happenings as of late

After my trip to Guaymas for work I have been flat out between work and NEMBA events.
I did race at Hodges Village Dam in Oxford, MA 2 weeks ago though. It turned out to be an extremely hard race for me even though there wasn't too much climbing. If you haven't ridden there it is great fun. The trails are not super tech and flow really well. This was the longest race of the year for me. It was 25 miles. Needless to say, after 18 miles I started to cramp up a bit and then by 22 miles I couldn't stand up anymore or my legs would cramp. It took me 2.5 hours but I finished and was happy just to complete the race.
The real highlight of the weekend was that my son Lars did his first kids race and had a great time. We had to hold him back at the start. He wanted to jump the gun! Apparently the race was too short for him as he had to keep riding for quite awhile after the race. It was great to see the excitement in his eye about racing.
Last weekend we hosted the IMBA Trail Care Crew in Milford, CT. Joe Woyciejes has been working hard to get the town's permission to restore a shared use trail system at Eisenhower park in Milford. It has been a challenging battle as there is no real precedent for what he wants to do and there are many groups with interest in the park. Kelly and Collins Bishop from IMBA and I sat down with Joe and put together a proposal for a pilot project to demonstrate NEMBA's skills in restoring a shared use trail. Then we met with Mayor Richitelli and several town committee members to discuss our proposal. The meeting went extremely well and the Mayor asked us to select the area for the pilot project and make it happen. It was a great success.
Even with all of this going on I also managed 2 group rides and to commute by bike 2 times this week. Tomorrow I look forward to riding the Tandem MTB with my tandem partner Mark to prepare for the Vermont 50 and then riding with Lars and Mel. On Sunday I will ride from Granby to Springfield and race the first cyclocross race of the season on my new GT Type CX cross bike. It built up nicely and came complete with the correct size bars and cranks. I sometimes have trouble with this as I have shorter legs and a long torso. Kudos to GT for thinking of me.....
Next week I will again commute to work at least 2 times.