Thanks for your support folks. I shall always wear it.
I am a bit disappointed with 9 laps and 26th - but after lap 7 I couldn't continue safely - not my legs or my head failed - but my arms - I just couldn't hold onto the bike anymore or steer it - the slushy sloppy ice descents really took it out of me.
Still - a reasonably respectable performance for an slow old man. I even overtook a few folk 
I don't have to do it again either - I have completed it and that will do.
So thanks again to the marshals, medics and traildiggers without whom there would have been no event and thanks to STWites for the positive vibes - It helped
