Yet Another Bike Incident

Yeah, I'm rolling my eyes about this one too.

On Sunday Matt and I rode the Cannon Valley Trail. It was such a beautiful day and a great route! the trail follows an old railroad grade, follows the Cannon River, has some nice vistas, views of fields and hills and river bluffs. It was perfect weather (despite rain clouds constantly threatening us on the horizon we stayed dry until we reached the parking lot on the way back) and nice for the two of us to be enjoying our bikes together.

There was a hill on the way back and I tried shifting and slipped my chain (lesson learned!). All of a sudden I was pedaling but going nowhere and the hill was to steep for me to recover and clip out of my pedals. Over I went, bruising my leg and injuring my hand. Oi vey.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

The Nature Valley Grand Prix, part of the Great River Energy Bike Festival, is the biggest race in Minnesota. Five stages, held over five days, including a time trial, two road races, and two criteriums ... it is on the National Racing Calendar (NRC) for USA Cycling—proof positive that it's not just any old local race.

The race draws top men and women racers. Being only a "B" level official from Minnesota, I don't get to see very many of these races, so once again this year I served as assistant judge on the women's crew. Here's my notes from how the race went.

Tuesday 6/13: spent the day rushing around trying to gather stuff up for me and Matt. Brought him to work in the morning so I could simply pick him up after I left work. Picked him up at 5:15, drove to the airport to get a car that would be his rental for the week, then drove to the race hotel, where we were lucky to have a room for the week. Sure, it's a local race, but from past experience we know it's extremely difficult not to share a home base with the other officials, and our house is SO out of the way.

Spent Tuesday night at the Yoplait Nouriche Women's Cycling Summit - supposedly this big meeting about women's cycling ... how to support it, promote it, etc. Don't get me wrong, I think it's way cool that the race promoter and others are encouraging women's cycling—if I didn't like it, would I have been there? That said, there's a couple things I ntoiced at the meeting. First, it was surprisingly poorly attended. I don't remember exact numbers, but there was over 120 women racers in town for the race, plus their team managers, support crew, etc. There are also tons of local women racers and all their supporters. Plus they had all these people speaking about really interesting topics. Then why when I walked in the room did I only find like 30–40 people? I was shocked.

Then again, maybe my second thought contributes to the reason why there were so few people. I was listening to all these thoughts fly around the room, good observations and ideas about women's racing, and knowledge from real women racers (some of them top women's racers) ... and I thought, "what's really going to happen with this information? Is this really going to change anything?" Yes, someone was taking notes, and I really believe that the NVGP promtoer has done a ton to make the women's part of this race one of the top women's races in the country—and for that I'm thankful. It's just hard to have hope that things will change, especially when so few people attended and it takes a bigger effort than that.

After the meeting, I meet up with some of the other officials. Dot Abbot, new International Commissaire, is my chief judge. A whole bunch of us go to the room of Dave (aka Big Guy) and Judy Miller - they have this AWESOME room, a suite with a big oval wooden table, an entire kitchen, living room with 2 couches. In the bedroom there's a whirlpool and a sauna!! Needless to say, all the officials decide this will be the headquarters for the week—not just because of the nice digs but because we all know and love Big Guy and Judy, and it just feels like home.

Wednesday 6/14: The race is really here! Frantically, I realize that I haven't studied the technical guide—"The Race Bible"— the way I should have. NOT exactly good planning Jenn to wait until the last minute! Luckily the race doesn't start until around 5:00 this evening. So I read up on all the specifics of the evening's time trial. Thankfully I've done a zillion time trials, and I worked this race last year, so I'm not too nervous.

Wednesday morning there are race meetings. A team manager or representative from each team is required to attend the meeting to hear from the promoter, technical director, and officials about what to expect for the race. It's also helpful for the officials because it gets us all on the same page, and we know exactly what the racers have been told (so they can't come up to us at some point during the race and try to convince us they weren't told of something!).

