Church Street Congregation

Cat Slate and David Demin lead the youth group of the Church Street Clean up congregation. This is a quarterly project by Bike Norfolk to clean the bike lane on Church Street. 












Mike Evans and Wes break cornbread on Church. 

I had to laugh as Wes quoted (I think) George Carlin, something like, the problem with kids today is they don't play in the dirt, and they end out allergic to peanut butter.

 

Dirt there was.  Church Street still lived up to its reputation despite recent gentrification. . .

in more ways than one.  Along half-mile stretch: 2 condoms, pipe, pair of panties, catheter still in the package. 

But any street has its dirt if you look hard enough I guess.   

An office of one's own

Back to blogging.  I need to start somewhere, so I'll start with the last 24 hours.

 
I commuted to work for the first time in the two years I have been working at TCC.  Thanks to the new massive Jordan Bridge, getting to Portsmouth from Norfolk is much easier.  It also requires going over the Berkely Bridge. One story idea that Wes Cheney gave me a long time ago was themed "Gentrification of the Berkely Bridge."  I still have that story on the burner, along with a new idea "Jordan Bridge: The Innovation of using feet to travel."  The bridge has brought out critics who are horrified that a bridge should be built that allows people to walk and ride bikes over.  "People will get robbed at the top," and "People are going to be jumping off" are some of the comments I have read on line.  My commute is 13.5 miles one way and difficult to make in under an hour since there are so many lights. Glad to have my own office for drying the laundry.

Yesterday was a huge day in terms of mileage and boosting confidence for me.  It started out with plans to do the annual Teeuwen memorial ride (24 miles).  An additional 55 were added when Keith sent word that his group would leave from Hilltop to meet the ride.  And then Mike Carhart thought it would be a good idea to add 19 by riding from Norfolk to Hilltop. I never got word about the additional 15 that were added to "complete the loop" as shown here.  I did 98 with Mike and Mike Park completing 114. 

Now the confidence boosting part is illustrated in the casual conversation of Keith and Paul. I have long given up the idea that I can keep up with these guys (and women like Laura Cook and Ali Ingram who were also on the ride) during the warm summer months when full throttle rides are in gear (think Bully).  But I was beginning to wonder if I had lost the ability to even stay with them on base winter rides when Keith enforces a 20-24 mph pace.  It's not like I'm some star-struck rider who wants to be seen with the elites.  It's that their experience, handling, etiquette, and lack of bonehead stupidity on the road is so much better than many local groups.

 

Carhart dubbed the 114-mile trek "Neandriol Man's Great Dismal Gran Fondo."  Here he eats 2 donuts with one hand.  I saw him down two fully packed sandwiches over the course of the ride.  He speaks two languages (that I know of), has an awesome wife and two great girls, writes books and is flanked by graduate assistants.  It just all seems important right now.  Maybe because I want to get back to writing, and by far my #1 source of inspiration are the people who ride and my hope of telling our stories.  In an office of one's own I suppose.  (Thanks Mike, Mike and Robert for a great day.) 

Matt Chrabot was HERE

The late great JB Blaszczak documented the 2006 Conte's Cycling Classic in Downtown Norfolk where a guy name Matt who was new to cycling broke away from the cat 4 men's field.  That person was none other than Olympic hopeful Matt Chrabot, whose story I tell in altdaily's magazine at this link.

Here is the page that documents Matt in downtown.  This is the same downtown course that Lance Armstrong raced in the late 1980's, long before he won the World Championships or Tours de France.  The link to JB's page can be found here, though you must scroll down to near bottom of page to find Conte's Cycling Classic coverage.

Monster Cross recon

I had the pleasure of pre-riding Monster Cross course with the promoter Mark Junkerman and about 30 other riders this past Sunday.  This 50 mile endurance cross event is happening at Pocahantas State park on Feb. 26 and follows a format similar to cross endurance and fondo events that have become pretty popular in the last few years. 


The course is smokin' fast, with Williamsburg-type climbs that last no more than 30-45 seconds a piece. 95% is on double track with only a fraction of that being gravel. The rest is nice packed dirt. There is one stream crossing (x2 since there are 2 laps), a couple of road crossings, and a road portion near the end of the loop. Cross bike is by far better than mt bike for this course in my view, but I am reserving the option to use mountain bike if there is ice on the ground.


There are a couple of very short sections with some embedded fist-sized rocks that could puncture cross tires Ironcross style. There were no flats in my group, but in the lead group there were at least 3. No need at all for tires that are geared toward doing well in grass.

Back to it

I did my first race since the spring today, Frogs on the Farm cross race in Chesapeake.  Nice that there is a 40+ Women's category this year which was very competitive but not crazy blow your doors off pro fast either.  I got 5th out of 10 which was actually my goal going in. 

I guess it will always be hard to explain how much fun competing can be.  It's a excercise in preparation, discipline, focus, persistence and that rush of hunting and being hunted.  I hope there are photos available of Mary Ann Snavely and me racing because she became my nemisis du jour--everyone has one nearly every race.  She passed me late in the race and ended up 3rd, me 5th.  I got a few shots of the mens 35+ and 45+ races:

Summer 2011

Please don't go

L-R, Anton, Beth, Matt, Melanie

I have seen lots of statistics and numbers associated with attracting and keeping good talent in communities.  It’s widely known that educated professionals often seek cycling friendly communities when it comes time to settling into a career.  Louisville, for example, has stated one goal for a bike friendly designation by LAB is to “attract and retain young professionals to expand the economic base in Louisville.” 

These four Eastern Virginia Medical College students are good examples of people that we probably want to retain here.  Matt is from Chesapeake, while the other three relocated here to attend EVMS—Anton from Northern VA, Beth from Boston and Melanie from Toronto.  I have ridden alongside them for a couple of years now, and what I have learned is that their rides in Norfolk make up most of their very limited recreation time.  They have YMCA memberships, complements of their paid tuition to EVMS, but their outdoor exercise time is limited to a couple of rides a week, resulting in them being heavily dependent on cycling for recreation right now.  Even so, their perceptions of how cycling friendly the region is not the most pressing thing on their minds right now, but I wonder what will be going through their minds when residences and internships end a couple of years from now.

I wonder how excited they will be about staying in Hampton Roads.  Will they want to practice closer to where they grew up?   Will they gravitate toward another region of the US where they have always wanted to live?  Maybe they will serve in developing countries desperate for physicians.  I wonder if any of them will weigh the benefits of staying here in town to build a career.  If so, it appears that cycling will play at least some role in their decision.  IF they have had had favorable experiences with drivers, city involvement and improvements throughout their EVMS years, I think cycling would be just one of many factors. 

However, I think it becomes a MAJOR factor  in a decision if these experiences have been unfavorable.  Why would they want to stay in a community after working so hard if they can’t enjoy their sport?  What does it say about a community if there are no advances made in improving cycling over after 5 or 6 years, especially in an era when large, more condensed cities like New York, Chicago, DC, San Francisco have been successful in making it happen, and areas with populations similar to ours—Louisville, Raleigh-Durham for instance—have made strides also?