I bought some clipless pedals and put them on my bike, then rode.
I suppose I should mention that this was my second mtn bike race ever, it was raining hard [wet roots FTW], and I cranked the release tension to about 50% so I wouldn't pull out too easily.
I crashed twice before the race even started, bleeding from both knees. I only had to do two laps, but the officials had packed up the finish line by the time I completed lap two. About 10 of us came in together, covered in mud, bleeding and cursing our SPDs. 1993 was a bad year for me.