Rolling the dice at French Lick

This weekend was the DINO MTB race at French Lick Casino Resort. Dice were being rolled inside and outside the gambling floor. It was a rainy, stormy morning and no one was really sure if this race was going to happen or not. There were no updates saying it would be cancelled, but none saying it was on either, so we rolled the dice and headed for the venue.
It rained the entire drive down, but stopped when we got there, about an hour before start time. Needless to say the trail was a muddy mess, but the race was on.
This race starts on the driving range of the golf course, which was mostly standing water; it made for an interesting first few minutes.
Our race was 3 laps and about 3/4 of the way through the first lap another storm came through and it poured rain for about 20minutes or so. We were in the woods, so the rain was hampered by the trees, but the train was running water in many places. Then after it stopped raining the course turned into thick nasty "peanut butter" mud. It was a tough day.
I rode well and squeaked out 2nd in my race. I entered the woods 5th (I think) and moved up steadily and even led for portions. But in the end the winner put about a minute into me; he's faster than me. I had a good race though.

The problem w/ these kinds of races is they pretty much mandate a bicycle overhaul afterwards, which is a pain. (side note: the night before, even before it started raining I put on wet condition tires just in case. Look at my tires in the above pic: they're totally clean while everything else is covered. Score on tire choice!)
In training news I officially began my assault on low back/hip and shoulder/neck pain today: I started swimming. I swam for about 10years of my life, but haven't been in a pool for laps" in about 7yrs. I swam around 1600meters today which is about a mile. I have to admit, I felt really good in the water and swimming felt great on my body. I'm going to try to get in 2-3 sessions a week from now through August in hopes of strengthening my neck/shoulders and hips/hip flexors. I'm kind of excited about it, I mean, I look dynamite in a 'speedo,' so why wouldn't I be? Plus I really think it's going to do me good.
Time will tell...