I have a blog!?!?

It's been a while since I've had an update, and a lot of racing has been going on. Some good, some bad, and some in between. I'll start off with an in between one.
The Michaux 100K race was brutal. I got lost a little bit, so the promoters decided to have me tied for 3rd with Mike Keefer.
Following Michaux was the U.S. National Championships at Mt. Snow. This was one of the races that I've been planning to do well at all year, and I was looking for a top 5. As an East Coast racer, I was excited to see the course extremely muddy. I gave it my all, and placed 10th in the U23 XC race. I was a little disappointed at first, but after looking at the results I realized that the guys ahead of me were no joke. The Super D at Mt. Snow went rather well with a 13th in the pro race. I was able to make the most out of the race during the pedaling sections, while I held my own on the decents while rubbing handlebars with pro downhillers. While 13th might not sound that outstanding, it means something to me when I came across the line with a considerable lead over World Champion, Eric Carter.
Up next was the NMBS race at Sugar Mtn. NC. Before I start, I would like to let you know how much I hate this place. It's in the beautiful mountains in NC and all they can muster up for the XC course is a fireroad/pavement climb followed by a nearly unridable downhill. While there, I tried to put my negative thoughts behind, but they all came back during the race when I flatted on a GRAVEL road at the top of the course. Soon enough after fixing the flat, it was time to receive another on the 3rd lap on the downhill. Riding the flat provided me with a cracked rim and a trip to the tech zone before going out on my last lap. In the end I beat maybe 5 people, and was bitter about thrashing my bike and wasting the good legs I had that day. Oh well.... racin's racin..... Oh yeah... I felt completely blown for the short track and DNF'd in the Super D due to my rear hub being overpacked with mud.
Now to some good news.... the Wilderness 101, Pennsylvania's 100 mile backcountry race. It didn't occur to me until at the start how tough of a crowd had gathered for the event. Jeremiah Bishop, Harlan Price, Tinker Juarez, Josh Tostado, and Sam Koerber featured some of the talent present. The race always starts off like a parade, but when it was time to start racing, I laid down the first attack at the top of a climb and down a long descent. At the bottom, the remaining racers were myself, Jeremiah, Harlan, Tinker, and Sam. We kept a fast pace going and rode together through the halfway point of the race. This is when Harlan thought it was time for short track, and boy do I love short track. So I settled into my own pace and counted on somebody out of that group blowing up. Things didn't turn out as I thought as I approached Aid Station 4 (out of 5 stations) to fuel up, and I hadn't caught anybody. However, I learned that Tinker was only 5 minutes up, so I stepped it up a notch. About an hour or so later I got to Aid Station 5 and soon passed Sam, who looked to be spent from the hard efforts earlier in the day. When I caught Sam, I wanted to show him I was still riding strong and could push a race pace at will to discourage him from holding on to 4th place. I pushed on towards the finish and with 2 or 3 miles to go I caught a glimpse of Tinker, who unfortunately caught a glimpse of me. I pedaled my brains out to try and catch him, but I assume he did the same as the gap stayed the same (about 1 minute) as I finished 4th in 7 hours and 25 minutes. Jeremiah was the overall winner with Harlan right behind him. Both racers broke the previous course record held by Chris Eatough.... craziness.
Finally my last update and possibly most important.... the NMBS Finals at Snowmass. I thought going into the race, typical West Coast riding: long fireroad climb, hardpack, non-technical trails. Was I wrong or what. The course was mostly singletrack including the hour long climb, and the downhills were littered with rocks, roots, stream crossings, switchbacks, and high speed slightly moistened singletrack. The race went o.k. and I finished mid-pack. But now I'm convinced that I found a place to move to.... not necessarily Snowmass, but somewhere in Colorado. Later on after the race I rode with Jeff Evans, a friend who just moved out to CO. The trails we rode on were about as rocky as they are back home, but they were settled in the high desert of Carbondale. Between the ride and the race, I am relieved that technical trails exist elsewhere besides the East.... I just don't understand why the people out West avoid them?? Well all I know is that I will be in search of them after I graduate next spring.