Reflection

Where was I one year ago? I was chatting with my to-be-boss, who was destined to leave Charlottesville, and leave me his job in the process. Craziness. We had looked at Charlottesville plenty before then, but the job scene always blew. We looked at Boulder/Longmont/Ft Collins. We even took a little trip out there. Frizzy hair and dry lips, but no job. Probably the sweetest pedestrian mall ever though. Then we hit Portland, OR during the dry season. Beautiful. Even had a few interviews. Nothing solid though. When I came home, I read an article about Bend, OR in Outside Online. At the end, it says: "NEXT BEST: Charlottesville, Virginia." Hmmm. Hadn't looked there in a while. A few empty job searches leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

So I do some searches. Job boards blow. Digging deeper, I google a few random things and end up on my to-be-boss' blog. I post a comment. I get a job. Not quite that easy, but nearly. As the wise man said: #&$% monster.com - obtuse blog posts work magic.

One year later, I find my family comfortably nestled in the valley in a cozy home in the woods, with an arsenal of good friends that ride nice bikes and drink nice beer. Even found my way onto a bike racing team somehow. Kids are in a nice school that they love. And work ain't bad.

Moral of the story: It has been a good year. Looking forward to many, many more.

SM100

It came. It went. Definitely the toughest thing I have done in a long, long time. Short recap: I went out at a moderately fast pace...maybe too fast. Mile 36: The old man passed me by. Never saw him again. Mile 39: Off bike with big, big cramps. Hammy and quads in knots. My quad looked liked it was going to jump out my skin. Very freaky. Was on the verge of cramping here and there after that, but I was able to hold them off. Yes, I was hydrated, and popping endurolytes. It didn't matter.

Braileys Pond sucked (in the 50 mile range, I guess). It sucked bad. I walked more of that hill than I rode. The downhill was nice coming out of there though. One of the smoother descents, I think. Mostly, I stuck to my plan to not indulge in too much crap. Sun chips out of my drop bags @ rest stop 3 and 5 were delicious. Thanks to Shawn for that brilliant idea. Pizza at rest stop 5(?) was great. One small piece. Even though it probably wasn't the best idea, I indulged in a cup of coke here and there too. The flasks of espresso clif shot + coffee ended up tasting pretty bad after not too long. Everything sweet was sounding pretty bad, as a matter of fact.

I had my sights set on a a sub 11 hour time. I saw that slip away as the average speed started dropping. Leaving stop 6, I was determined to keep it under 12. With the GPS telling me I was averaging 8.1mph, it didn't look good. Luckily, the race ended @ around 95 miles, per the Forerunner, with a time around 11:38 or so. New for 2007: I was hungry and ready to eat. Hot dog? Check. Cheeseburger? Check. Two heaping helpings of wonderful salty fries? Check. I did not however, indulge in any alcoholic beverages. That didn't sound good at all. Dirty, and exhausted, I crashed early.

Up early on Monday we broke down camp pretty fast and headed for the promised land: Cracker Barrel. Chicken Fried Steak, Eggs, Hash brown casserole, bacon, biscuits and
gravy. And Mr. Pibb. It was spectacular.


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It was nice to hang out with everybody. Good to see Kim too. A fine mix of friends from then and now. Was it fun? That is a tough question. Why would I voluntarily to this myself? I don't know. I've now done the W101 with 24 speeds, the W101 w/ 9 speeds, and the SM100 with one speed. Perhaps I should be done. We'll see.