The Fields 'Cross Race

Well, after riding the A's last week at the Spin Race and then eating brats & drinking beer this week on a business trip.....the thought of riding A's didn't have the same appeal to me. That and Anna was watching my boy (who is NOT into racing) so it was the B's Master Race for me.
Ray gives nice description of the A's race. The start was kinda weird, we started at the bottom of the big climb; Gary, the Miranda girls, Sadie & I made up the B's & C's with the B's starting b/f the C's.
The start was just b/f the big climb/run up & I'm in the second row with Julie and Gary and off we go! I have worked on my "run up" with my bike position carry and it really helped today....compared to last week anything would have been better! I started at the top in great shape....sitting top ten. Tony was having issues with his bike but recovered, I ended up behind Bruce and Craig....you'll have to forgive me, much of the race is a blur. I ended catching Bruce, sitting on Bruce's wheel to see how he was doing and then after awhile when Craig came around, I went around Bruce hearing him say some disparaging remark about the situation. So it was Craig and I; Craig's lines were not that great and me like dummy kept following them until I'd get in front of him but he'd come back and then he bif'd causing me to stop and I flat out got dropped by him then. Bummer. So I found myself in "no man's" land for the rest of the race. The infamous decent I was cleaning and feeling pretty cocky about it...until the third lap when I went just a tad off the line and ended up going down hard enough that I swear my teeth hurt and worst of all my $10K right knee that was worked on 1.5 years ago. Just a muscle issue so I'm not getting off and hoping the sucker would loosen up a bit and not have everyone go flying by me. I took it pretty easy the rest of that lap and part way into the 2nd to last lap and then noticed that Bruce and my buddy Gary were gaining big time on me. Sh*t!
It was the bell lap then and time to go, go, go! Going through the woods safety while they continued to gain on me and then out of the woods and it was like I'mmmmmm BAAAACK! I felt good enough to get it the gas and go on the grassy flats, through the muddy corner the next straight away, sharp righty....I felt good. Over the small log and into the field and looking back, I had spread the gap....cool.
Onto the pavement, got some mud in my eye, great. Then the last run up the big hill, and somebody tries to climb it makes it and then falls over at the top as I run by him, remount and am gone. So I'm going through everything am all I am thinking is to clean the dang descent and then I'll have the final little run up. I get my line set up and then move off to the center just a bit and wham, I'm down and by now there is a group of people watching from the finish line area and every time someone goes down the woooooos & ahhhhhhs can be heard. I get up, straighten my helmet and glasses and down I go. I look around as I cross the field and it looks like I'm still OK gap wise, but they have gained on me again. At the last run up I go as hard as I can, remount at the top, go throught the first turn and see that I'm "home free". NICE!
I ended up getting 2nd masters and time wise 7th overall for the B's.
I'm sore as heck right now, but the hot tub and a good night's sleep should help.
No Polar info yet, but I'll add that and some photos I took of the A's later. I just opened my flickr site, so three races so far are on there.

Nice job John (3rd), Gary (9th), Sadie (3rd women C's) and to all of the crew today!
Thanks for reading,
Rick