.
Found a few things though, but nothing incredible. BKWB, Ohm, 4th Arachnid (eth).

Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zticazzy    Perkele         SC      Barb      97             No            -          -            -           -
NanoMist    Izuna           SC      Sin       97             No         1458        391            2          175
Pb_pal      Eleanor         SC      Sorc      96             No          890        309            4           -
T72on1      Neverland       SC      Sorc      95             Yes         459        232            11          65
PhineasB    Mercy           SC      Sin       94             Yes           -        273            9           -
hasuprotoss Reina           SC      Sorc      94             Yes         503        255            -           -
Tarantella  Tarasha         HC      Sorc      93             Yes           -          -            -           -
Southpaw    Njord           SC      Druid     90             Yes           -          -            -           -
OldSoldier  Battleforge     HC      Pala      89             Yes           -        236            -           -
Gambit      Mallenroh       SC      Sorc      81             Yes           0          0            0           0
logo        Digimon         HC      Nec       76             Yes          85         65            0           -
Darke Rahl  Bells           HC      Ama       74             No           19          -            0           0
Kitteh      Cyanosis        HC      Assassin  45             No            -          -            -           -
Tenecabo    OldShatterhand  HC      Druid     40             Yes           -          0            0           -
Gambit      Colossus        SC      Pal       39             YES           0          0            0           0
Ergroilnin  Erilinda        HC      Sorc      20             No            -          -            -           -
Smancer     Smancer         SC      Necro     26             Yes           1          -            -           -
[highlight]The Fallen:[/highlight]
Code:
Name (F)    Name (C)       SC/HC   Class   Level/exp   Extended Stash   #of S/U   Grail/504   #of deaths   # of Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coju        NintyNine_orRiP HC      Sorc      81             Yes           -          0            0         a few
coju        fB              HC      Sorc      29             Yes           1          1            0           2
Kitteh      Verallus        HC      Druid     26             No          N/A        N/A            0          N/A
logo        Rolex           HC      Barb      21             Yes           0          0            0           1
 
@NanoMist - Awesome job! Congrats on 97, your pace is incredible! I've also noticed a marked slowdown in grailers, although I'm not dropping as many S/U as you are (Eleanor's MF is only just a bit over 100).
 
@NanoMist Congrats !!! Awesome job. I agree with @Pb_pal, your pace is incredible. Also, I would love to have an Arachnid's Mesh, and you are already at your fourth !!! I woulnd't mind the BKWB either ...

We went away for the weekend, so I didn't have time to play until yesterday evening. I did exactly one CS run before our weekly group game, and got my second cold skiller. Another plain one, but still a nice surprise. After the group game I couldn't resist playing some more. No fancy drops, but good xp, and still no deaths on my way to 96, so that's a good thing.

After a while I decided to cube up my 2 Surs and create a CoH. This gave me another +skill, and thanks to the high resists on the armor, I could switch out one of my rare rings for a 26% Nagelring, and include some more life charms. So despite the 2 skillers I'm now back at some 2200 life after BO, and at almost 200% mf. I would love to have more mf, but I can't see me putting in more without loosing killing power.

O yes, I must have been mistaken about my progress xp wise last time, because yesterday evening I already went past the 95.5 mark. I don't think I'll be able to play much, if anything this week, though. The garden is a mess, I should catch a lot of sleep for my ultra run on Sunday, and the European Championship soccer is starting on Friday. There won't be much room, if any, for Diablo 2 I'm afraid :(.
 
Thanks! Pace will be slowing down though, to prevent burn out. I pushed hard on the final stretch to 97, so now I'm taking a short break.
 
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