Race began at midnight and finished at noon. Managed to complete 14 laps of a very tough, but interesting course. Organization was excellent.

Made a couple of silly mistakes such as going too hard initially and riding, instead of walking, the brutal uphill technical sections in which even most pros were pushing their bikes to save their legs and because it was just as fast or even faster to walk than to ride. I wanted to take advantage of the night to ride hard, but may have been going a little over my head, thus the high-speed crash in lap 5. Also, I would have been fine with just changing bottles every lap instead of carrying a camelback for most of the ride.

I shouldn't have done two laps yesterday before the race either; one was more than enough. Around 3 hrs into the race, I started to cramp, so I began to take in salt, drink as much as possible and eat anything available to me. Didn't pee all night, which is definitely not a good sign.

On the positive side, my transitions were great overall and didn't get off the bike (except when I flatted). Also, my bike handling skills are definitely beyond my physical skills; I was able to keep up with some tough riders on the downhills and clear sections that most would walk but got dropped badly on the climbs.

Mayde and Juan were amazing. As a relay team, they completed 16 laps... two more than I did!

Times include transition.

Lap 1 (43:00) too fast
Lap 2 (44:46) too fast
Lap 3 (47:14) helped a volunteer who fell down a cliff on his motorbike
Lap 4 (50:02) on pace
Lap 5 (52:35) crashed on downhill
Lap 6 (49:19) on pace
Lap 7 (50:44) on pace
Lap 8 (1:05:07) flatted, stopped at TA to eat
Lap 9 (43:06) too fast
Lap 10 (48:21) on pace
Lap 11 (49:38) on pace
Lap 12 (54:15) hit the wall
Lap 13 (53:58) just riding along!
Lap 14 (59:14) made it in time to go for Lap 15, but opted not to.

Start out more slowly. Take it easier the previous day. Eat and drink plenty and early. Ditch the camelback. Tape up shoes if there are long hike-a-bike sections.

I'm also happy that I managed to just barely squeeze into the top 20 in this category (64 solo racers, no age groups)

Excellent race. Campsite atmosphere.