My trip to the 2007 'cross nats in KC.
The elements that I had influence over like training, equipment, travel, funding, support, logistics, etc. went alright - I could not have felt better and more ready. The elements which I could not prepare for went all wrong, such as the course conditions and lots of randomly swerving and crashing riders.
On the day of the race the course was frozen solid, badly rutted and covered in snow. I lined up in the second row but got to the front no problem and was leading in first place at the top of the road. After we turned off the pavement I got hit hard and slammed sideways into a fallen 50-54 rider (they were started 30 seconds before us and we were on them in less than 30 seconds) and then got hit from behind several times also. By the time I got untangled and made it to the pit for a bike change (thanks Shey and Jim) the leaders were long gone. I did get back in the race and started working my way through the chaos of swerving and fallen riders only to get knocked off the course a couple more times by riders sliding on the ice.
The race with all the age groups on the course at the same time, and many of them having no business being in a national championship event, caused a lot of problems and as a result more than a few riders were victims of random carnage.