OVCX #6 Bloomingcross

Man, 6 races in the books already. At least stop #6 was 2miles from my house!
I had a good race on my "home course." The course was not the course we have our weekly practice race on, but we had been making trips over to the race venue course to 1) get it broken in and 2) to get to know it.
The course started out with a (kind of) long and (pretty) steep paved climb. At the top of the climb was a narrow 180* onto the grass (and back downhill). I knew I had to get into that 180 among the firsts. I was second or third to the turn, but first guy bobbled and dabbed his foot, causing the rest of us to jam up. It was sorted out soon enough and I was sitting comfortably in second. I got feeling a little too comfortable (as in it felt too easy) and decided to take the lead and try to spread things out. I led for 1 lap, then relinquished the lead to Andrew Dillman, and he never looked back. I was then racing hard in second when I crashed very nastily on the fast downhill section. I landed hard on my left side, but was quickly up and riding. This fall, however allowed third place to close on me significantly. He soon passed me as I was trying to regain my rhythm and composer. It stayed in this order or the rest of the race, though I was closing on second in the final laps; 20 more yards of finishing stretch and I might have gotten him. I'm happy w/ third though. Can't complain on making a podium!
It was great weekend and cool to race CX here in town. Plus there were a lot of loc-dogs out cheering for me (and all the local riders). It was sweet.
Big ups to Fred Rose for an authoritative win in his race. Ryan Shanahan won his age race as well. Ryan Preske showed well on a CX bike he bought just a few days earlier! And NKOTCXB (new kid on the cyclocross block), Erik Hamilton once again KILLED his race. He stamped out a big 2nd in the elite men.
So I loafed it on running last week (as in I DIDN'T run last week) using recovering from the 3day race weekend as my excuse. Well, this week it's back to steady training, no excuses. I do have to miss racing this weekend due to the Hilly 100. I cannot miss the Hilly, because I make very good money in two days of work. Hard work, for sure, but good money for it.
My only "worry" is giving up my start position by missing these two races. I'm sitting 2nd or 3rd in the series right now and top 5 get front row starting position. This is a huge advantage. Missing these races gives the others free points. But there are possible scenarios where I remain top 5. We'll just see.
I'll post up some pics from Bloomingcross when I can find some.