Matt is the official photographer for the race, so he's studying both Race Bibles (men's and women's) and trying to figure out good photography vantage points. He learns that for the road races he's able to ride on a motorcycle with the fields—super cool! So we have to make a run to a bike shop (this time for the OTHER kind of bikes) to buy him a helmet and jacket he can wear on the bike. I'm super nervous but try to be the cool supportive girlfriend. Matt is shown here on the back of a motorcycle taking photos.

Race time draws closer, and the chief ref, Marilyn, notifies us that she'd like all of us to be there two hours before the race start. We carpool down to the race site, a road right along the Mississippi in downtown St Paul. I start to feel like my job for this stage of the race is the in-between girl. I've done it before so I can tell everyone what we've done in the past. I also am very familiar with the guys running Split Second Services, the timing and results company the race has hired, so I feel like I'm doing a lot of talking that's bridging the two—arranging to have the start clock up in time, etc.

Now here's some inner details of officiating at races. Technically, the women's crew and men's crew are separate. There are two chief refs, decisions are made independent of each other, etc. But in reality, depending on who is on each crew, a lot of blending goes on. With these races, it was especially so with the judging crew (the two chief judges and two assistant judges). Time and again we made the best decisions for the race, not based on technical boundaries but on skill and need, and this often meant the judging crew working together in different configurations.

for the time trial, this meant that I stayed on stage timing the women racers, then the men, then the amateurs (the time trial was opened up to local racers too). Gina and I counted and this was like 400 racers! I think numbers were swimming in my head by the end of the race. From a judging standpoint everything went smoothly, and we were all able to get a good night's sleep.

Thursday 6/15: A road race day, the Cannon Falls Road Race. Strangely though this is a road race that starts in the EVENING? It's also surprisingly short—I want to say around 50 miles. So we have much of the morning free. Matt and I get breakfast, officials gather in the Dave and Judy suite to chat about the race and protests that we've received (yes there's always protests), I take a nap.

We drive down to Cannon Falls and I ride with Rey, an official from North Carolina that I hadn't met before. Once in town we all grab some quick food. One of the big fiascos for the judges is that we have no car. Without a car, we can't go out with the race to judge sprints and QOH (Queen of the Hills). There has been tons of discussion over the last couple days about what to do about this ... have the motos (motor refs) do it? But are they good judges? Finally it's decided that the most crucial to have judges at is the sprint point, and thankfully there's only one sprint point in this stage. A complicated plan is hatched—Gina and I, the two assistant judges, ride out with the media car of the men's race, pull ahead of the race to get out in time to be at the sprint point, judge the men's sprint, wait in the middle of a Minnesota field for 45 minutes for the women's race to come by, judge their sprint, then are picked up by Comm 3 (Commissaire 3's car—after the field passes) of the women's crew and ride the rest of the race with the women's crew.

It's always fun to be on the road with the races. It does kinda suck though to have to wait on a Minnesota road in the middle of nowhere for so long. And because we're riding back with the race and don't have our own cars, we can't be on stage for the finishing circuits and completely miss the end of our races. Dot is extremely good at what she does, but I also realize she's more independent, more used to doing things on her own.

When I get to the stage, I learn that our top local female racer, Teresa Moriarty, has taken 3rd place in this stage! This is amazing not only because the caliber of the racers but also because she's done it without a full team and with no manager/car in the race caravan. Yet those of us who know her know that she's got what it takes. I hug her and tell her I'm proud of her, and in her humble way she says, "oh it really wasn't me. Laura Van Gilder was really the one pulling us today. She did all the work for us." In the day's results, I watch for Teresa and for any Velo Bella riders (there are some local teammates and some from other parts of the country). I also start to read Bella Kele's blog for a racer perspective.

Friday 6/16: The race feels like it's heating up. While today's stage, the Minneapolis crit, isn't until tonight, there's an energy in the air among racers and officials. The Minneapolis crit is fast, furious, and can draw huge crowds. Split second decisions make or break the race. I hate to leave the hotel in the morning, but I have a physical therapy appointment I just can't miss.

