That Dam May Training

Dear Dam Racers,

I apologize for being late with May’s inspirational missive. Finishing up this semester at Harvard was quite traumatic for me and Russel. But we have now recovered and are feeling much better; so is Mary.

May is a great month for training. Here are a few lines that MAY inspire you as you continue your dam training.

April is a promise that May is bound to keep.

~Hal Borland (That means you should have reached your dam goal of 4.7 miles in under an hour in May.)

He that is in a towne in May loseth his spring. ~George Herber (That means you should be in the country, Mantua, in July—that's possibly a bit of a stretch, but then stretching is important.)

"The world's favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May."
- Edwin Way Teale (That means it is possible to reach your dam goals.)

"By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months. All is at last in balance and all is serene. The gardener is usually dead, of course."
- Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman (That means you’re not 80 yet, so you’re not dead, and you should be doing your dam training.)

'But I must gather knots of flowers,

And buds and garlands gay,

For I'm to be Queen o' the May,

mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May.'

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

(That means each dam racer will come in first in his or her Dam Race age group.)

"Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers."


-Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557

(That should really say, “April showers Do spring May dam runners.)

Is it so small a thing

To have enjoy'd the sun,

To have lived light in the spring,

To have loved,

To have thought,

To have done [run]...

- Matthew Arnold (That means tis no small thing to have prepared for the Dam Race.)

May the dam force be with you and May you stay Forever Young.

Rebecca

Pic: The May Queen preparing for the dam race. (Barefoot, of course. It's all the rage.)