FitnessMTB is a marathon race that's really early in the racing season and therefor really good training in preparation for the longer races later on. I've participated in the race for the last 3-4 years and placed well a couple of times.
This year I had a nagging slight cold that wouldn't quite break out during the week leading up to the race. However on the Saturday before race start I felt okay.
As the race started I at once felt that I couldn't hang with the quick guys. I still ended up with a good group which I managed to stick with 3/4 of the race, then I started feeling rather poorly. I thought about quitting as I was going out for the fourth and last lap but decided to finish the race anyway at a touristy pace. Afterwards it seems I dropped from a quite respectable 7th place on that last lap to 23rd