This afternoon we're invited to a barbecue at the home of a local official. It's something he's hosted every year for this race. Yet piece by piece some of the social dynamic seems to fall apart a little. At first everyone's going to the barbecue, then people can't decide, there's confusion, and in the end only like 5 of us go. It's an awkward afternoon, and afterwards a couple of us comment on h ow we can see the cliques between officials, and among some an air of superiority. We also start to hear stories, and sometimes they're full of inside jokes, sometimes us locals aren't meant to be involved, sometimes the stories are criticizing other officials, and I start to wonder if I really want to keep going and be a part of this?? But no time for such questions—we've got a race to work.

We arrive downtown amid traffic and crowds. Since a very wonderful sponsor provided officials with cars, we have been asked to place the cars in the expo area. By this point we're all fed up with the car situation (something that happens EVERY year so it's nothing new for me). We're asked to wash the cars, park them in certain areas, we get keys taken away to make sure the cars are parked correctly and then can't find them again, etc. etc. Strangely I've never heard of this happening in any other race. But somehow we navigate our way to the expo, head off in search of the ever-important coffee, gather at the headquarters RV, and Dot and I head out to begin the women's sign-in. We set out our table and the sign-in sheets, and it begins to rain (another thing that happens every year). So we pull the table into the doorway of the restaurant behind us, only it isn't enough. Rain starts to come in droves, and our sheets are still getting wet! soon we're mopping them off with napkins, then people start to pile in to take shelter. Everything's a mess, I realize my bag with equipment and forms and everything is on the stage, the rain comes harder and harder. Soon I yell, "hail!" and sure enough, it starts pea-sized, then grows to quarter-sized and then golf-ball-sized. What the heck? Where did this come from?? the hail gathers in piles along the curbs, the streets become rivers. Then someone yells, "look at the manhole covers!" Sure enough, all the water can't stay down, and the pressure causes the covers to shoot up in spurts. There are geysers all along 10th street.

I have no idea how long it lasts, but from there on out the race feels all fubar. We delay the races, shorten them, try to get things on track. Yet by the time the race starts, we're still cleaning water off the stage and Split Second Services has barely got their cameras set up, let alone have time to test them. Lesson learned: not being prepared will come to haunt you!

The women's race starts, and the rain holds off. Sprints are well run, we score as much as possible, and riders are starting to get pulled. somewhere in the middle Dot asks Split Second to film a bunch of riders, and I hear running around, someone yelling "lights!" and a bunch of lights flood the finish line area. The generators are barely running. Yet the racers keep going by, soon the race is finished, and while things feel like a big mess, Dot takes my score sheets and heads to the RV to start working on results. She asks me to stay on stage and help the men's crew.

The men's race starts. At first it's fine, but a couple minutes into it the skies open again. Rain pours onto the streets, yet everyone knows we'll keep racing in the rain. I can see Carla, the chief ref of the men's crew, in rain gear on the finish line, and we both jump at the same time when lightning strikes. I think, "she'll cancel the race," but she yells that she wants to see one more sprint before she cancels the race. Then there's thunder, more lightning, harder rain, and I'm shaking from being under a metal awning in the lightning and can barely write numbers. Plus I can't see the racers, my paper is soaked. With that second bolt of lightning Carla yells, "one to go! one to go!" which means we're cancelling the race. We signal one lap to go to the racers, they sprint their last lap, and we all run for cover.

On my way to the RV, I have to cross a street with ankle deep water. All of the officials are crammed into the RV with water dripping everywhere. The men's crew all of a sudden has it good!—with the race cancelled so early, Carla declared it would not count towards GC (General Classification, the compiled times of all the stages) so the men's judges don't have to work on results. Dot and I, though, the women's crew, have a lot of work to do. We have heard that with the lack of time for testing, and the lights coming on on the finish line, our camera crew has not been able to get good film of any of our racers, which spells TROUBLE—we'll have to rely on our own notes. (We later found out that we were able to get pretty good numbers off the two cameras - amazing given the conditions!).

