Tag: travel

The Antidote

There were a couple incidents at the latest Critical Mass rides in a few major cities. Unpleasant altercations with a motorist in Seattle and with a (horrible, by the looks of it) police officer in New York (watch the video). Of course there are two sides to the stories, and as you can imagine in these cases both sides claim the other started it.

If you’re not aware, Critical Mass is a group of “bicyclists” who meet the last Friday evening of every month and ride through the city completely blocking traffic and generally disrupting motorists as much as possible. I think the idea initially was to protest how bicycle unfriendly many cities are, but it seems to have degenerated into lets go get rowdy and piss people off.

I hate Critical Mass.

Why? I ride my bike every day on city streets. I obey laws. I signal turns. I am courteous to automobile drivers, pedestrians, and other bicyclists. I respect them and I hope they will respect me also. Critical Mass riders antagonize drivers one day a month, and then I ride on the same streets as those drivers every other day of the month. Am I one of the rude, disrespectful Critical Mass riders? No. But motorists don’t know that. It’s very easy to stereotype and think all bicyclists are the same (just as it is to think all motorists are the same).

A funny thing happened last November when I was in California on a business trip. I was riding around San Francisco on a friday evening when I came up to the back of a group of 20 or so bicyclists on Market St. At a stop light one of them looked over at me and noticed my Dahon Helios XL and turned to his friend and said “Hey look, this guy’s got a Helios.” Anyway we started talking and apparently he had the same bike. I asked what was going on and he informed me I had stumbled upon a Critical Manners ride. They described it as the antidote to Critical Mass. This group has the same basic mission as Critical Mass (to demonstrate the need for more bicycle friendly cities), but they obey traffic laws and are generally nice to people. The ride is organized by the San Francisco Bike Coalition. I rode with them a few blocks until I reached my destination. It was a good time.

We’d probably all be a better off with a little more manners and a little less mass.

The Qualifier

Ever since successfully talking me into the Mattoon Beach triathlon two weeks ago, my friend Martin has been trying to talk me into doing the Evergreen triathlon today. I was on the fence about it. The Evergreen tri is an Olympic distance race, which is about twice as long as the two sprint triathlons I have done this summer. An Olympic distance triathlon consists of a 1500 meter swim (that’s almost a mile), a 40 km (25 mile) bike, and a 10 km (6.2 mile) run. I was not worried about the running and biking, but the swim was going to be a challenge. Up until this past Thursday, the longest I had swum non-stop this summer was 800 yards (i.e. less than half the race distance).

Unfortunately, Martin was one of the many people who was involved in the nasty crash last Wednesday. He had already registered for the race, but was now unable to compete in it (doctor’s orders). On Thursday he kindly offered to transfer his registration to me. I accepted.

Next, I needed to prove to myself that I could actually swim 1500 meters. I have been swimming on Thursday afternoons most of the summer so that day I did a long swim, and ended up going 1760 yards (one mile) nonstop. That evening I took a spin on my triathlon bike, which I hadn’t used in almost two weeks. It checked out okay. I was as ready as I was going to be with two days preparation.

I packed the car last night. We woke up at 4:20 am, packed a few remaining items, and headed over to Bloomington. We encountered heavy rain on the way. Crap. I really should have checked the weather. The race was to start at 7:00 am. Registration was fairly smooth, despite having to explain the registration transfer situation.

Rob rushing around pre-race

I always intend to arrive plenty early to triathlons so I don’t have to rush my preparation, but for some reason this summer it just hasn’t worked. Today was no exception. The prerace meeting was underway while I was preparing my transition area. I still needed to pick up my timing chip, get my race number marked on my arms & legs, and get my swim cap I gave to Melissa for some reason. This was about 10 minutes before the race started. It was raining the whole time. This was one of the most stressful race preparations I’ve had, second only behind the half Ironman in 2003 where I got a flat tire warming up on the bike about 20 minutes before the race start. Somehow it worked out this morning. I got myself to the starting line, and before I knew it we were off.

Rob lined up at the start of the swim

The swim was loooong, as expected. I had a hard time seeing the course markers so I had to trust other people to know where they were going. Shortly before the halfway point the first person from the wave after me (started three minutes later) passed me. A moment later I passed the last people from the wave before me (started three minutes earlier). That indicated I was probably doing about average.

Rob exiting the water after a 28 minute 1500 meter swim

The transition area was fairly long and was littered with small rocks on the asphalt. Running on rocks doesn’t feel good with bare feet.

Rob in the wet (and somewhat gravely) transition area

Rob starting the bike

I got off to a good start on the 40k (25 mile) bike leg. I passed several people fairly quickly. A few people passed me, but not nearly as many as I was passing. I could tell I was having a good day. There was a light headwind and steady rain. There weren’t very many corners, but I navigated them all safely. I reached the half way point still feeling fresh. There was a bit of a tailwind on the way back and I was really able to ramp up the speed (over 30 mph at times). I ended the bike leg with the same average speed as the Indianapolis triathlon series June race, and this bike leg was 2.5 times as long. I felt great the entire time. This really was one of my best bike rides in a triathlon.

Rob finishing the bike after averaging 22.1 mph for 25 miles

Rob starting the run

The 10k (6.2 mile) run started out pretty well. My first three miles were all around 6:40-6:45. I could tell I was getting a little dehydrated. They had ample water stations out on the course, but I find it really difficult to drink when running that fast. I bit the bullet and grabbed a cup at 3.5 miles. My fourth mile was a few seconds slower, but I was still feeling okay. There was a turnaround after 4 miles and for the first time in the run we faced a headwind. The wind, combined with slight dehydration, combined with general fatigue from 2 hours of hard racing really made the last 2 miles difficult. Fortunately, the struggle lasted less than 15 minutes and I crossed the line in 2:20:56, after averaging 6:55 miles for the run. I would have liked to run a little faster, but I’m content.

