Husky 50km

Last minute decisions by friends I was supposed to be helping move to Mackay meant I was free to ride the Husky. I only look at the 50km races at this stage as I could not race for 100km and wouldn't enjoy myself.
I read how the weather had been perfect and the track was in good condition - so I was looking forward to starting my 4 day riding trip with the Husky followed by some riding around Tathra and Bermagui.
The aim was under 2hrs30min and I knew I could do this comfortably with a good run.
In the briefing they mentioned one creek crossing that was ridable - so I was looking forward to a good race (I hate water/mud crossings).
The self seeding was more like gather around for the briefing, now thats where you start so I was in the 4th wave of 50kers. We start off and I'm one of the last in the wave - I just stupidly follow the group and we get lost within 3minutes. We ended up on the golf course proper and have to turn around and backtrack 4-500m - by this time the wave behind us had well and truely gone through. Then I manage to pick up a stick in the rear derailleur and have to stop. 5min later I pick up another stick and stopped again. Clear sailing for a while - until the mud. The bogs were terrible. I saw 2 snapped derailleurs and 3-4 people stopped fixing chains. My gears started ghost shifting after around 10km and I had to be careful not to break my chain - if this was a dry year, I'd hate to see a wet one. Around 20km in I'm dying for a leak and have to stop; I rarely need to pee this early into a ride and I did go right before the start but what can you do. Then there was the traffic on the single track - I'm not really sure why people place themselves so far up in the seeding when they hold up everyone on the track? anyway, thats racing and enough whinging.
Once I managed to find some clear track and dry fireroads I put a bit of power down and started making up time and places. I started having a lot of fun. By the feed station I was in high spirits and pushed hard from there to the end. The track was fairly easy to follow other than the start and all the marshalls/vollunteers were friendly.
Overall I'm kind of happy with 2:32 but feel without the hick-ups I could have made around 2:25 but thats racing.
Singletrack was fun. Most other racers were friendly.
Will I race it again? not if the course still goes through the bogs.
Good to see so many nobmobbers ripping it up, well done guys.