That Familiar Burn: Off to a slow start.

Today was the much anticipated first cross race of the season. I had felt ready this whole past week. I felt great training up until Thursday and was flying during my interval sessions. As we were driving down today I just mentally shut down after I realized how hard I was going to try and go I think. Never good...As I toed the line I just felt like I was not ready to race, I tired to block that out, but as much as I wanted the thought to go away, they hung out. Despite that it was off, I had a poor starting position and paid for it on the first lap as I tried to get around people to the splintering group. The first few laps went alright, I was hurting a lot, but figured the race would just slow down enough to recover a little. I forgot, it is cross, it does not slow down, ever.
At one point I clipped a wheel, lost momentum and lost my group, slowly I fell further back, ended up with another group, and a small pileup destroyed the rhythm again and I pretty much blew up. This was right around halfway into the race. After reviewing heart rate info I found that I achieved my max of 195 right before I blew up, just an interesting note. For the next few laps I just tried to keep pedaling. At one point my brake hood came loose and would wobble around for the rest of the race, after dogging it for a bit I got caught by a guy moving fairly quick for being so far back, I jumped on his wheel and was racing again. We only caught two guys, but hey, that is just that much better...
The last 2 laps were spent cursing at my pedal, which after the race I found out was very, very loose, some of the internal parts are bustigated, hopefully warranty will cover that!

In the end I just did not feel fast today. Sure the mechanicals did not help, but they are no excuse for riding as slow as I did. I placed worse today, then all of last year, even after burning out. The good news is I can get faster this year, instead of the usual start high end low...
I'm reviewing the training log now, last year before this race I had been sick and took the week pretty easy. This past week I have hit it hard, perhaps that is the reason? I guess I'll find out soon.