Well, I finished 60k without training for it. I guess this is the best thing I can say about the ride yesterday. In truth, it was really really hard. The wind was a direct headwind gusting 50km/h which made it brutal. It was cold and the ground was quite wet - making the grass sections sodden and a difficult slog. The singletrack, however, was fun. About 40k into the race I started cramping. First my adductor longus, then my quads to the point where I couldn't flex or extend my legs and I had to semi-crouch and bang my legs for a few minutes with my fists, then my gasterocs. Nobody else knows how cramps feel unless they're also suffering. There was a girl on another girl/boy team who was suffering as much as I was with hideous cramps. We would both ride for 15 or so minutes and then have to get off and stretch and the other one of us would pass on one of our riding stints. We must have switched places with them 20 times. At some points in the race I must have been pinching my median nerve with my handlebars because I started getting shooting pains in my hands and 4th and 5th fingers. That was fun.

All in all I learned a few things for next year... oh and there will be a next year, and I won't suck. I will train. I will eat while on the bike. I will figure out which fancy bike food works best for me because trying to eat granola bars with dry wind blown dust mouth was not working. The only things I could eat yesterday were jellybeans and fruit leather. I drank gatorade but it wasn't enough. Oh, Paris to Ancaster, next year you will rue the day you messed with me.