Where Does The Time Go?

It has definitely been a crazy first half of 2012.  Sitting here thinking about it I can’t believe that it is already the end of June.  Over the course of the last few months I’ve spent a week in Ireland, done well over a dozen bike races, run a marathon and celebrated two years of marriage with my incredible wife.  I guess that is where all of the time went.

Ireland was an amazing experience that I could ramble on about forever so I’ll make it easier on everyone and just post some pictures.  That is a beautiful place that lives life at a different pace than we are accustomed to here in the US.  Sometimes taking the time to appreciate the simpler things is just what we need in our lives and Ireland gave me a big dose of that.  The fact that some of the “simpler” things that the Irish truly appreciate are good Guinness and good Irish whiskey definitely helped.

Bike racing has definitely had its highs and lows so far this year, although thankfully it has been more highs than lows.  In my first couple Cat 3 road races (Cone Azalia and Bristol Mountain) I was popped from the field for the first and second time ever for me in road racing.  These were definitely the lows.  I managed to take this embarrassment and use it as motivation to get my season rolling. Since the rough start I have managed to get in to a two man break at the first week of Waterford World’s and take 2^nd place for my best ever finish there.  The success continued with my first Cat 3 podium and a win at the West Branch Crit with a solo breakaway with about 7 laps to go.  The trips to the podium didn’t stop there as I took 3^rd in the TT (my first ever TT), 2^nd in the crit and 2^nd in the road race (both in 2 man breakaways) at the Mt. Pleasant race weekend and this was all good enough for second in the Cat 3 Omnium.  Lindsay made the weekend trip to Mt. Pleasant with me and now I think she needs to come to all of my races since with those results she must be a good luck charm.  Oh yeah, and with all of these results I got my upgrade to Cat 2.  I guess it’s time to really learn how to race a bicycle.

I also decided to head back up to Lumberjack 100 and managed to fare much better than last year.  100 miles on a mountain bike is a long ways but I finished in 8 hours to take 39^th out of 261 in the men’s open category and considering my only goal was finishing this year I was just fine with that.  I also had a great weekend with dad and grandpa so it was definitely a success.

The marathon was one of the most painful things I have ever done and although I have a few less toenails than when I started I’m glad I went through it.  I’m also so incredibly proud of my wife for completing her marathon after everything she went through with her stress fracture interrupting her training.  She had almost 8 weeks of forced time off leading up to the marathon and she still finished strong and seemed to recover a lot quicker than I did.

Last, and most importantly, I have been lucky enough to celebrate two years married to an incredible woman that I am so lucky to be able to call my wife (even if she did make me run a marathon for our anniversary).  Every day I am thankful to have her in my life.

So that is the end of my rambling and hopefully I can try and stay a little more current here so I don’t need to try and fit two months in to one post again.