And then I get sideswiped. Sitting in the RV surrounded by officials of higher rank than me, the chief judge and chief ref choose THIS moment (also when I'm soaked and chilled and still scared) to criticize my score sheets. I can't help it, I'm instantly on the defensive. I've been given lots of tips from other officials along the way, but there's something about this timing and this method of delivery that doesn't strike me right. And in the corner of my eye I see that Matt has entered the RV to gather his camera equipment and I think, "oh great he gets to witness this too." There are two things that stand out: 1. Dot points out that I forgot to write times on my score sheets and finish order. Crap, she's right! So I instantly start to berate myself for forgetting this very crucial part! I did this last year, I should have known better, what was I thinking, I even started the stopwatch! All I can think of for reasons is that it had been a year and I had gotten out of the habit. But I'm still beating myself up about it. 2. We start to discuss the "universally accepted way" of scoring packs of riders, denoting laps, gaps in riders, etc. And all I can think is, "What? universally accepted? Gee I know 3 great national judges and all do it differently and have told me to adapt my own style." But of course I can't shut up, I have to argue this point. Not a good thing to do. This world depends on social alliances and knowing when to just listen (I kept thinking it was just like "Survivor").

We decide to finish results at the hotel, after we all can get into dry clothes and shoes. Matt is in our hotel room when I get there and offers me words of advice based on hearing my conversation. I pledge to spend the remainder of the race being nicer and learning what I can—because I DO think they're good officials. And then we work on results until 1:30 am (I get to bed at 3:00 am). The good thing is, though, that in the midst of all the results confusion, I FINALLY feel useful and that I'm contributing to the race work.

Saturday 6/17: Unlike the last 3 stages, today's race in Mankato starts earlier in the day. Not enough sleep, long drive, I am so ... sleepy ... but I know this is what bike racing is all about, and I feel much more in the groove today for some odd reason.

At the start line, I take on the role of car coordinator for the judges. It was a mess and confusing, but again I like being busy and having a job to do. I spend about an hour running around talking to various people ... the chief judges, chief refs, promoter, volunteers, first we all agree on one thing and then another, but in the end I'm able to secure 2 cars with drivers, one for each judging crew. We will be out on the road judging sprints, following our own race the whole way. I like it better this way. I like feeling more in control and being able to judge all the sprints for the race. Plus, I like getting to work side by side with Dot. There are some hairy moments in the caravan, one instance where I think we're going to hit a racer as she darts in front of our car. But we're able to judge everything, and then we hurry back to Mankato to be in town for the finishing circuits.

Dot heads to the stage; she and Judy, chief judge for the men's race, will be doing the scoring on stage. I again wish I could have that experience, but the nice thing about being out on the course is that I get to see for the first time the big hill in Mankato that I've heard all the racers talking about. Bill and I are assigned to judge the QOH, and so we score and judge from the top of the hill.

Once again I miss the finish of the race. It just takes us too long to walk down the hill. But the walk down is pleasant, it's nice to chat with Bill, and I'm feeling chatty and open to my other officials as I step into the RV. Once inside, the officials are talking about things they witnessed, asking each other questions, so I bring up some fines Dot and I want to issue, and am shocked when I get debate. not debate in a let's-talk-about-this, noodling, fun supportive debate kind of way I'm used to, but you're-completely-wrong-what-are-you thinking way, with two guys raising their voices and gesturing madly. I feel like I've just been put in my place—you obviously don't know what you're doing do you? I try to explain but it's no good. so I shut up. Ten minutes later, the chief judge walks in, tells the chief ref the fines she wants to issue, and strangely gets no dissension from these two that minutes earlier were berating me. If they really disagreed, they should have mentioned it to her too. And secondly, I wonder if me being a lower rank had anything to do with it? It's definitely an interesting world I find myself drawn to.

