The Missing Link (needle in a haystack)

The picture is of the Sram “missing link” chain master link. These beauties make chain installation and removal a breeze, eliminating the need for a chain “breaker” tool, after the initial installation. They are, until today, hassle free (the quarter is for size reference).
Today at the DINO AMBC MTB race at Muskatatuck Park in North Vernon, I crashed about 5 minutes in. No biggy, crashes in MTBing are regular, and really to be expected. So I hit the ground, got up, jumped on my bike in the same place I fell (no one had yet passed me) and realized my chain was lying on the ground. Broken chain? again, it happens. I picked it up (by this time several people had passed me), examined both ends, which had no sign of breakage. The missing link had fallen out. I have never seen this happen. At some point when I fell, the link fell out and the chain fell off. So I was left to try to find the two plates pictured above on the ground, in a woods. I looked for about 5 minutes (by this time I was waaaay o.t.b. [off the back] in the Expert race, and had been passed by most of the sport race too), and gave up. I stared to walk in, but in my first step I saw a glimmer in the leaves, it was ½ of my missing link. I thought ‘the other half HAS to be near it,’ and it was! I got the chain back together, and since I was so far back, I figured I’d just ride as hard I could, if I stayed last, fine, if I passed people, even better. So I chased SUPER hard for the next two laps, passed several people and ended up doing okay, considering. I rode really strong and since racing is always the best training, it was a helluva training day!
We also had a killer ride on Friday, the 4th of July. The weather was rotten, so we didn’t get out until late, but 4 of us rode super hard on a good local ride. I was really tired afterwards, and was pleased to have contributed to such a scorcher of a ride.
This weekend it’s back to Muncie for the Endurathon ½ Ironman. Not to race, of course, to help out and hang out. I’ll do some Muncie rides while there, I’m still not 100% sure if I’m going to ride the course during the race this year or not. It feels a little awkward because I’m passing people and some think I[‘m racing against them and if they up their pace to keep me in sight, then blow their run, it’s bad.
We’ll see though. It is a fun course…