Day 1 - Did you say single track?

The morning started rather relaxed and laid back. An I seeding meant an 8:30 start. Quite unusual for a 3 day race adventure. In golf they call them 'ringers'. Those guys who deliberately play off a higher handicap. Our ringer effort was however not deliberate as we had nothing to do with the seeding procedure. It didn't bother us in any way though as this is not a race where you draft for endless kilometers behind faster riders. It seems like we hit the single track on 15 km and it basically stopped at 78km of the 81km stage. With 1220m vertical ascent it was a relatively mild day from an exertion perspective. Traffic in the single track was hardly an issue as Sani2C has a system called dual track. You basically have sections where 2 stretches of single track runs parallel with each other. Usually the riders keeping the field up keeps left and the faster riders pass through the right side. We encountered some mud from 1/2 way, but I guess it wouldn't be Sani2C if we didn't have any mud. My team mate rode like a deamon and his fast pace in the first half combined with the altitude (max of about 1750m above sea level) challenged my lungs to the max. The plan was to keep the revs up until we got to the floating bridge to ensure that we were not held up there. This obstacle requires more or less a clear run, as the bridge sinks underneath the weight of rider and bike. Compound this with 3 or4 riders in close proximity and you have a catastrophe. A few riders 'got wet' today, but we had a clear run on the bridge. At about 50 km I had a slow puncture on my front wheel. We tried to plug the hole, but ended up opening it up as it would not inflate. We call them marshans. It is when the sealant in your tyre emusifies and forms a rubber ball with spikes and tentacles on them. Fortunately my riding partner is an undercover McGuyver and had sealant in his camelback. We topped up the sealant and carried on. I had to stop every 5 ams from here on to keep pumping the tyre, but at this stage my partner was struggling with cramps and the short breaks enabled him to recover a bit.
It was over all over too soon.
Tomorrow we tackle a big day with just short of 2000m of ascent and 97 km. It contains some of the best riding in SA. I am so amped for this, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to sleep tonight!
Thanks to all the riders who allowed us to shoot past on the single track. Apart from one or 2 teams not yielding to faster riders, we had a clean run orat least a fast run behind some skilled riders throughout the ride.
Now for my massage and to sort out that slow puncture.