Sunday 6/18: The last day of the race ALREADY? I don't feel ready for it to be over with. This is one of my favorite stages: Stillwater, with the infamous Chilkoot Hill. This morning we're changing things up yet again! Gina and I are assigned to run the amateur crits. Which works great for me—I figure it'll be a nice warm-up for the day! It's a gorgeous sunny day, I'm still cheering silently for Teresa who sits at 13th in the GC, I get to watch an awesome race. The amateur race goes off without a hitch, then I walk to the sprint point to judge the sprint, back to the finish line to score the rest of the women's race. I remember to write times for everything, I'm much more conscious of my scoring, I feel an integral part of the action and am in the groove. Why couldn't that have happened 4 days ago? ;). There's one crash today. I heard it happen right over my shoulder, but since I was scoring I had to keep my eyes in front of me and let another official attend to the crash. (I heard a rumor of a broken collarbone.)

The race is over at a decent time, and results are done at a decent time. Yet somehow the days always get long! I stayed in Stillwater with Matt for him to work on processing photos at a media spot. Luckily for me the media spot was the Elephant Walk Bed and Breakfast, the same place we went to last year and loved. The owners are gracious and wonderful and their place is beautiful.

When we were done there (7:30 or so) we heard that some officials were gathering at The Downtowner Cafe in St Paul. So on to St Paul for a late night, with a wonderful good-bye dinner. We were exhausted, and still had to drive home and get stuff ready for the next day, but it felt so good to have an endcap to the race.

And by the end of the race I found out that Teresa had finished at 12th in the GC—way to go!

"Sign Nazi"

I am the sign nazi. I drive around town, take illegal signs, make phone calls, argue with people over the phone, and write nasty letters. The building inspectors whisper at me as they walk by, "there goes the sign nazi." Needless to say, the least favorite part of my job.

I am happier doing things that relate to development and redevelopment. I answer a lot of questions about different areas - so I've learned about what property owners can do in the historic district and how to answer questions about future uses of an area. It's awesome to look at all the maps! Carver County has a great GIS system online, which shows properties, aerial photos, etc.

A couple other projects include researching information for an affordable housing survey for the Met Council, a staff report about a variance for fence height, etc.

I'm fairly happy working here. The staff work hard - it's not as social as my last office. I LOVE the city of Chaska. The small town feel, historic areas, all the new stuff going on - it's great, and I could end up feeling pretty passionate about this city. I'm not sure how I"d feel about working for OTHER cities down the road. I imagine dealing with ordinances and local politics could be difficult in certain situations.

I really do miss my LAC friends though. I used to feel like going to work was equivalent to being in my social circle - and now I"m feeling very out of that social circle.

Stacey's wedding is Saturday so at least I'll get to see a few folks ;)

A Weekend at the Farm

After a flat tire on my bike on Thursday and putting my back out last week, I was so ready for something this weekend to cheer me up ...

I went to Royalton, MN to visit my friends, Jane, Doug, Emily, and Nicholas Popp. I met them this spring when I helped them write a grant to put a wind turbine on their property. They're the most wonderful people, very down to earth, fun, funny, and so easy to be around. Plus they, like I, drive a Jetta - it's gotta be a good thing then! Emily (5) and Nicholas (almost 2) are smart, funny, charming kids—I absolutely adored them.

Here are a couple pictures of me and the Popps, taken along the Mississippi near their house:




They have a 220-acre dairy farm and B&B - the farm has a little cottage by a running stream, and it borders the Mississippi. It's a century farm and the house is over 120 years old! The whole place is absolutely wonderful.




On Saturday I got to help a little bit (emphasis on LITTLE since I don't know much about dairy farming) with their farm chores - wow they work hard, doing those chores twice a day! With two of them (plus a little help from me) it took two hours to feed and milk the cows. I loved all the animals though, and it was fascinating to me to learn what I could.





After sleeping in my historic, peaceful guest room, I woke up Sunday morning and enjoyed coffee, homemade scones, and great company. When the Popps returned from church, we had an even bigger breakfast of sausage, hash browns, and German apple pancakes - so fabulous (so much food!). We took a little drive and I learned that there are great spots for canoeing on the Mississippi and a new paved bike trail set to go through.

Coming next: The Nature Valley Grand Prix . I'm packing up my suitcase tonight to spend the next 6 days working at this big race.

