Thursday nite at 1830 was the start.  My goal was to finish in less than 10hrs and complete the whole 19 point course I designed which by road would be around 100km.

The 19 point course zigzagged across the COB passing by my compound multiple times (testing myself).  I did this all with a pack on, 1 bladder, 2-2liter bottles of water, GPS and some snacks

So, Saddams100 went pretty good.  Well, it went.  I had one guy came with me, but he called it quits after 7 miles.

 

There were many times that I wanted to quit. 

-The first section was on foot, 25.8km/16mi, it took me almost 4 hours.  I took it slow and steady taking some pictures, going down in bunkers and tunnels exploring, where I startled some birds and they did me too and they tried to escape the bunker but could not see, I had the only light and they kept flying into walls. 

At one point I was looking down at my map and tripped and for a while thought I broke my arm, but it is fine now.

One other cool thing, I was semi-bushwacking (the stuff only comes up to your knees) and I saw a bunch of eyes and came on to a family of 4 foxes.  They were very interested in me and followed me for about a mile.  They were pretty funny, they stayed behind me about 50meters and eveytime I turned around they would look away pretending not to look at me while my headlamp shined on them.

 

-Transitioned to bike for 41.8km/26.0miles took almost 2 hours.  This was pretty short and uneventful.  It was fun during the nite, all the helos flying around with their spotlights and stuff.  I also rode over and saw some of the secret stuff, that they only take out at nite.

 

-I took a 20minute break and headed to midnite chow.  You guessed it, cheeseburger.

 

-The last leg was rough, back on foot for 19.8km/12.3miles which took me a little longer than 3hrs.  The chaffing was bad and it was tempting to call it quits a couple times, but I drudged on and finished at about 4 in the morning.  Lots of desert hiking and stuff, A mixture of road, gravel, desert, sand, hard desert, rutted roads, etc.

I was able to run/jog the whole thing where the road was flat and non-technical.  Walked a good portion, overall I was happy with the event, but I don’t think I will come back for next years.

 

Overall, I finished in 9.5hrs or so and logged 87k.  If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have the miles so balanced between the bike and foot.