I haven't updated lately, mostly because I've had little to shout about. Maybe I can write about not doing very well! Nah, that's not so motivating. The last month has mostly ticked by in the way of racing.

On June 10th, seven of us jumped into the van and drove up to Seattle for the Ballard Twilight Criterium. 2 years ago, I was pulled from this race about 10 minutes in. That time was mostly due to my lack of strength and experience. THIS year was mostly do to...stupidity and confidence. We ran a little late getting to the race, so I warmed up for around 10 minutes. But the bigger problem was that when I rolled around the course to the start, the women had already lined up. I was somewhere in the the middle of the third row. They had cat 1-4 racing together. As the whistle blew, I jumped into my pedal and began the weave to the actual race. Around corner one was a descent and a left turn- both a little difficult to navigate through with riders that had trouble with both. For about 4 laps, about 5 of us drove and wove through the riders. Finally a small group of us formed and we tried to chase down and actually join the race. But we couldn't catch the 2- or so others. The officials let us race a few minutes together before blowing the degrading whistle. One of these years, I may actually tackle this race, but this wasn't the year. Norrene however, scored second and a nice fat check. Nice work!

Racing on the track has been a bit uneventful. I feel steps behind last year, but Brian says it's fine. Nationals are two months later this year. We've had some WET weather too. Last week was the Alpenrose 6 Day. Thoses racers actually had a 5 Day, but there were only races for the non- 6 day riders on Thursday. Cat 1-3 were all lumped together. I'm one of the slowest cat 3 riders when the races are more than 10 laps as it is, so these races were what we call "character building." Then Saturday, we raced an omnium, where I built even more character! Chuck raced too. It was fun to have him out there and he got some good experience.

The Oregon State Games are this weekend. I'm not too concerned with overall omnium, so I"m going to pick and choose the races that work for me, whether they be women's, cat 3, cat 1/2. Next month starts the explosion of races. Stay tuned for write ups from The Independence Day Grand Prix, Alpenrose Challenge, and the FSA Grand Prix. Lots of big racers- lots of speed.