Tuff Luck at my first Cowbell challenge

The home of the Cowbell Challenge is my home trail. I know every inch of this trail system and it's one of the courses I race in as part of the Summer Series local to Charlotte. I'm still new to racing but I'm doing well so I thought I would give the Cowbell a shot and enter the 6 hour solo. The start was great, we did a prelude lap around the Whitewater Center as the spectators lined both sides ringing their cowbells. It made me feel like a Pro XC Racer as we made our way threw to the singletrack. I was placed somewhere in the middle just going along with the flow. The pace felt so slow compared my sprint starts that I'm used to but I knew I had a long ways to go and just continued with the flow. About halfway around our first lap I began passing racers with what I felt was a respectable pace but plenty of reserve for later on. On my second lap I had found a pace that seemed to work for me and actually felt that I might place pretty well until....POP!!!...flat tire. I quickly changed my tube and grabbed wheel to place it back on my bike and noticed that my skewer nut had fallen off. I searched everywhere in the area but it was nowhere to be found. I found myself pushing by to my pit area, I bummed a skewer nut and started my second lap all over. I managed to almost complete lap number 2 and flatted again, this time it left me scratching my head because I usually just don't have flats. I changed the flat, this time being a little more careful to get my tube placed in the tire correctly. As I came across the timer and started my third lap I was feeling like I had lots of endurance so I picked my pace to make up some time. about 3 miles into the third lap I was rolling over one of the drops and suddenly went pedals over handlebars...Ya guessed it another flat. With a bloody knee and a swelling wrist I lowered my head and once again pushed back to my pit. I walked around a bit, put some ice on my wrist and sat down for a while. After a while I grabbed my wheel and removed my tire completely to see if I had a protruding spoke and guess what fall out.....The missing skewer nut! I quickly put another tube back in and had just enough time to complete lap number 3.