Hello everyone

So this is my first time blogging, bare with me. Ill try to keep it interesting. A little info about my riding/racing lately. I started racing in 2006 in Sport 19-29in the MASS, had some good results. In 2007 moved up to Expert 19-29 in the MASS, had a 2nd place finish at Iron Hill and a few other decent finishes, won a 25 miler at Michaux, won a Cranky Monkey race at Wakefield park, and made the trip to Bryson City,NC to race at Tsali. Didnt do the greatest but had fun. This year I moved up to Elite in the MASS with hopes of finishing mid pack or better, but my planned training schedule didnt go as planned when my job started requiring 10 plus hour days. Im finally getting more time to train and more energy to train right and not burn out. For those of you that dont know me ill give a little info on my life and what drives me- Born in Gettysburg,PA, but lived in Westminster,MD my entire life. Started riding bikes when I was around 6 years old. My first bike was a purple girls bike with 20" wheels and a banana seat. I loved that bike and did literally thousands of laps around the hood wearing through about 4 back tires with all skidding contests we'd have to see who the man was on the streets. Then when I was 8 I got a hand me down bike from my older cousin who raced BMX. It was like christmas in june. I came home from school one day to a Kuwahara twin top tube freestyle bike with red 18" Skyway mags, and pegs front and rear. I was oficially the shit in the hood with that bike while everyone else was on huffys and murrays. Had that bike until I was about 10 then saved my allowance money to buy a brand spankin new Dyno Air. Was into the whole BMX/street riding thing all through middle school. Once in high school a friend got me into mountain biking and I bought a Trek 7000 and upgraded to a Rock Shox Mag 21. Over the next few years I slowly upgraded the Trek and then ended up buying a Supergo frame that looked like a Answer Manitou hardtail. Had that for about a year and then decided to spend some serious cash and bought a Dagger brand frame made out of Easton Elan tubing. Dagger was only around for a few years then disappeared. I actually still have that frame. I dumped a ton of money into that bike. Dont know if anyone will remember these companies, but it had Machine Tech hubs, Kooka stem, Sweet Parts cranks, Qranc h/bars, Gprilla brake boosters with XTR V brakes, Shimano 747 pedals w/ action tec ti spindles, gripshift, Syncros seat post, SDG 7000 seat, and was still rockin the Mag 21 fork which was tuned by Suspension tech and had the long travel kit added, which took it to 2 1/2" travel. I did a beginer race at Patapsco state park, avalon area in 96 and got 2nd place. After that I didnt race again until 2004. Right after high school I kinda got out of mountain biking and got into Motocross. In 2003 I got back into mountain bikes and bought a Tomac Taos hard tail. Did a race at Susquehanna in the beginner class and finished 6th. After that didnt race again until 2006. It was at that race in 2004 that I decided I wanted to try and become a mountain bike racer, and not suck at it. I still remember that day out on the course, being passed like I was standing still by guys just pre-riding! I thought to myself, how is it possible that someone can be that fast? Welp, 4 years later and now I have the ability to do that to the beginners, haha. One of the biggest reasons I got back into mountain biking is because I was going through a tough time in my life with the loss of my dad in 2001 and my mom in 2003, both to brain cancer. Mountain biking brings me a kind of joy and sense of peace that nothing else has. It gives me time to just think and not have to worry about anything else. I wish my parents were still with me to see how far ive come and what ive accomplished this far. I remember how proud of me my mom was when I got the 2nd place back in 96. So needless to say life has been kinda tough since losing my parents, but I try to make the most of it and stay positive, and mountain biking makes that alot easier. Ive met alot of good people at the races and made some new friends over the years. Im kind of a quiet person until I get to know someone, so dont take it personally if ive talked to you and been kinda short. Ok enough about that. It really sucks that I have to work this saturday. I had planned to go to Mount Snow for the nationals. I talked to my friend Martin a few hours ago and hes been up there since monday. Last year I had a super suckass race there and wanted to improve on that this year. Im hoping to make the Michaux race this sunday to at least get a race in. Next weekend Martin is heading down to Fontana,NC for a race and im thinking of heading down on sat. morning to race on sunday. Its about a 10 hour drive, which would make for a long weekend. But I havent done anything like that yet this year, so im seriously considering it. Well I think its about that time, 1:20am, and time to hit the sack. If you've read this far, nice to meet you and thanks for reading my first attempt at blogging. Hope we have many more together, haha.