Squeezer 2007: The second try

Squeezer 2007 was awesome.

This was my second try at it. My first one was much more eventful, and difficult:
see http://www.yourmtb.com/story/my_first_race_squeezer_06

One section I will quote from las't years squeezer blog is this:

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"Overall I don't think I will ever learn as much as I did that day, about racing. I placed 447 out of 894. Right smack in the middle of the pack as was my goal. I also did it in 1:53:03, also better than my goal of 2 hours. What really pleased me was that I placed 35th in my wave out of 125, which means that I passed about 90 people from my shaky start to the end.
I can't wait till next year, when I can use what I've learned. I have set a personal goal, all things being equal, to place 100 spots better each year for at least the next two years."

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This is my chance to gloat. Big time.

This year I registered with a higher average road speed, (one of the criteria for wave placement) and begged that they not look at last year's time to place me in a wave for this year. (The race goes in waves of 125 riders, and this year they had 10 or 11 waves, in 7 minute intervals). They put me in the third wave.
As above, my goal was to place 100 spots better each year.

This year, I placed 256 out of 994. So I virtually surpassed my two year goal. Although I did not specify a time, I cut it down by over *22 minutes* by registering a time of 1:30:43 for the 30 km race.
There are a few factors which influenced my results (in no particular order):

1) I now own a "real" mountain bike.

2) The conditions were more than ideal this year

3) I trained like crazy

4) I got experience from a local summer racing series

5) I learned a lot, and was inspired by others, at YourMTB.com

I guess I need to set a new goal for next year.....

Picture:
http://www.yourmtb.com/image/after_race_celebration