Notes
After a long while waiting for the start, we got going up a solid hill right away, and right away I wasn't feeling great with my breathing out of control and my back not feeling good. But Drew and I weren't going too fast through the sometimes odd-footing and headwind. Though there was 1 guy not far behind us so we had to keep the pressure on. Soon we were on the 2nd (larger) loop through the prairie - up the hill and into the wind again.
Next were the stream crossings, I got some rocks in my shoe after the 1st crossing, and probably should have stopped to empty it, but decided to wait until until the final stream crossing (which of course shifted the rocks and didn't bother me anymore). Drew and I had a solid lead at this point as we finally started getting off the prairie, jumped some small barriers, and even some singletrack. We got to the final loop where a guy told us we were going to win and had another small loop, but failed to tell us to take the next right. Instead we went up the big hill again - too tired and determined to just get up it. After we crested we heard a yell and whistle but couldn't see back down, and we soon realized there were no more flags around. We still probably should have turned back and probably would have won still, but either we were too stubborn or naive to turn back and ended up making it a much bigger loop than we were supposed to.
This felt more like a college xc course with a few obstacles and streams thrown in. Maybe I would have liked it more if I felt better. I eventually got my breathing under control but my back and glutes were annoying most of the run and I just didn't quite have the right form. But it's not like I was planning for an optimal race. Final race in 2 weeks then I could use some solid recovery.