Blue band of shame

First 100k outing and it kind of went to plan, insofar as I expected it to be tough, for my back to cramp up and for it generally to hurt a lot ..... and it delivered all that.

I was pretty happy really with how I went in the first part of the race, but after the first water stop found the rocky sections pretty tough and jarring at race pace on a hardtail. Funny how sections which seem easy when you are tootling along on a recreational ride suddenly get a whole lot tougher on race day (mental note: ride the dually next time).

Rode the bridge (well till about half way) then took an unscheduled swim and collected the "blue band of shame". Then the leg cramps started climbing up the big hill on the other side. Toughed it out to the start of the downhill and came good after that and powered along till the finish. No worries.

Time splits tell the story: under 3 hours for the first 50 and 3 hours 40 for the second. Reckon I can do a better second half next time now that I know what to expect.

Notwithstanding the pain, a lot of fun.