12 Hours of Tsali

This past weekend was the 12 hours of Tsali. I was originally going to do this as a team, and do an xc race on Sunday. But, I was talked into only racing on Saturday by my lovely wife, so I decided to do it solo.
On the way to the race, it poured. John and I looked at each other and just laughed, it was going to be a soggy day. We got there early, had a great pit spot, and had time to get ready. I was calm at the start, but still just wanted to get the first lap over with. My run went great, and I was able to take a pretty easy pace up the 3 mile road to the trailhead. My first lap was smooth and I felt great. That didn't take long to change though, on lap 3 the temp soared and starting sucking out my energy as fast as I could make it. I slowed way down and waited for my body to turn it around. After 3 more hours I started feeling better and the temp started cooling, by this time I started to see other racers in street clothes, they were done. This gave me some motivation to keep going strong, this lasted until about 8 hrs into the race, then I was empty. I crept along and just tried to survive. I made it back and decided that was all I had ( I had trouble getting out of the chair).

All in all I had a great day, 0 mechanicals, 0 crashes, 0 cramps. I just didn't have anything for the podium guys today, but I finished 5th. Best time I have had at a race at Tsali in a long time.