Well it's been a while since the last posting....the first two weeks of May I was flat out with finishing up school-I am now officially an alum of the Carroll Graduate School of Management! It's sort of like quitting a part-time job. I ended up with a 3.7 gpa which is just a tad better than my undergraduate achievements....I think it took me two semesters to get a 3.7 at UMass!! I'm planning to have some fun with the kids this summer and try to relax a bit.

On the bike front I managed to complete my first two road races evah-did a couple of the training crits over at Wells Avenue and they were a lot more fun than I had originally thought they would be. While I know that everyone has "best intentions" in these sorts of races there are definitely a few sketchy riders out there. In both of my races we had some near disasters due to some questionable bike handling. As I say I know that this isn't intentional--I seem to be pretty comfortable in the pack zipping around in circles. Of course these races are short and fast, so we'll see how well I do on a more technical course with more distance thrown in. Fatigue has a way of sapping skills.

This past Sunday, I managed a top 5 (I think, may have been 6th though?). Vic and I were the lone MRC'rs in the C race with a group of maybe 30 guys. The first half of the race seemed pretty uneventful with a couple of fliers but nothing substantial. Vic took off with about 4 to go and he was looking great. I cruised to the front and tried to slow the group down a bit and let him stay away but the NEBC guys weren't having it. We caught Vic with about 2 to go. I was feeling pretty strong as we came around the last corner; Vic told me to go for it so I dug. Unfortunately, I possess no sprinting powers and couldn't quite catch the winner--next time I'll try to start a second or two earlier. In the B race the MRC boys cleaned clocks: Cort, Michael, Jim, and Paul controlled it pretty much from the beginning. I think Michael snagged a prime or two, and Cort won the race. Jim and Paul buried themselves on patrol. Watching these guys work together was SO instructional for me. It's good to learn from 'mates.

I also have a couple of objectives coming up-the Pat's Peak 6 hour solo MTB race is this weekend and I am bit nervous but hoping for a good result. My overall mileage has been pretty good so far this year but I haven't had as much time on the trails as I would like going into this. And six hours on any bike is a long stretch let alone ripping through the woods. We have a good bunch of guys doing it--Bad Brad, Giant Frame Guy, Art, and Bill will be representing the MRC, so we should have a good day.

Then in a couple of weeks following is the Harpoon B2B ride....140 miles in one shot. I am looking at this to be an endurance ride, nothing more. I just want to finish it with a smile and not absolutely hate life. Unfortunately I have only one century under my belt right now, had hoped for more. I might be able to squeeze one more in, but it'll be difficult. Saturday's race should definitely help with that regardless.

One VERY cool thing to note is the season's first 'cross race will be at Blunt Park in Springfield in late August. The park is adjacent to my high school, so we should have some family present for that one. We'll try especially hard to grab a top-ten and keep the rubber side down for that one!