damage limitation

Got to the start late and was pushing my way through when I saw D-on so stayed and talked to him for a while. Had a fairly conservative start and stayed out of the wind as much as possible. Didn't have any real holdups until I got to early bath. Saw D-on climbing out the other side while waiting in the queue and didn't see him again until the finish. Got to transition feeling good, took my full 5 minutes to mix up some more rehydration and got going again.
Was in the pine forest at about the 36k mark when the elites started to come through. At that stage there was one guy off the front and a pack of 6 or 8 in a line. Not that easy to stay off line when they keep saying "more to come" then "another 2" etc. They were polite and it cant be much fun for them having heavy traffic in the first half of their race.
Felt good so pushed on and got my average speed up over 20kph for a while. At the 48k mark got my first cramp in my right hamstring, rode through it ok before getting a worse cramp in my left quad. Had to stop as it was locked solid so got my magic spray out of the camelback to see if it really worked. A few sprays on the tongue and after a while was able to get back on the bike. Was now worried about reaching transition as I had never had cramps that I couldn't ride through before.
Started drinking as much electrolyte as I could to see if that would help. More cramps, more standing around waiting and eventually worked out that the "spray once or as required" instruction meant several sprays every 5-15 minutes. On one of the occasions I was standing around waiting for a cramp to stop I saw andy logan ride past on his new yeti.
Couldn't ride any of the steep hills without feeling the twinge of cramps so got into a walking, riding and spraying routine. I guess the spray does work because I ended up catching up to Logan just before the 75k transition and had a chat on the last of the road sections. I got less cramps on the flat road sections so never though I would look forward to them as I usually suck on the flat but that day there were a relief.
Once into transition I was just worried about getting more electrolyte drink as I wasn't game to go out again without it. Once I filled up with the red stuff was feeling ok and thinking I would only have to put up with another 32k of cramping to finish. Logan ate some more bananas and then got Whisperer to leave with us.
Shared the magic spray while Logan, Whisperer and I rode the first 15k together through a variety of road, fire trail and singletrack. Thank's guys, I enjoyed the company.
Spent the last 15k by myself, rode the steps without any cramps at your choice and kept taking the magic spray. No obvious answer why I got cramps so early and wasn't expecting to finish for a long time so very relieved to cross the line. It really was a case of trying to minimise the problem by walking hills, drinking as much as I could although I couldn't have done it without the magic spray.
My best guess on the cramps is that it was hot overnight when I slept in the back of the car and I didn't hydrate enough in the morning.
Anyway I did enjoy the track, the bike ran faultlessly and I will try and make it back next year. And yes, the Garmin did record a max temp of 36 wherever I was at 1pm with an average of 28.5.