probably an expensive race!

driving up to the central coast this morning i kept looking at the clouds and worrying. a spit here and a shower there! i was more worried about the race being cancelled than anything else.
just as i turned off the freeway, the heavens opened and it was terrential rain! OH DEAR! i nearly turned round at this point and drove home but as i was nearly there i thought 'bugger it' its only a bit of rain!!!!!!
i arrived and was glad to see a good gathering of fellow mtb'ers/nutters had also said 'bugger it' too!
signed on and joined Central Coast mtb club also as i thought thats where i'll be doing most of my club racing this year anyway.
i got myself a good place with Dylan(ladytoast) at the front of the start grid of about 30-40 b grade riders, off we went and i got the wholeshot, first into the singletrack so i knew i had to keep it up and not slow anyone down. i kept pushing 100% until the big drop off when i looked behind(at the bottom of course!) and realised i'd a bit of a gap between second place. i kept going hard and tried to gain more advantage as due to the weather, anything could happen.
after the first lap(of three) i couldn't even see my competition so started to take it a little easier, i shouldn't have felt so comfortable as by the time i reached the bottom of the downhill(roller coaster i think?) i'd been caught by a local rider, Marty, i think? ( i'm terrible with names)
Anyway he stuck with me for a whole lap and sat on my tail, chatting and whooping on tricky sections and i thought, ' this guy's just toying with me, he sounds a lot more comfortable than i am and he's a local, he's gonna wait till 1km from the end and power on and get me at the finish'. thinking that, i dug really deep and thought about all the road races i've been doing and the pain i'd put myself through over the last six months and i gave 110% and dropped him just before the graveyard section, my riding was really loose through there with lots of two wheel drifting round the tight corners and i knew i was forming quite a gap and phycologically i had him beat. i pushed hard through 'Browns' and got first place by about 40 seconds!
my first win since i got back into mtb'ing about 4 years ago and hopefully not my last.
my bike is completeley stuffed, both brakes need changing and drivetrain sounds cactus but it was worth it.
what spurred me on through the race was, if i won, i'd be donning the number '1' for the rest of the series and thats what i'll be doing!
one more thing, all you guys who want to get race fit for the bigger marathons should come and race all these smaller club events. it's cheap and great fun and there's no better training for racing than racing itself! support the local clubs and get yourself outhere!
a great race overall and thanks to the organisers and racers for turning up in such crap conditions.
one more thing,
thanks to Dylan (ladytoast) for lending me his insoles! couldn't have done it without them!