Sweet Escape

Now that I think about it total time wouldn't make any sense; regardless, I dodn't think you can get a title match any closer.
Prologue lap: The start was a reasonable pace with no one over extending themselves. Going into the single track it was Chris, Jeff, Paul,a Flanders guy,Brendan, Sam and I. Chris hit a tree right away up front and everyone came to a stop. He felt bad for that one. Brendan made it around the Flanders guy who was fading fast in a tight section, but Sam and I had to wait until the ski trail to pass.
Lap1: Sam and I are on the chase behind Paul who had faded behind Brendan early in the lap. Sam pulled a gap on me and caught Paul and Brendan with me about 10 seconds behind at one point. Paul made a mistake blazing some trail and I was on his tail shortly after. After a few minutes behind him It was my turn to put up a major yard sale after my front tire hit one of the many sapling stumps sticking up about 6 inches. My front wheel turned sideways and it sent me sideways down the trail and I broadsided a tree.Ouch. I quickly regained myself and was back on the chase to Paul.
Lap2: I caught Paul before the 2nd lap and got in front of him before we entered the single track. About 10 min in we had to go over a log/dirt pile with a big drop on the other side. Sure enough I went OTB, Paul was right behind me and said it was pretty sweet. I rode the front wheel for the longest time then I slowly just went forward until, poof. Midway through the lap, my hamstring started to tighten up because I strained it the day before at Lebanon. I had to ease up and thought I would be exiting the race by the end of the lap. I was running on 1 1/2 legs there for a while. I let a hard charging Tom Miller and Chris Fisher by. By the end of the lap my hamstring was feeling better, I had a good gap between Jay, and it was a very nice day on some sweet trails. It was enough reasons to keep going for as long as I could.
Lap3,4: I kept upright the whole time for these laps and was mentally in tune with the trail. Jay marked me at one point on the 3rd lap, and by the 4th lap the gap was exactly the same. I rolled in 7th position on the day and got in the payout. $50-$35 means I made about $7.50 an hr. It was a good course for the last race because it wasn't about fitness but skill and efficiency.
Yesterday I went to the post France trip party which was alot of laughs, and 5 star food. I got some more pics and will post them in the Flicker account as soon as I get time.