Call Up

This race course is AWESOME. I finally have enough points to get a call up to the starting line. So I am sitting there wondering what I should do, go all out and try to win the race to the single track or sit third wheel and let someone else do the work. Well the adrenaline was pumping and I took off for the lead. That was dumb, I made it to the grassy field still at the front but by the time we hit the first section of twisty stuff I was in fourth. I tried to recover for a bit and lost some ground. By this time I was maybe in tenth. I felt really good and kept hammering every time we hit the double track. Thanks to Chasity,Brian, Niki, Terry, Mark, John, and various other people on the course it seemed like I had a fan at every section of the trail yelling "GO MEAT". It was awesome. Then mile number 21 of 24 hit me like a ton of bricks, the legs started to lock up and then I dropped my chain. I think maybe 10-12 people passed me, there went my hopes of my first top 40 overall in Comp. I did manage to get back four of those spots including one in my age group in the finishing sprint. Ended up 8th in age group and 41st overall. I guess I just need to get faster. Oh yeah the citizen racers were piled up like cord wood.