Long mynd valleys

Race two of the year complete. A bit of an eye opener for me as to what standard I'm at and what i need to be. The two are quite different !
The Valleys race is tough and is a good test to see where you're at fitness wise,there is no hiding here with 11mile and 4500' of climb. You can get away with being slightly short of fitness on races up to 5/6 mile and little ascent but not here. The conditions were cool,with a slight drizzle,but with no wind they were just about perfect. The start line attracted some good lads including ex British champions and national representatives.As we set off I felt reasonable,lying in about 10th or so behind the big names. For some reason just after the first check point I completely switched off and missed the first gully losing maybe 30 seconds but more importantly the back of the leaders I wanted to stay in touch with. The race then has a flat fast section on the tops,i was feeling angry but comfortable. The fog was down on this section and the earlier mistake was annoying me as i was slowing to remind myself the route on many occasions,small things that are not required when in a group. It's amazing how much these small errors add up to account for sizable chunks of time.
I plodded on and the first fast downhill section saw me switch off slightly again and I hit the deck,scraping my forearms,which seemed to knock my stride somewhat in the next couple of sections. I was glad for some climbing and began to catch some of the better runners. Then comes the three big climbs,by now i was beginning to catch people,pulling clear of two runners and catching a third. The second of these big ascents is the Callow,I reached the top feeling strong but then made a right howler by baring right off the top after punching my number,down the wrong valley. I couldn't believe my mistake despite the 20 yard visibility i should have known better. I think I lost maybe 2-3 mins and was on "catch up" with a couple of lads I'd managed to over take previously. I got to the finish without anymore dramas in a time of 1hr 56,9th overall but most disappointingly 16 mins behind the leaders ! It was still quicker than last year despite the mistakes.
Lessons will be learnt today and i need to take note of them and move forward to make improvements. Firstly I need to do some more off road running,my ankles were quite sore whilst descending and i can only put this down to lack of running in the terrain and conditions. You can lose a lot of time on a fast descent if you're limping about. I also need to get some more climbing under my belt,I'm way off the pace with my ascending mainly due to the lack of steep hills in my training runs.
I'm pleased this wake up call has come early in the season and i've taken it on positively as I'm keen as hell about making the changes needed,I've not thought of anything else all day at work. The trick now is to put them into practice and hopefully see the improvements on the results sheets in weeks to come.