The final race of the MTBO camp was a mass start ultra long. We started off the bike with the map face down on the floor. On the start everyone picked up the map and ran to their bike and set off. It was made more interesting by having some clusters of controls that you could get in any order and the 1st three were like it. It meant that you had to find the start triangle and plan the 1st three controls in the blink of an eye. I spotted an obvious route straight away and was off in the pack - unusual for me in an elite race! Most people turned to find different ones but there were a few who went my way. I liked the free order controls, there were three groups of them. We did 29 in total and I found I just couldn't pedal fast enough along the fireroads. Also I was starving, not ideal!
There was no sand or anything today, just fire roads and some nice woody singletrack. A couple of steeper descents and climbs, it is harder than normal to ride on technical stuff because I have the big size map board on the bars. I ended up in 14th place, beat a couple of people and also someone mispunched.
Very happy with this years camp, last year I was always last and kept getting lost. This year I didn't get lost and I was never last! I enjoyed racing the elite girls where as last year I was a nervous wreck because I couldn't do it. More foot-o and get myself fit again and I could even start to do well! :-)
