I need a nap....

Finally, it's over....for now. This morning I had my last final of what is considered my first year of medical school. Now we have about 2 months off from classes and tests. It's going to be nice not having to wake up at 5:00 AM and not having to stress about 2-3 tests/quizzes per week. Although these next couple months won't be full of a lot of down time. One week from today I will be leaving for India as part of the medical trip that I mentioned earlier this year. Now that I have some time to think about it I'm getting really excited. Next friday I leave Atlanta, GA to fly to Frankfurt, Germany then on to New Delhi, India. I get in at 12:30 AM in Delhi, then I have to meet the team at 5:00 AM to ride a bus to Shimla 10 hours north-east. From there we get in jeeps and drive up into the Himalayan range. Sounds pretty cool huh? I'll have a bunch of pics to post when I get back. So this week is all about spending time with eugena, riding my bike (hasn't been touched in 2 weeks) and getting ready for the trip. While I'm gone my lovely wife eugena is going to be having quite the adventure of her own doing a 10-12 day road bike bonanza in northern Cali and southern Oregon with her grandparents and mom as a full support crew. Yes, I am a little jealous... We both rendez--vous back in Utah for the MS 150 on June 24th. I fly in the night of the 23rd pretty much straight from India (where I definitely won't be riding my bike), then I need to ride 100 miles the next day. We'll see how that goes. At least my hematocrit will be pretty high. After that we get about 10 days to do nothing, but we'll probabaly end up in southern utah camping. I am amazed how much I miss the desert, I had it too good while we lived in utah. After that I need to get back to MO to report for my summer preceptorship. I will be spending 2 weeks in Lexington, MO with a family practice physician. It's kind of our first real clinical experience. It should be great.
This first year of school has been interesting. At times I have been completely miserable and not wanting to hear, read, listen, or think about anything that has to do with medicine. Other times I get so excited about being a physician that I get a bit giddy. All in all it's been difficult but rewarding. I still havn't figured out how on earth I am going to remember all this stuff one day when I will acutally have my own patients. All in it's own dues time I guess. As for now I need to figure out how to stop thinking about the 200+ bugs and their diseases I had to learn for my Medical Microbioloy final this morning. I will say one thing, after having learned about all 200 or so bugs and the diseases they cause, I have never been so cautious about what I put in my mouth and have never been so good about washing my hands... As for now I think I may have actually survived my first year of medical school. I think I deserve a nap...

SSP squad preview for 2006 LOTOJA

So it's official, a squad of 4-5 Salt Sea Pirates (saltseapirates.blogspot.com) will make a showing a the 2006 LOTOJA (it's a bike race from Logan, UT to Jackson, WY and so you don't have to look it up on google maps its 206 miles...). And to answer the imminent question, THE Sky Captain will be riding, so you can be waiting at the finish in Jackson to shower him with flowers and gifts. A small group of Salt Sea Pirates attempted to complete the whole LOTOJA in 2005 but were thwarted from riding the complete 206 miles by snow, hail, wind, rain and lack of any real style. Fresh off the 2006 MS 150 and with the Captain, Mr. Fabulous, K-dawg and yours truly on the line up this years edition of the LOTOJA classic should be one that will go down in the annals of Salt Sea Pirate history.

Yesterday I only got 10 miles in, and today and tomorrow are devoted to school so no ride! Saturday I am heading out with a fast surgical resident (fast on the bike, not with the knife...) to do an epic 50-60 miler (149-DO loop to K and back through Yarrow). It should be something to write about later. Stay tuned to see how I do on my first big ride of the season (I know, a little late but what can I do...).

UG the marathoner

Last Saturday (April 29th) my wife Eugena ran her very first marathon. The event she chose for her entrance into the world of long distance running was the Nashville Country Music Marathon. For a detailed and humorous explanation as to why this particular marathon check out her blog at eugenagunderson.blogspot.com. She ran a great race. Her finishing time was 4:43:48, an excellent time for her first marathon. She didn't have any problems during the race and the weather was a great 70 degrees and overcast. She has been quite sore and stiff in these days following the race but for that amount of stress that your body goes through to run 26.2 miles a little post-exercise fatigue is to be expected. The picture is of us after the race standing on a bridge over the Cumberland River with downtown in the background. We had a great time, Eugena ran a great race and accomplished an incredible goal, I'm so proud of her.

Looking ahead 4.5 months to our next big challenge.....I signed up to ride the LOTOJA race on September 9th (www.lotojaclassic.com). The race is a 206 mile bike race from Logan, UT to Jackson, WY. I'll be riding it with my father (the one, the only Sky Captain) and two of my brothers (Cletus and Ricky Bobby). I'm pretty stoked for the ride but extremely worried at the same time about fitting in the training miles between my spending time with my wife and dog, medical school, a 3-week international medical trip this summer, a 2-week preceptorship with a doc in Kansas City, and all the other little things that seem to get in the way. I'll try to keep you updated as I progress with the training. Today I fit in a quicky of 19 miles around the lake outside of town, not too bad for a short little ride.