Uh-oh, what did I get myself into?

So last month I was reading on Guitar Ted's blog about a new gravel race out in western Nebraska called Odin's Revenge.  I've followed his blog for the last year or two, primarily because of a race he puts on every year called TransIowa.  That race started out as a race across the state of Iowa from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River, but, due to logistics, has morphed into a 320-ish mile (the distance across Iowa) giant loop for its last several years.  It is tough enough that someone has actually finished the race in only 4 out of the 7 years it's been run (to be fair, the other three years had miserable weather that made some of the roads impassable).  I haven't been crazy enough to attempt that race (yet), but after not taking advantage of being awake when registration for Dirty Kanza, a 200 mile ride in eastern Kansas, opened up, this race in Nebraska caught my eye.  When I first mentioned it to my wife, she didn't seem to be very supportive of me signing up for it, so I just put the idea in the back of my head "to do in the future."  This is the same spot in my head I filed a 7 day hut to hut ride from Telluride to Moab about 11 years ago and still haven't made time to do.  Just an FYI, if I die before I make it out to do that, I intend to haunt that trail in the afterlife.

Image from Odin's Revenge

Anyway, a couple weeks went by and last week the subject of this ride in Nebraska came up again.  This time my wife seemed more supportive of me making the several hundred mile trek out there, so last Sunday night, I bought a postcard and sent it off to Gothenburg, Nebraska, hoping registration wouldn't fill up before my card was received.  Knowing how quickly some of these rides fill up (this one has a 75 person limit and Dirty Kanza filled up 350 slots in just over 2.5 hours), I was a bit neurotic all week wondering if my card would make it in time. 

Image also from Odin's Revenge

Tonight I received e-mail confirmation that my registration postcard had been received and I was in the field of 75.  Now that it has had a couple hours to sink in, my initial excitement has turned into "Oh boy, what did I just get myself into?"  This ride is 180 miles on gravel.  To date, I have now done 4 centuries and another 3 or 4 metrics, all on pavement.  The extra 80 miles scares me a bit.  However, I also know that in just about every ride I do (whether it's been 40, 60, or 100 miles), the last 10 miles is what kills me.  So using that logic, I'll feel just fine until I get to mile 170, right?  This race is at the end of June, so I have 4 months to prepare for it.  I think I'll be okay.  I've also signed up for Team Virtus' Cedar Cross in May, so that should be a really good gauge of whether or not I have any hope of completing this ride.  I think it's only going to be about 100 miles, but it'll be gravel/singletrack, so at least the surface will be comparable.  I'll keep you posted on my training.