Holy Schniekes, Traffic!

What’s up with all this TRAFFIC?

You may think I’m kidding. If I was … well that’d be funny. But holy schniekes, I’m not! The traffic here is terrible!

I’ve been spending the last three days trying to figure out how to cross hwy 212 on my bike safely. Still don’t have an answer for that … must be that I just gotta go for it. Hwy 41 sees 19000 cars a day (soon to increase to 35000) and goes through town a block from city hall. I can’t make a left hand turn on that street to save my life (and getting home kinda requires a left hand turn).

On Tuesday I drove to work. I had a half an hour for lunch and just had to drive 2 blocks to the post office to mail something and then go pick up lunch to bring back to the office.

It took me an hour!

And this morning while waiting for a stoplight to change I counted 15 semi trucks at the intersection of hwys 41 and 212.

Yikes.

I did bike today though. I guess I’ll need to get used to the traffic, and at least I didn’t die yet! And hey I’m sitting at my desk sweaty with helmet hair and tire marks on my leg – it’s gotta be good right?

My First Day!

Well I know everyone will be asking me about my first day at the new job ... so here it is!

First, it was AWESOME to sleep in and have such a leisurely drive into work! I clocked my mileage - 6.5 miles (I made sure to drive the route that I would use biking in!). I met up with Noah, the current/former intern who had one day overlapping with mine to show me all the ropes. I took the office tour, met folks, etc. the building is so cool. It's a historic-looking yellow brick building right downtown. There are brick walkways curving around all the buildings, a water fountain in front, and the public library on the first floor - it just FEELS so good! You can see a picture of it here on the City of Chaska web site on the upper right hand side. The second floor is all the city offices. There are offices around the outside of the building, and then 7 cubes in the middle, and I'm in one of those cubes. The cube is a bit drab and needs a lamp, pictures, etc. (those who worked with me at the Learning Abroad Center know my penchant for homey lamps and the need for decoration!) But that will come as the summer goes on. On one side of me, I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys, the building inspectors! they remind me of some of the guys my dad used to work with and should be a riot. On another side are some administrative folks (sorry can't remember titles) who seem super friendly and helpful. Quite the demographic difference from LAC though :P ... I'm so used to working with 20-year-old college kids! I'm not sure if there's anyone else in their 20s in the building ;).

After the morning tours we got in the car and drove around the city to look at examples of signs and talk about some of the current issues in the city. It was a really good education and cool just to be out driving. Lunch time came around and Noah and I went and met Melissa, the city planner, and Matt, the assistant city administrator, at the golf course for lunch. And no none of us are golfers! It was just nice to sit on the deck over the course to have lunch. From the deck I could see a barn in the distance that is right near our house! So cool.

After lunch (and coffee at the newly-restored Dunn Brothers), it was back to the office. We spent the afternoon going over files for the AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review) for the newly annexed Heights of Chaska. Then we reviewed some sign permit requests and surveys submitted by the building inspectors - the planners need to sign off on the maximum setbacks, etc.

Here's another picture of the style of historic building typical in Chaska .

It was an ok day. People have asked me how I'll feel about it, and it's so hard to know how a job will go based on the first day. I've said that it wasn't so fabulous that I'm jumping up and down knowing that this is what I want to do with my life, but it also didn't make me dread the summer! I think the work environment is great, the tasks varied with just enough responsibility for my planning job. From there, we'll see how the summer goes.

On the way, home, I took the quieter route back with an easier hill - the route I'll most likely be taking home. 8.5 miles. that means when I bike to work it'll be 15 miles each day!

Race Reports!

Ok, so it wasn't actually me racing, but I have race reports nonetheless!

It was a full racing weekend for me. Saturday I was up at 5:00 am so I could be in St Peter for an 8:00 am start of the State Championship Time Trial. I was the chief ref, in charge of the whole race, and based on my crew and the fact that I worked with the race promoter on another race a month ago, I thought things would go great. I checked in with everyone, asked someone to start doing junior rollout, drove the course, answered questions, reviewed the registration process ... and while I hadn't seen my starter yet, I figured he must be at the start line preparing. Well, 15 minutes before the race start I drove over to the race start and realized Matt wasn't there yet. "Anyone seen Anderson?" "Well I heard that he called Bill because his car broke down."

oh GREAT!

