When I hauled myself out of bed at 4:30 this morning, I was feeling surprisingly chipper. This persisted right to the start line and through the first leg up to the turn at Crawley (slight oops on a roundabout there for extra distance). Normally I have a feeling a dread and "why an I doing this?" that lasts well into the race. At the first turn, the reason why I'd sailed up there became apparent as the westerly wind made itself felt. I was figuring on being able to recover a bit coming down the A264 drag but where I'd been hitting 38mph last time I did that bit, it was a struggle to keep it over 30. No rest.
Turning onto the southbound A24 section, the wind decided that actually south-west was a better direction. Could feel the effects down to Southwater - although the drag over the Hop Oast roundabout didn't feel so bad. Back to Broadbridge and the funny deviation out to the west - into the teeth of the gale. Feeling pretty bad now, but we're over half way so need to finish. Back up towards Crawley - thankfully without the extra drag up towards Pease Pottage on this lap. As soon as the road turned slightly uphill it became apparent that my legs were full of lactate and b*gger all else. Still, I'd seen PvT start his second lap (having made it past the HQ) so couldn't pack if he wasn't.
Finished in 2:17:54 - 9 seconds inside my age standard (I was 10 minutes inside on the 100). Lesson: just because you've done a 100, don't treat 50s like they're nothing. Oh, and don't go off too fast.
Didn't get the exact times of the other ACC riders, I believe Lucy rode 2:27 something, PvT 2:22 and George 1:58. Jon H was a DNF. When I left the HQ (to go home and sleep) the fastest time was in the 1:54 region.