Whiskeytown Classic

We have good friends in Redding,CA and used to live there so any race I can do at Whiskeytown I jump on. The field size was small-ish compared to the other races I had done this year. I think folks are winding down a bit or gearing up for 'cross season. I hadn't done a Cross Country race for many months so I wasn't sure exactly how my body was going to respond. Nonetheless, at 9am under rapidly warming sunny skies the gun went off and the usualy all-out sprint began. I'm not sure why XC racers always want to sprint for the first few miles, since it doesn't make any sense physiologically or from a stategy standpoint. The first 2 miles were on a fire road and the race was 30 miles long! However, I got caught up in all of the need for speed and was somewhere in the top 5-7 when we hit the singletrack. I soon passed 2 racers and knew I was in good shape. Somewhere around mile 7 my rear tire started feeling low and by mile 9 it was nearing flat. I was hoping to limp back to the start area and use the pump that was next to out car. Thanks to Stan's tire sealant I was off the bike less than 1 minute, but had 2 racers pass me. I headed off for lap 2 and was in a really good rythm. I rode for the whole lap and didn't see anyone and as far as I could tell was in 7th place. Lap 3 came and people were slowing down. I slowly passed my way into 4th place. I finished in 2:41 and was 2nd in my age group and 4th overall.