Yeah, welcome to the Dark Side. Though I've done double centuries before, this is my first year of rando riding. This attitude was a surprise to me, too: if you finished, and you're not like severely injured, and you live through the night, yep, "successful ride." "Relatively comfortable" is in comparison to having your shoulder dislocated, your rotator cuff stuff all torn apart, and bruises all over your body.

Reading through past years' newsletters put out by our local rando club it looks like discomfort is the norm, and survival = success. It's all about how you deal with it. It's just life in a microcosmic pressure cooker.

I've found that on "short" rides like that, a lot depends on eating and hydrating in the first three hours. You do that correctly and you'll probably have a good ride. So work on that. I know exactly what you're talking about. One gets carried away by the excitement. You have to stand back a bit and evaluate if you're following your game plan or not. OTOH, if the game plan isn't working, you need to come up with a new plan. Peeing about every two hours is one of my goals. If I do that, I know I'm at least doing one thing right.

No, you didn't bonk, you just got tired, partly because you were light on calories. The lightheadedness might have been low blood sugar. I use about a 300 calorie carb and protein recovery drink immediately after the ride, and then keep eating small amounts of carbo, like bits of bagel or PB&J or bars, ideally about every 15 minutes, for the next couple of hours or until I can have a real meal.

Peeing every two hours in the night just means you drank a little too much too late. Getting up a couple of times is normal.