Weekend(wedding/racing)

I went to Muncie Saturday for my friend, Brian Myrick's wedding. Pic above is from the reception; pretty extravagant(by my [low] standards). It was a nice wedding, as far as that goes and I got to see some folks I haven't seen for a while. I didn't know nearly as many people as I expected I would, but a few. Plus I went to a couple Muncie spots of interest to me: Blue Bottle Coffee Shop, my old fav for coffee/pastries, Heorot Pub, my old fav place for hard to find beers (and they'll have it on tap none-the-less) and Kirk's Bike Shop, my old shop. I hung out at the bike shop for a while and talked to the guys there because I know them otherwise (FYI, it's totally annoying when some dude you've never met/seen/heard of... comes in and lays the "I used to work here" drab on you and wants to talk about it all day. Point being, if I hadn't known these guys, I wouldn't have tried to chat them up about my having run the shop for 5 years). The place looked pretty much the same, but was far messier than we ever let it get.
Sunday was the Harbin Park UCI CX race in Cinci, OH. This was the first "big" cx race I'd ever done a couple years ago, and I skipped it last year. It has grown a ton since I've been there and the course was changed quite a bit too. It was very hard overall. It had lots of mil, gradual climbing, but on rough grass ground. It made it very difficult. I felt great though (read: I felt fast, I actually felt like I was going to die at any moment). Being a bigger UCI race they called up riders by points and I have none. So my race had ~60 starters and I started probably !40 or so back I'd guess. I passed tons of people and was passed by only 1 person, and I finished 15th. So I passed over half the field and felt pretty good about it (if I'd have started 15th, I'd have won, right?)
The course had 2 sand pits, one on slight downhill and one on a slight uphill. The dh one was easy and even fast, but the up hill one was difficult. It was ridable (I rode it during pre race laps), but I carried the bike through it every race lap. It just wasn't worth the risk of falling off for me, plus I entered it every lap w/ people, and traffic made it even more difficult. I latched onto two or three groups of 3-5 people at different times in the race, but I was feeling strong, so I rode through and clear of all of them.
Another solid CX race.
Hilly 100 this weekend. BUSY BUSY BUSY for me. 20+ hours of work in two days, really. Fun though, and the weather is looking good.