To Pro or not to Pro?

Here's a question I tought was answered a few years ago with a huge NO..... but thanks to some new rule changes and certain things in the past falling just right I kinda have to make a new decision on this. To fully understand this whole question I think we need to rewind a few yesrs....

When I first started liking bikes I was all about the mountain bike. According to all the bike magazines I was reading at the time, road bikes were for sissy whinners and I was too cool for them, however they did aknowledge that you could get into realy good shape for MTB racing by riding a road bike. So one day I took the money I had been saving up to buy a special edition Shawn Palmer suspension fork and used it to buy a road bike. From there the road bike prety much took over untill I eventualy found myself riding on a pretty awsome team of road racers.

While I was in the midst of road racing most every week I kept up a bit on the MTB and entered a few of those races whenever I could. My first MTB race I skipped over "beginner" class and won the "sport" class so I decided to upgrade right away to "expert". Through the rest of the season I got destoyed by the expert class racers but thanks to the series points counting attendance more than actual results I wound up as state champion just by showing up more than anyone else. The following year I raced expert again but was actualy winning or finising on the podium every race. When it came time for the last race of they year I got the short end of the same stick that gave me the state title the year before and even though I probably should have won the overall, I missed a race and was out of competion for it. Since winning an expert race rewarded the victor with a water bottle or similar bike gear and placing in the top 5 of the "Pro/Semi-pro" class paid cold hard cash I talied up my results over the previous year and upgraded to Semi-pro.

Since I upgraded I've only done 3 races I can think of right now. The first had some very tough competition and I was ridding great to take top 5 until a flat that turned into a 15min trailside disaster, the second I should have had 3rd but squandered a huge lead and got nipped to end up in 4th. And the third race which I did just last year was a total disgrace to the sport as I was putting in lap times that were more on par for the beginner class (I know I would have lost the sport class and maybe wouldn't have even made the podium with the beginners!).

For a couple years I've been toying with the idea of doing a bunch of MTB racing with my semi-pro license and have a goal of eventualy earning my Pro upgrade. The different license wouldn't make any diference for any local races since they all race the semi-pros and Pros together, but it would leave open the opportunity to travel to some national level race and get to toe the line with the real Pros. Not expecting awsome results but more just to be able to someday tell my kids I kinda was cool once.

Now, here we are at the current question.....USAcycling decided to change up the catagories for MTB racing from: beginner, sport, expert, semi-pro, Pro to: 3, 2, 1, Pro. With most catagories being automaticly converted into the new system except for semi-pros being given the choice of being cat 1 or Pro. So I guess the question kind of is: if you set a goal to accomplish something cool and before you do any real work towards the goal, someone offers to just hand out the reward to you, do you take it?

Here's why I'm thinking I shouldn't:

If I show up to some big race as a "Pro" but I ride slower than the weekend warriors on borrowed bikes I'd be totaly disrespecting the guys who really did earn their way to the top.

I might be missing out on alot of satisfaction of working for it and earning the upgrade.

My time is limited these days and I'm already commited to race alot on the road in '09 and if I put off my big MTB race to another year I'd still have to buy my new license next year to get the automatic upgrade and Pro liceses are very expensive to buy and not use.

Here's why I'm thinking I should:

You don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

If I raced a big Pro race I'd still only do it if I trained a ton for it and was totaly ready to make a good showing.

I might not ever have the time to earn the license outright, so this may very well be my only chance.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory wouldn't have been a very good story if when Charlie Bucket found the golden ticket for his factory tour and lifetime supply of chocolate he said "nah, we should give this to a fat kid who could realy make the most of all that chocolate."

Any thoughts?