Highland Fling 2011

Another great fling for me.
Been watching Dicko and Brian train the house down for months and with a little less time available my training consisted of some solid commuting and a few weekend rides. Two rides over 3 hours since since August. I was interested to see how I would go.
My plan was to stick on Dicko's wheel for the first stage but he took off like a rabbit through the crowd and I had to relax and let him go, looked for Brian and he was gone too. On my own, pretty usual place in the singlespeed world.
Teamed up with a couple of other ss through the farm land in Stage 1, when I say teamed it is loose. More accurate to say I sucked 29er wheel.
Supplies stolen or missing as halfway, momentary blank but felt I had enough so I got on with it.
Lost my ss mates and settled in for the back part. Yo yoed with the same guys, single track was dry and fast so I relaxed and kept my heart rate down. Rode 2/3 of heartbreak hill, managed some cramps around 60ks. Told myself to harden up and cramps went away. Sucked more wheel back into Wingello (thanks to the elite guy who didn't mind).
I was saving myself for the final 15k which had annihilated me last year. Got there pretty quickly all said and done. I had been reeling in people and finally got one singlespeeder just prior. I rode most of roller coaster, caught another single speeder (one of my mates from earlier) and then proceeded to ride most of brokeback mountain, lots of energy (gel induced) for the final singletrack.
Took the long option on your call which was graded and fast, then finished it off.
50 minutes or so better than my last years time.
Race was a bit shorter this year with some sections cut out due to operations in Wingello and the track was really fast. Probably one of the funnest and most relaxed 100's I have done. With my time available for training I was really happy with my condition and I had a little left in the tank at the end. Thats ok because Huw is sadistic usually chucking some surprise in.
Awesome race by Dicko, he has really trained hard for this event and it shows to anyone what can be done with persistence and effort. I can't imagine now where to find another 1/2 an hour to catch him.
Well done to all the other nobmobbers who from what I saw all had really good races and fun days out.
It was also another really well run event with great volunteers and the milkshakes are still awesome.