Getting Ready

The D150 '08 (and friends) 5-Year Reunion Crew; a mish-man of thieves, derelicts and delinquents.
Connecticut River Wrangle "One Hot Minute" Champions
The Crew:
Cox: Joe Hanley
8: Emerson Curry
7: David O. Smith (me)
6: Colin Simonds '09
5: Gabe Mahoney
4: Liz Embick
3: Mike Piccioli
2: Lenny Li
Bow: Mike Milne

Things are beginning to take shape here in Philly.  It feels like we're out of time, and at the same moment, we have a long way to go to get ready.  Lots of work to be done, and not much time in which to do it!  That's the exciting part about Summer racing, on the one hand it's easy to believe the work you've already put in will bring you up to speed, and it will, but on the other hand you've got to see things through.  And that's the fun part - meaning speed work, starts, sprints, final lineups, and of course... racing!

I love racing.  The second World Cup begins this coming weekend, and shortly thereafter the US National Championships will go down on Mercer Lake in NJ.  I've entered the Light Men's Single, and we'll know within the week what other events we'll be racing.  Likely at least one Quad, either heavy or light.

Alex Twist has joined the group this week, and is now taking a detour in Boston to row with that group as well.  Say hey to Riverside and Boston for me!

This weekend I drove up to Dartmouth College for my Five-Year Reunion... and it exceeded even my impossibly high expectations.  Call it a last hurrah of "fun stuff" before I can't spare any more weekends out of town with training.  That place is special, the smell of pine, the dank familiar basements filled with smiles and yelling, the Connecticut River shimmering in the humid afternoon, the greasy late-night pizza, the many, many, many heart-to-hearts and fond memories shared over grim breakfasts, and even some good rowing.

Thank you to Dartmouth, and to my fellow D150 '08s for making the weekend feel like a short lifetime's worth of magic.

Beyond a doubt having too much fun
with Cush and Gabé.  It's a Sprite can.

And now the pics...

Having fun going fast in the single.

A Canadian waves an American flag.

It's a can of Orangina.

"We should not have been allowed in that boat."