You're quite right of course. who in their right mind would consider riding a bike quickly for 12 hours
Answers on a postcard to....
I never used to like doing them at all and avoided them for the first few years of racing like the plague, but Somehow though, it gets strangely addictive in a massochistic sort of way, and once you've got over the stupid idea in the first place and done one, you say "never again", then you find yourself filling in another entry form (guess there's a parallel here with women and childbirth - on second thoughts better not go there) and training even harder to do more miles than you did last time.
I must beat 240, then I'll stop the insanity.