Not too big a deal. We could all fill in. I just figured I'd be the starter.

But not so fast. All the safety equipment such as vests, flags, stop signs, etc. were in his car.

After consultation with the officials, I decided to start heading back towards the Cities to get him. We announced that the race start would be delayed but we didn't know by how long - a call to Anderson's cell phone hadn't gotten a response. Just a few miles down the road he called me, only to tell me he had gotten stranded in Jordan.

Well great. I pulled out my map and that was 40 ... miles ... away. Even driving fast that would delay the race start by more than an hour and a half.

I called up the officials and told them I'd rather cancel the race than delay it by that long, simply because we'd have fewer pissed-off racers. I asked if there was a place in town, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, anything, where we could buy orange tape or something to use to alert traffic. On the way back to the race course, I called my Matt who was at home to see if he could pick up Anderson. Jordan is close to our house and he could've picked him up and made it to the race course faster than me driving back. I couldn't reach him, though, and by the time I had returned to the race course one of the judges had already sent people all over the town of St Peter looking for supplies ... someone went to the sheriff, someone started driving looking for stores, someone went to the Gustavus Adolphus security office.

In the end, it worked out. The sheriff and the Gustavos folks came through for us. You never can tell whether folks will be annoyed by a bike race or supportive, so that was super cool. I ended up standing in as the starter, the riders were fairly patient and we only got a few pissed-off mumblings. At least the weather was gorgeous. 80 degrees, sunny, only a slight wind. Thankfully no crashes or injuries, a very good race.

And Anderson? He had to replace a bunch of parts in his car - a new starter among other things. He had a long day too.

I was glad to see him (and his car) on the State Capitol grounds early Sunday morning for our second race of the weekend. He was more crucial that morning since he was our chief ref! The Capitol Criterium is very likely my favorite race course. The grounds are gorgeous. The views of the Capitol and the Cathedral are stirring and brilliant - I couldn't stop marveling. The course has a 180 degree turn and you can see the entire course from nearly any spot you stand (rare for a criterium!). I was so psyched to be there. my job for the day was referee, and since there was two of us we figured we'd split the day's duties. I'd work the pit for the first half of the day and the board and bell for the second half of the day. Unfortunately, once again things would not go as planned! Our chief ref went to check on the registration folks fifteen minutes before race start and they were all fubar. One computer kept consistently shutting down. Another wasn't printing. And there was no hand-written copy for back-up. Without those start sheets, we couldn't start our race! The chief ref, Anderson, called me on the radio to ask me to come down and take care of the situation. There was about ten minutes of me asking tons of questions, them getting really frustrated ("I'm just asking questions, not yelling at you," I kept trying to tell them - at this point who cares about reasons or excuses, we just needed to keep things moving the best we could). I finally realized we didn't have a lot of options about the first race of the day - all the data they had entered had been lost! But I figured we could try to keep registration moving for the other races of the day and be smarter about it. So I left two guys working on the computers and told them to do what they could about start lists for the first race of the day. Then I rounded up volunteers, grabbed a notepad, and told them how to do handwritten start lists instead. We got the new registration system organized in about five minutes, pretty cool if you ask me. By this point the line had grown and stretched down the sidewalk. I'm sure all those racers were annoyed!

I made it to the pit and my nerves just kept getting more and more strung out as the morning went on. A junior racer hit a curb and went tumbling over a median. Another junior crashed into someone at the finish line, flew through the air and bounced as she hit the ground. And then one of our officials got hit with a pole that had snapped in the wind, cutting his face and lip. Thank god no serious injuries - but just enough to keep me worrying about what was next.

As on Saturday, the race got smoother as the day went on. We had a nice break over lunch (almost unheard of for officials). I took over the board and bell and was super focused on scoring, ringing the bell, pulling lapped riders ... though I did get sunburned!

