I've also been asked by a colleague to join him in Argentina to do a 5 day adventure race. He told me we would probably get about 8 hours of sleep the WHOLE race. Now THAT'S JUST CRAZY!!!!
Sounds way crazy, but way fun! At least you'd have some great stories.

I think either you have the competitive thing, or you don't, and it's probably hard for one group to understand the other.

For example, I don't think I ever have a chance of placing in a race. When I do race (lol 5ks and sprint tris) or ride centuries, it's always for the challenge against myself, for a PR, and primarily to have a good time. If I were popping open a delicious cerveza after the ride you described, I'd be like, dayam, check me out, I survived 73 miles through that craziness, yay me!

Then again, I'll be at that world event cheering you on, but not racing in it, partially because of the attitude described above. It's hard to imagine that not being enough, but at the end of the day, did it help you accomplish your training goal?

I suspect riding home against a 20 mph tailwind counts for something extra, and somehow it evens out to what you hoped for.

When are your races?