Alright, I'm back.
First things first, no friction, indexed shifting. Still, definitely need more practice with it as I got dropped while being in too big of a gear and not being able to figure out how to shift quick enough.
That race is absolute torture. I made the initial split up the first hill and I was riding with the big boys and feeling good, but then I got dropped in the smaller intermediate hill as I just couldn't get into my small chainring and I suck at mashing. After that I was waiting for the pack to catch me at some point, but only a group of three did. The four of us rode pretty well together until two of them got dropped on the flats I am not sure how. Two of us kept going and eventually picked up one more. On the second lap we agreed to not go crazy on the hills and stay together, but as soon as we hit the first hill the one we had picked up took over. I wasn't too worried since I knew the two of us would catch him on the flats, but then my partner cramped on the second hill and dropped on the side of the road. I thought maybe I should stay and help but decided not to (race and everything.) After that I was basically all on my own for the rest of the race, until a few miles to go when a group of three caught up to me. I hopped on their train and outsprinted them to the line (sprinting while seated like a boss/fred.) I have no idea how I finished, thinking somewhere between 15th-20th.
Now I'm totally toast but I still need to go buy supplies to prepare the cat food. I think towing that trailer is going to hurt more than the race.
I love that race.