Onto the dirt

This weekend was the Brown County DINO MTB race. I spent most of the week thinking it was on Saturday, but it was actually Sunday. When you're a "planner" like me, this is a proverbial monkey wrench. But as it is, Sunday races work better for me anyway, so adjusting is no biggy.
Going back in the week though, Lindsay and I went to Mooresville on Wednesday evening to meet up with my parents for dinner (post birthday hang-out). We went to Zydeco's which was featured on a Food Network show. The place was cool, but the service was lacking; very slow. And the food was just okay. It was nice to hang w/ the fam though.
On to the week end. I woke up Sunday morning feeling pretty good. It's worth noting that I haven't been feeling particularly "good" the past few weeks. Not feeling bad, just not feeling like a cyclist. But I was feeling pretty alright this day. And I've done this race enough times to know what to expect from it. It starts on a paved climb w/ a ~20% pitch right away. So the first ~3minutes of this race alone are some of the hardest minutes of your racing year. Next decent passing opportunity is probably ~5min later, so if you don't get position off the road and into the woods, you're race may be over. I rode the climb hard, but within myself and entered the woods 3rd. I quickly moved into 2nd and rode most of the first lap there. But first was checked out. Eventually someone passed me and moved me to third. I stayed w/him for awhile, but was eventually gapped on a downhill. There were two guys really riding each other hard behind me and they caught me at the end of our second lap. I stayed on them for the entire lap, but one got away on the long descent. The other I gapped and held off. I finished 5th out of our race. Not a bad result, not overly great. But most important to me was that I felt really good and rode really hard. It was a fun day seeing all of my cycling buddies on a super nice day.
And I feel like training again...for now!  
I hope to find some pics from the race soon. I'll throw them up here if/when I find some.