I still think that the coolest part about Saturday is that one of my friends participated in his first bike race!! It takes courage to get out there for the first time, but I figured he'd enjoy it and do well. It was Aaron, my friend Erika's boyfriend. He looked totally suited up and has an awesome bike. He had to race in a full field (we had to close registration at 75), yet hung in there for several laps! We pulled about 20 riders before it came to be his time to be pulled. I was selfishly thankful that he dropped out at that point - I just didn't want to be the one to pull him! I thought he did awesome for his first race and it was so cool to see he and Erika hanging out there.

Cool Birds at Carver Park

Last Monday ... hot, steamy hot, even at 5:30 in the morning. Still, we wanted to go exploring at Carver Park near our house. We were at the park by 6 am, and started meandering the trails. We saw about 25 species, pretty good for a quick morning jaunt. I got some good glimpses of birds that I hadn't seen for awhile, such as a redstart and a catbird, so this was a good reminder - and they were Matt's first! The fun of the day was just getting started though. Walking along a path near a wetland, I saw what seemed to be a duck-size bird start up from the water and fly along the trees. But he was flying differently ... he had trees behind him and the sun behind the trees so he was essentially flying in the dark (to me at least). I got excited and told Matt we had to head that direction to see if we could find it again. Sure enough, after a walk across a floating sidewalk, there it was! It flew in front of us and the most noticeable thing was its BRIGHT ORANGE LEGS - I'm talking big-bird orange. A quick look in my Sibley guide, and there it was: a green heron. A first for both Matt and I. We ended up seeing three of them in Carver Park that day.

We then drove over to King's Blind, which overlooks a lake that is a known swan breeding area. I was hoping to see swans on a nest or maybe some cygnets. No babies, but we weren't completely disappointed, as there was a swan and some double crested cormorants. The most fun for us, though, was that after about 15 minutes there a raptor flew over - Osprey! It was hunting over the lake. We watched it for probably half an hour, most amazed by its ability to hover in midair over spots on the lake while it used its eagle eye (or should that be "osprey eye"?) to hunt. After soaring along, it would turn its body almost vertically and flap its wings like mad to stay in one place - and then if it saw something would dive down to the water. The first dive was unsuccessful. The second dive was super acrobatic as it dove and twisted and this time it caught its breakfast:



thinking about an osprey's life amazes me. raised in a nest for just a couple months, I'm not sure if they're even taught to hunt. It seems that much of it is instinct. And yet they somehow know - or learn - how to conduct such a complex hunting pattern. And it seems that it would take so much energy. When I'm hungry and feeling weak, I can simply walk to the refrigerator and find lunch. This bird, though, must expend enormous amounts of energy just to catch its food. I imagine if it waited too long or got too hungry, its hunger would impair its ability to hunt. How often does it live on the brink of starvation, on the edge between life and death? Nature is truly amazing.

The Last Day!

I've been hauling bags home all week. yesterday afternoon I washed off my desk and cleaned the keyboard. Today I changed my voicemail and then the ultimate leaving-my-job moment: one last fight to remember the old job by. Not a fight with me, mind you - my boss (FORMER boss) going berserk on a coworker resulting in both of them leaving the office for the rest of the day and one crying and saying, "I hate this fucking place." Ahh, yeah, dysfunction, now THAT'S what I'm going to miss! And emotional abuse! What fun!

The day was marked with good moments too. A very wonderful coworker baking a cake, lunch outside with a good friend, the satisfaction of seeing an empty in box and knowing that I've done my best to leave the office and job as organized and complete as possible.

I've been on the verge of emotional the past couple days. I think it's part sadness about leaving behind friends and my beloved office, part stress of something new, and part nervousness about entering a new field. I kept thinking I wouldn't be nervous for an "internship," but I realize that not only is it a new job, but it's doing tasks I've never done before. I don't know how I'll do, and I feel like I need to prove myself. Monday morning should be interesting! Any advice for someone starting off in a completely new field?