We've made it two weeks

Here is the long awaited one wedding picture for the blog. It was a wonderful day, and everything went perfectly. While I certainly can't speak for everyone, I'd like to think that a good time was had by all. If you'd like to see more pictures from the big day, give Sarah a call and I'm sure that she'd be more than happy to share.

This was our apartment in Asheville. It had everything we were looking for, and then some. The density of fine eating establishments in the neighborhood surrounding our place was astounding. We even found a place that may be better than Sweetwater in Marquette. If you know me, you know that's saying a lot. Sweetwater has long been at the top of my all-time favorite resturants. The new contender is Tupelo Honey Cafe. Words cannot describe the culinary delights to be found within those walls. They even serve Bell's Two Hearted.

Here I am getting ready for my assault on Mount Mitchell (the highest peak east of the Mississippi) just off the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville. The ride was a tad harder than I anticipated. 27 miles with 5,001 ft of climbing. My average heart rate was just below race pace for just over 2.5 hours. And here I thought I was on vacation. Once you exit the parkway at mile 22 it actually get's steeper for the last five miles, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't manage to misplace all of my fitness. A group of five guys showed up behind me right at the bottom of this last climb, and one of them rode up to me for a chat. They were from some college team in the area for Nationals. I didn't expect to stay with them for long, but I did. The guy chatting with me took off about half way up, and I wasn't able to stay with him. But when I turned around to see who was going to make the next move, they were all gone. I was able to keep the guy in front of me in sight, and we ended up beating the rest of the group by a couple of minutes. It was a good day. I've definately got the itch to start training and racing again. That's good timing because my first cyclocross race is one week from tomorrow. That should be a real hoot. WNR at Boyne this week, and you'll want to bring a light. Take care everybody, and thanks for reading.