Cycling race 8:21:10 [4] 110.0 km (4:33 / km)
LunarC mtb race at slickers. midnight to 8am. enter this mainly cos they had a girls single speed category. preparation was not ideal.
did manage some bike improvements during the week. borrowed a suspension fork (which has about 50mm travel left on a good day), and got tubeless (which exploded on the bike shop mechanic).
the race time turned out to be pretty good. nice temps for riding, only got uncomfortably hot on the last lap.
new course out at slickers was quite good, with heaps of new single track, but it had at least twice as much climb as previous courses there, which wasn't so great on the single speed. for the first time I've riden there it wasn't muddy, but it was really dusty, and it all stuck to your sweat, so everyone turned into dirt monsters. eyes are still hurting, and mouth and throat feel sandblasted.
first 2-3 hours were pretty good, but then the climbs started getting a bit hard and had to walk a few. then it started getting light about the time I was getting pretty over it, so that helped. last few laps hurt a lot though.
11 laps, one less than the girls solo (with gears) winner, and 2 less than Dan (who won the mens SS).