what a great event

Lana (my partner) and I arrived at bundanoon at around 4ish, registered and went for a wander, really liked the atmosphere, loved checking out the bikes. Bumped into ps and headed down to watch the dash, had a chat with gazza, then headed off for a bite to eat and some late bike tweaking, last minute prepping and then off to bed.
race day and i managed to get myself there on time,which is rare, count down was done and off we went, and i must say for a race that size there wasn't much bottlenecking even the first que wasn't that bad, started up fairly strong and had a good first stage, rode straight through without filling up and caught up to logan and also see cromer boy and the flying al on the way, just after the transition i was passed by the elite peloton and even though it was on fire road couldn't help but think they don't even sound like mountain bikers, just a very quiet,very fast hum as they pass, would of loved to see these guys in the singletrack, i'd imagine it would be like watching a Russian ballet.(n.b. i have never watched a Russian ballet). started to regret not filling up at the first station as i thought i had loads of water left and then realised that no i hadn't and i'd done my water bottle of endura too, so from about the third to the fourth hour really felt crap had filled up in between but was taking a while to kick in,got a bit of a second wind after that and just cruised at a steady pace, must admit, never really thought at any stage was i killing it, i was just really enjoying this ride,loving the downhills and flats but not so keen on the hills, there is no doubt that this is where all my time was lost, just couldn't find the urge to tackle them, would start climbing, then look up and see someone walking and....click.... out of my cleats and start tramping away up the hill pushing my bike, this happened a lot, but i'll try and sort that out. Got to the third refill station and was now feeling really hot and starting to get a bit tired, cooled down with some water had a feed and then said to myself that it's only 33k lets go and effing smash it, this attitude lasted all of 3k and the hills did brake me and once again i was clicking out and pushing,came across the 10k to go mark and felt crap, so pushing on decided to take the shorter option at your call and hey if i couldn't ride it i can always push! so halfway up i see a guy on the deck laying there obviously not in a good way, at least three riders went past him, choosing not to see the elephant in the room , so as i went past i asked if he was o.k and just got back a very grunted "no" it was the sort of no that couldn't be ignored so with limited experience, diagnosed it as heat stroke and just tried getting him to drink water and cool down his core temperature, a few riders went past before someone said they'd let the guys up the top know, then two other guys stopped and started helping, then another stopped and was helping and phoning the medics, this later turned out to be phil beresford of the nobmob infamy,(who has very good taste in mtb gloves). the medics arrived and relieved us of our duties and i was quite pleased that another nobmobber had stopped to help, shows were a good bunch, i do know the blokes name, but 'll leave that info, just hope he made a speedy recovery, so after that it was on to the finish line and done! caught up with cromerboy at the finish line and exchanged stories and how we were both not going to do those anymore ( for which i've allready backtracked from that statement and gonna do the Dirtworks).
so overall, not a racy time, just really enjoyable,seeing a few faces, the whole bike buzz and a really well run event.
see you next year