Finally!

Beautiful, warm, fall morning. Head down to DC for DCCX. Didn't forget anything. :-) Get my usual 15 min warmup but thanks to Steve (Lithuania fro RBR), who took my pit bike to the pit, I had time to pre-ride parts of the course. It was in great shape. Some soft parts, but no sloppy mud.
Lined up abunch of rows back, probably 5?. The whistle blows and we're off. Up the start paved section and into some tight paths. I'm holding my place pretty well; dropped a bunch of guys up the pavement (losing 10 lbs is a realy good thing) . Up, down, over some bumps and up to a left hand turn up hill from the finish line. I decided to take an inside line and almost pulled it off except someone decided to do the same thing and took me out. I lose about 20 spots. Game is ON now. I recover and go blasting over the 2 hugeass logs (new this yr) and down the hill, over the cobbles, into some twists and off camber stuf, past the pit, and hammer out the out n back. I catch a pack and instead of sucking wheels, I pass them. Drop them. Fly over the grass that they added from last yr and into the trees and turn section. Keep passing guys; my tubies are really hooking up well. I continue to opass guys up the paved section that was the start. I start woirking with a guy from Artemus and we keep taking turns pulling. We keep catching and passing guys. This continues thru the next to last lap where I biff on the up hill barriers. Back up and within 3/4 lap oir so I had him back in my sights. Last lap I let it all on the line. Finally I catch him on the start stretch as we head towards the finish. Knock off a couple before the finish strecth. I see 2 or 3 guys in front of me and pass all of them at the line. I had no idea where I placed but that had to be my best race evar. Some good eats, shooting the shit with Thor and Mike, and head home. Turns out, I was 32nd out of 71, 7th out of 16(afaik) in the 45+! Not bad for 2 biffs. My 1st top 1/2 finish ever. 6 places behind Thor. I can't wait for next week at Rockburn!