The last bike game of ott seven

Yesterday was PA State CX champs. I was feeling good and ready to go. The course was fun, and extremely slippy, sloppy and muddy. "true cross" as some say. Bah humbug. True cross is when you get your cross bike, nothing more, nothing less. I do pretty well in slippery mud so I was psyched Challenge tires dialed at 25 psi and time to go. We start off w/ a smallish field and I get the hole shot and go to the front. Then someone comes riding into my rear wheel. Cross newbies do not understand the race is not won in the first thirty seconds. They also do not understand that you can not expect to go really fast and try to make a ninety right in slippery icy conditions. This leads to the neckcracker running into my rear wheel. He just keeps rubbing it and then pushes me left. All the rubbing and the push left skip my rear wheel. Guess what rolled tubie!!!!!! I must partly take the blame because it was taped and not glued. However my other taped tubies stayed together yesterday just fine without neckcrackers running into me.
I stop and start to run to get out of the way. A few people ride into me. Keep your heads up kids. I try to remount the tire for about twenty seconds. It is half off, no dice. I look up and I can no longer see the leaders. Thankfully it is wicked muddy. I rip the tire completely off and start rim riding. I make it a decent distance then have to run about 200-300 meters of mud that others rode, because the rim just cuts straight through the muck. Finally I get to the pit. The announce is saying that I have a very long day ahead of me now. Yes, I do. I am about 2ish minutes back due to this little blunder.
In days of yore I would have let out a monstrous scream of obsceneties. This time, there were none. It was weird. I was actually calm. I knew I could not win the States Gold. I knew that I would need a pretty super ride to salvage my PA State series overall as well. Off I went. I went like absolute hell for the next two laps and reeled in everyone but the top two guys. I had reduced the 2ish minute gap to 45 seconds with two to go. The officials were encouraging me, the announcer was encouraging me, people around the course, my fellow racers. They knew I was going for it. Penultimate lap, I lose 15 seconds to the leader and do not gain on second. Bell lap time to go. Standing whenever possible, running the mud pretty darn fast. Ripping the corners. Then I see Kirk & realize, I can not catch him in the last half lap. I still keep going hoping for some mechanical karma, but no dice. I come across third. Totally gassed. Basically fall down to my knees, in the snow. Through my haze the announcer said I had the ride of the day, maybe the best ride he has seen all year. Who knows. I know I tried my damndest. I hope the show was worth the money.
I appreciate everyone who has given words of encouragement this year. As I said before I hear when you cheer. It is awesome. I heard yesterday when someone yelled at me on my last time up the run-up; "Hebe, stop walking. You do not want me to take a picture of you while you are walking." I started running again, thank you.
Even when the bike game does not turn out the way you would like it to, it is still fun. This year I lost, yes lost THREE races due to mechanicals. It made me a better person. A stronger person. A calmer person. I think I have finally made some sort of peace with myself in the bike game.
So the tally for the cross bike game was as follows.
Fifteen races.
Two wins
Three seconds
One third
Two fourths
All finishes in the top ten
PA series overall win 35+
MAC series overall third 35+
Not too bad.
I heart the cross bike game.
Thanks again to all my friends, acquaintences, sponsors and fellow gamers for meeking ott seven a great year for me.