Punished in the Nation's Capital

Here's a short summary of my first Capital Punishment 100.

Friday:
Drove down from Sydney and stopped by Kowen to do a quick lap.
Got a little lost there, ended up going round in circles but finally found a way back to the carpark, thanks to my Garmin 800.
They've changed the signs around that screwed with my bad sense of direction. I knew that the trails were going to be dry so I let some air go on the tyres to give some myself better grip.

Race Day:
I arrived at the start venue at about 6.45am and got the bike and myself ready for the race.
I started with the 4th wave, the 30-40%, the race started well for me and I was able to position myself towards the front of the pack. The climbs were mostly fine, my commutes/training up Allambie road for the past 2 months have paid off
It's the down and twisty bits which slowed me down.

By the time I reached the untimed section I was still feeling reasonably good, I had my first pit stop at the 65K mark to refill my camelbak and have some bananas to ride the next 35km. The Black Mountain firetrail felt like a sine wave, I got up the climbs OK but the downs often scared the crap out of as they were really loose, nearly lost my grip at a couple of corners. It was then followed by some riding along the ACT bike paths where I came across an aggro roadie that I almost had a head on collision with (my fault, I apologised but he still rants on)

I made my 2nd and last pit stop at the bottom of cockatoo switchbacks. Then come the last climb of the race. I can say I'm quite familiar with those climbs but I never did it after 90km of riding before, it never felt so painful before, my right calf was starting to cramp. In my head I was saying "shut up legs and keep going" my super dry and rattling drivetrain doesn't too good either. Luckily the cramp didn't get worse.

I was so relieved when I finally reached Echidna Gap as I knew the final descent was near. Skyline and Luge never failed to raise the adrenaline level in my blood and riding down those 2 tracks was probably my happiest moment of the race.
Finally crossed the finish line and that's the end of my first MTB maraton event.

Will I do it again ? most probably

Lessons learnt:
- bring a bottle of lube next time, the crunchy noise of drive train is definitely not good for morale and the bike.
- don't skimp out on brake pads, my rear pads was a micrometer away from being totally worn
- Definitely have to train more.
- need to learn about nutritions
- it's not about the bike, but a 29er might help

Thanks to they guys here for the training and general tips