I raced the Craters Classic in Taupo and it was almost certainly the worst race of my life. I didn't focus enough on recovery since I was planning on training through the race and was over confident based on my win at the Volcanic Epic a couple of weeks prior. On paper, this should have been an excellent course for me: 50km, a reasonable amount of punchy climbing, lots of technical work. But it just didn't work out on race day. The lesson — which I already knew, but apparently needed to learn again: way more sleep the week before a race.