Never too old to learn.

I raced last Tuesday evening. I learned quite a lot about myself.
1)I have come to terms about not having many riders behind me, and I've learned where my position is so that I will be able to see what difference different kinds of training will make on my performance relative to the others,if any.
2) It takes me a lot longer to warm up than it used to and of course much longer than it does for younger riders.
3)I can only earn two points if I finish the race and one if I record a DNF so what is the use of trying to beat others if in the end I still only get two points. I might as well just tag along and just beat a couple of fatties.
4) If I start slowly I can finish much more strongly than if a start too fast. That's not a new discovery though.This of course means I musn't try to stay with bunch at the beginning of the race.
5) My hill reps. have made me very strong,relatively, but because I was short of some long distance training I faded after about an hour into the race and dropped five places and five minutes.