Highland Fling 2011 - My First race

My first time trying a race saw me enter the half fling. My plan was to average 20kp/h and finnish in under 3hrs.
The gun goes off and the pace was on and the voice in my head said stay calm and stick with your plan BUT feeling good I was sitting at 30+kp/h and used a few hills to drop some slower riders with the bunch soon settling down and the lead riders still in sight. I loved the first stage and my reservations of my new Giant Anthem when used as a local trail bike were quickly dispensed when I realised this is what it was made for and I really enjoyed the first stage gathering a lot of people up on the downhill where I thought I would be eaten alive but the bike was great. 5 kays from the stage end saw me burp my rear tyre and lose most of my pressure. Prior to the race I agonised over whether to put on a bullet proof UST tyre or stay with my ghetto tubeless evo Crossmark - the Crossmark was too thin in the sidewalls which allowed it to flex off the bead. I stopped to re-inflate saw the stans working and took off but I was losing pressure and places. Another stop at transition to pump up the tyre again and this time it stayed up. Leaving transistion placed 64th and just over an hour in I felt great.
The second stage seemed harder than the first with my speed up hills falling and my legs started giving a hint of what's to come. I got to the hill climb after the shallow river crossing and my legs begged for mercy - so I stopped with the plan of taking a minute to re-group and go again. As soon as I tried to stand up cramps in both quads struck and I fell down - I just couldn't get up. I was lying on the side of track watching people stream by - most were giving encouragement and offering assistance.
5 mins went by and I was off again then Broke Back mountain destroyed anything I had left - somehow I hung on but was clumsy riding the bakers delight and was seriously in the hurt box. A wrong turn at Shibumi farm wasted more time but finally got home - to a double quad and hamstring cramp on the line.
I finnished 91 in my category Masters male and got home in 3:13 odd so just outside my target but very close if I take out the flat tyre & stops - so happy and learn't a lot for my next event.