Well, I did a cross race yesterday, McEwen Cyclocross Festival in TN. It went well for about the first 30 seconds or so, I was in contention for the hole shot prize but I lost the front wheel around the very first corner and wiped out. No big deal, I was still in it, so I hopped back on, but the pedals wouldn't turn. The chain was jammed in between the BB shell and crank, and I needed several seconds to get it out again. Got rolling, and the chain was all over the place, went over the barriers for the first time and found that I had lost the chain again when I remounted. This happened again over a big log barrier toward the end of the lap. I was pissed and was going to pack it in at the end of that lap, but someone convinced me to put the chain on the big ring and stay in it. So I did the remaining three laps (30 min. race and I got lapped) on my 44 ring with the chain skipping up and down the cassette. Incredibly, the results say that I was only third-to-last, which seems hard to believe, since I'm pretty sure I was running DFL, but whatever.
It turned out that dropping my chain that first time wedged it between the crank and frame forcefully enough to twist the links, which was the reason for both the skipping (in spite of putting the shifters into friction mode) and the continual chain dropping after that. So now I have several equipment changes to make before the next race. I don't suppose I could have hoped for a better introduction to cross, and it can only get better from here, I guess.
Incidentally, downhill off-camber turns are frickin terrifying on a cross bike.