Big Ring Classic = MORE MUD!!

I really hope we are getting our muddy races done early this year. We left Madison right after work and headed up to Wausau. My parents were coming over so we wanted to get our riding done early and then hang out with them Saturday afternoon. We drove through rain most of the trip up and just hardly got ahead of the storm when we rolled into the Nine Mile Park. We set up the tent and no sooner had we finished then the rain caught back up with us. Rain all night, off and on all the next morning. I help set up the start and finish area and then about 2pm the sun came out. We quickly got changed and headed out for a ride. I happy that even after a full day of rain how well the course felt. That night we filled a hotel room with my parents, us, the dog, and Cory.
The next morning I got up early and went for a short ride to wake the legs up before breakfast and then off to the course for an early 10:15am start. I got called up and squeezed into the last front row position. The start was pretty melo we picked up the pace at the gravel road, I shuffled back to about 10th position and sat in the draft. All of the sudden I see Marko get loose and go down. He took someone with him and with nowhere to go I preload and give him the best bunny hop I had. I think I cleared him for the most part but landed on his bike, I looked back and he was getting back on so no harm done. Instantly I was another 20 spots back. I moved up a little but mostly just wanted to get my legs warmed up. The rest of the first lap was passing people getting into position. I hooked up with a group of 3 other guys, I was hanging on for everything I had. At some point Tim dropped off and then I got stuck in some traffic and they put a gap on me. I was keeping them in sight for most of the lap and then about 1 mile from the end of the 3rd lap I BONKED. I new I was sitting in a decent spot so I sat up and spun it in easy to Cathy. She got me a breakfast bar, banana, I finished my clif blocks, and downed a half of bottle of gatorade. Cory rolled through and I tried to jump on his wheel but the legs just wouldn't move. I rode through the lap area and out for my last lap. About 5 minutes in I was only getting worse so I pulled the plug. First DNF in something like 2 years.
I was hoping for a better finish after my parents and Cathy had to stand out in the rain for 2 hours. I don't know how she did it but Cathy rocked the bottle handups as we came through at full on speed.
The season has had a rough start but it is still early, so hopefully we can start getting up to speed here over the next couple weeks.