12 hour race takes me out in 5

Should have stayed in bed. I knew the trails would be bad but hadn't really thought about what would happen when 100 or so riders pushed through the mud for 12 hours non-stop. Many people had debilitating mechanical failures, sadly myself included. On my third lap the mud had completely siezed up my drivetrain (for the ? time!) and pulled my (very expensive) XTR rear derailleur up and over into my spokes. The derailleur and the hanger were destroyed. I had to hike back to the pits about a mile and a half where I hosed the bike down and had it converted into a single speed. We took the broken parts off and put a new chain on just one cog, this left me in only one gear to ride in. Well...about a mile into the next lap in one gear took me over the edge, so I walked back to the tent and hung it up. My partner Lloyd had a cold and really wasn't all that pumped to be there anyway so we decided to just go home 5 hours into the day.

The photos of me and my bike are after the first lap only. I couldn't begin to explain how much worse we all looked later in the day. On my breakdown lap there was almost a football sized chunk of mud on the back of my bike where the rear wheel, chainstay and seatstay meet. Did I have fun? Sure. Would I do it again? No.