.I nearly bailed as well, but my mate surprised me turning up at 8am in the pouring rain. 50k drive and we arrive at a tiny village at about 800m altitude, luckily it is about 12 degrees, much warmer than last Sundays sufferfest up high. Anyway for a rando it is a great turnout... probably a few hundred ready to slog it out in the mud.
Not a great start to the ride though, I fitted a new chain and cassette yesterday but didn't have a chance to test ride, turns out my big ring ( 38 ) is too hooked up and just drags the new chain up every time... so the day will be spent in the granny ( 28 - 11/34 )... me mate on an ex team issue Niner single speed had no such issues!.
But apart from that the day went pretty well...ok probably could of changed rear pads as they were though to the metal in the first hour
. We were going to do the 53km ride but ended up with the 39 as the conditions were so bad it took a fair bit longer than normal. I am sitting here with blurred vision ( close to what you feel with an eye infection ) , my eye balls had so much mud on them that sight was severely impaired 
... plus we rode without lights which was fun through some of the long abandoned train tunnels in pitch black. But at the end of the day I stayed up right, although did have a few close calls sliding without vision at full speed in the mud. Tart up the bike this week and try and sell it next weekend... time for a new bike 29'er carbon hardtail me thinks
... so no more VTT for a while,but I will be back on the dirt CX style on the 27th .