Mercer Mud Cup

This past weekend was the Mercer Cup.  I was very excited going into this race to finally get a chance to race cross in the mud and get a real feel for what cross is supposed to be like.  I'm not sure I'm to good of a mud racer.  The race on Saturday started off with a couple of laps in the the mud.  Wow, i just couldn't believe how hard it was.  I lined up at my start with a fast looking group of Juniors.  I had a front row start and was mixed in with the younger kids too. I thought that the women starting in front of us would be a major problem, but just forgot about it.  Well i would definitely unforget about that soon.  I was sitting third with the 1st place kid way out in front and second in view when i got taken out.  Some lady slide down one of the banked turns and leveled me.  I was like okay and hoped on my bike to get going again.  Then i heard a bang and click click click stop.  I looked down to  see a spoke ripped out of the rim, eye lit and everything, and the derailleur sucked upside down into my wheel.  I was practically as far from the pit as you could be and running the rest of the lap would have absolutely killed me for Sunday.  I dropped out.  I had done over 60 races with incredible luck, never breaking down once, so i guess it was bound to happen.  I was  extremely disappointed about the race, and even more about my bike because i wasn't sure if id be able to race again on Sunday, and she wrecked my cool red wheel.  That night we called Bikesport and they had the hanger but no derailleur, so they fixed it as best they could and it worked fairly descent.  Bryon had said earlier in the day he had one i could use if we couldn't find anything. I stopped by his house picked it up and things were ready for Sunday.  I hoped on my bike to get a warm up in and my legs were feeling okay.  The race started and  got myself to the front group.  we were pushing, or at least trying to, through the mud.  I felt terrible as soon as we had to run.  I don't know what happened, i ran cross country all fall should of been fine running.  I got dropped by the number 1 and 2 guys fairly quickly but was leading the third place guy.  He caught me and i made a couple of mistakes and he took advantage and was off.  The rest of the race i was playing catch up and wasn't making much ground.  i ended up 4th and not real happy.  After the race however i learned what cross was really about.  The pit. Zach taught me what to do and it was really fun.  Running the bike to the bike wash, the hand offs, the catching and everything.  It was really cool and i think my favorite part of the weekend.