I got to Queeny early to help with setup. What became clear was that Queeny is suffering from what seems to be a common trend in the County Parks. There seems to be far less grass cutting than in the past. I suppose its a budget cutting step. Unfortunately that left a good portion of last years course unusable. The result was a shorter than normal course but it was still plenty difficult.

While warming up I had no desire to race and seriously considered bailing out the race was going poorly. My start was subpar and almost turned ugly. I was following a good sized rider on the left hand side of the opening straightaway. Just as we were to start the right hand bend, the guy in front of me passed a metal pole. I was slightly to his left and never saw the pole until he passed when it was suddenly in my face. Facing catastrophe, I tried to steer right a little and ducked my shoulder in. The pole just barely grazed my shoulder as I passed by. I was never much of a factor in the race and almost from the gun settled into a middle of the pack position. I caught a few guys and had a good battle with Dyer going for several laps before he quit. Then I was with Jose for a while before fading a little later in the race. From then on it was just a question of staying ahead of Kent. He was making slight gains on my each lap but seemed to give up the ghost on the final lap.

I finished 13th. Not bad for the way I felt. I managed to take a couple more hunks of skin out of my ankles and the outside of my knee feels sore and might be a little swollen. Combine that with bump I got on my left shin Saturday and my still sore right shoulder and I am thoroughly beat up.