Carl Dolan and finals week(s)

My brain is going to explode. Undergrad finals week was a lot more fun for two very important reasons: one. it lasted a week; and two. a BIG term paper was ten pages. Not so anymore. My first finals week assignment was due April 7 and my last will be turned in May 4. It's a week much in the same way that Super Week is a week. Or maybe the same way that Super Week is five days long. Whatever. In any case, I'm about 32 pages of solid gold and one actual exam away from freedom. I can already feel the longer hours on the bike and the bigger beers in my weekday hands.

I raced Carl Dolan Cat 4/5 Sunday, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the results posted online. I finished 26th overall/22nd of the Cat 5s. The judges didn't have my bib listed in the preliminary results, and it seems the correction I helped make after the race never made it into the final results. I guess I'll just have to work to upgrade on points now. In any case, I'd talk about how I raced with (and beat) Mayor Fenty, but someone already beat me to the punch. Whatever. He was on my wheel longer than I was on his. I wish I had staffers protecting/riding for me in a Cat 5 race.

Now for all the important lessons I gleaned from the Carl Dolan race, because that's what Cat 5 racing is all about. Big fields on relatively narrow roads mean staying at the front in the narrow bits and being opportunistic in the wide bits are absolutely crucial. Knowing is half the battle.

So the weekend's lessons have come to this: my race strategy for the Bunny Hop Crit May 3. I don't feel like I'm giving too much away because I'm not riding with a team (you people are my team). You'll find me in the front group, then round 22 minutes in, I'm taking off. Feel free to join me. Whatever. I'm going. If you come with me, maybe we'll all podium. If not, maybe I'll get swallowed up by the pack on the last lap. Either way, it's about damn time I make an aggressive move, and I'm sure I'll be full of it (aggression) given the timing vis a vis my finals.

Peace out and enjoy the fact that you only have a full time job and an expensive addiction to deal with. If you've added on that specter of full time studenthood like I have, I wish you the best of luck with finals.

Listening to Keep Your Head by the Ting Tings, an appropriate mantra for the next few weeks.