Cranky Monkey Series

Just to keep this blog thing going, I'll say that I had a great Cranky race series. Raced the single-speed category, and was lucky enough to have won 3 races and the overall (for which I won a very cool set of On-One Mary handlebars). I've been wondering if I'm sandbagging and should go "back" to racing Expert. When I first started SingleSpeeding 3 seasons ago, I did race Expert at Wakefield (there was no Cranky then). I suddenly shot up the scoreboard with my big gear and big wheels. I think I was 3rd for the Overall Series, and usually finished around 4th or 5th in each race.

Last season, for some reason, I wanted to compete against my own kind and raced the shorter SS race. I have to say that the shorter distance did, and still does, bother me. Out of the 4 races last year, I don't think I finished higher than 3rd. Judd, Evan, and Jed I believe won them all. This season, of the 4 Wakefields and 3 Crankys, I did not win 2 races, and had a sprint finish at another one. If the SS World Championships had not pulled away folks like Nick, Steve, Jed, Dave and others, I likely would not have won the last Cranky either.

So, am I sandbagging?

Wild 100

It was definitely not 100 degrees in Slatyfork for the Wild 100, like it was here at home. More like 70s, and for once, no rain! I raced the 2-person with Andy Neal as my teammate, both of us on single-speeds.



The short version is we took 2nd place in the 2-Man class. We made a smart choice on our way to CP-2 that no one in front of us had done yet, and we gained a lot of time there. But, we gave most of that time right back to several groups led by Chris Scott who bushwhacked a section on their way to CP-3. We took a longish route to 3 that contained the best singletrack of the race across Tea Creek Mountain. We rode to CP-4 with a group of folks from Kentucky and Ohio who had just been "lost" for about a 1/2 hour, and were none too happy about it. Andy knew a bushwhack to cut off the top of Prop's Run Trail which gained us a few places to the last CP.

We finished at 6:51, it was the fastest Wild 100 for either of us. Not sure how many miles we actually rode since neither of us carried any technology. We could've used a compass though...


a very pleasant Wild, one of my best. Congrats to all who rode that race! lookin' forward to the Shenandoah Mountain 100 and hanging out with most of those folks again.

Death from the parking lot

One of my favorite VDOTers died today. Mike Hamilton was hit by a dump truck pulling out of our VDOT parking lot in his orange truck. He apparently died instantly (as if that's any consolation to anyone).

Mike was one those old-school kind of guys. Lived and worked in northwest Loudoun County his whole life. Not many people do that any more. He was the Superintendent of the Hillsboro Headquarters. The Hillsboro office was always far and away the best performing VDOT area in Northern Virginia. This is directly because of Mike Hamilton. Lately, Mike had not been spending much time at Hillsboro because he kept filling in at other offices when their leaders turned over. Whenever we in GIS and IT developed map applications and software tools for the field staff, Mike and Hillsboro were always the very first ones to embrace them. When we sent out maps for the field to review and return, the first ones back were always from Mike. Not once in a while, but every single time. Mike was out front on everything we did.

The reason Mike was here at the main office today is that he was meeting with HR about applying for a new management opening.

He was going to retire in 3 years, and stay home to take care of his handicapped daughter.
He coached,
He volunteered,
He will be missed by many,
He will be missed by me.

Certified Nurse Midwife

Kim passed her Board exams months ago, but this week she received both her new CNM lab coat, and her first position. She took the job at the District of Columbia Birth Center where she'll be providing care to the underserved women of NE and SE D.C.

So, it looks like no Alaska for us (Kim certainly tried though), and the women of DC will be the beneficiaries.


Congratulations Kim!