My only previous attempt at this exact same distance was in August 2002, where I had a pretty good race and ended up in 2:27:46. I’ll take a 7 minute PR any day. Looking back at my splits from that race, my swim was almost 3 minutes slower today, while my bike and run were both several minutes faster. In those days I was swimming 3000 meters 4 days a week. This summer I’ve been swimming 1000-1400 yards 2 days a week. So the slower swim was no real surprise.

After standing out in the rain for 2.5 hours Melissa’s teeth were chattering and her lips were blue so she went back to the car to try to warm up. I packed up my (by this time soaking wet) gear and headed back to the car. I did manage to find a dry tank top and pair of shorts I left in the car. Melissa had only my race t-shirt to put on.

I hadn’t been expecting an age group award because this was a longer race with tougher competition. I did have a good race though, so I decided to go check the results to see if I would get an award. The preliminary results had been posted and I finished 5th in the 30-34 age group. Some races only do age group awards to the top 3, others to the top 5, others go even deeper. I checked the race information packet which I had printed out (but not read) and it indicated they would give awards to the top 5. Then came the surprise of the day. Since this was the Regional Championship race for the Olympic distance, my top 5 age group finish qualified me for the National championship race in September. Not bad for an unplanned race.

Great, so I get an award. Crap, Melissa is cold, wet, tired, & hungry. She graciously agreed to wait for the award. The award was a cowbell, which was unique and interesting. It was particularly ironic that Melissa just purchased a cowbell a week ago for my bike race. They also handed out nice embroidered jackets to everyone who qualified for the national championships. Score.

I received a unique cowbell award for finishing 5th (out of 27) in my age group

I also received a nice embroidered jacket for qualifying for the national championships

The Blue Island ProAm

This morning five Wild Card Cycling members headed up to the Chicago suburbs for the Blue Island ProAm criterium. We did the Cat 4/5 race, which was 25 laps on a 1 mile circuit. This is kind of long for a criterium, so the speed wasn’t insanely fast the entire time. The course only had 4 corners (as opposed to 8 at Proctor), which was good for me because I suck at high speed cornering.

Since Melissa did such a good job taking photos (and ringing the cow bell), this entry will be largely pictorial.

Tom, Mark, Dan, & Rob warming up for the Cat 4/5 race

And they’re off

The pace started off fast, but not too fast. The whole group stayed together for the first 10-12 miles.

I stayed to the outside for the first 6-8 laps, taking all the turns very wide. I tried to stay relatively close to Luke, who is far more experienced than I. The pace increased and decreased repeatedly, causing a few riders (but not many) to drop off early. Eventually, I got stuck on the inside for one of the turns. As it turned out (despite my fear of this scenario) it wasn’t bad at all. The turns were nice and wide and I realized the shorter distance on the inside actually took significantly less work. After a few more practice runs on the inside I changed my strategy to favor the inside on the corners.

I assumed Luke knew what he was doing, so I stayed near him the first few laps

Rob & Dan round a corner early on

Tom & Mark were very active near the front of the group. Tom frequently tried to break away with a few other random riders, but the lead group didn’t let him get too far ahead. Next, Mark would go, then Tom again, etc. We worked pretty well together as a team. Whenever one of us would be in a breakaway the others took turns chasing down other attacks.

Tom & Mark stayed near the front the entire race

One of Tom’s many attempts to break away

Rob & Dan chase down an attacker

Mark tries his luck in a breakaway

Rob had to work hard to stay in front of the kid half his age/size

About 12 miles into the race Tom made a big move off the front with 1 other rider and they built up a pretty good lead. Tom’s attack caused a split in the group. About half of the field fell behind the lead group at that point. Luke, Dan, & I were all caught in the second group. Luke & I immediately surged to bridge up to the front group, but Dan didn’t quite make it.

Tom & the other guy stayed away for a long time. They were partially aided by Mark & Luke, who moved to the front of the chase group and slowed down the pace. Eventually, Tom’s breakaway partner fell off the pace and came back to the chase group, so Tom was all by himself as we were getting close to the finish.

Tom breaks away with another rider, splitting the field in the process

Luke & Rob round a corner later in the race

The lead grew

Mark & Luke stayed near the front (for Tom’s benefit) to intentionally slow down the chase

Tom’s breakaway partner fell off the pace, but Tom continued in front alone for 5 more miles

A little less than 2 miles to go and the chasers caught up with Tom. Luke attacked as soon as Tom came back to our group, but he didn’t get very far. The group caught him with 1 mile to go. At this point somebody needed to try something. I didn’t have much left, but I thought what the hell and jumped off the front as they rang the bell (indicating 1 lap to go). About a quarter mile later my heart rate was 190 and I had nothing left. The group pulled me back and it was all I could do to keep up with them until the finish.

Tom & Mark both stayed pretty close to the front on the last lap, while Luke was near the middle, and I was at the back. Tom & Mark both started the final sprint in good positions and placed pretty well at 2nd & 3rd. Luke started to sprint, but had a mechanical problem and coasted across the finish line just ahead of me near the back of the group. We were 11th & 12th. Dan finished a short while later in 20th place with the next chasing group.

As luck would have it, the race had awards 12 places deep, so I ended up winning a small cash prize (and by cash I mean a $20 check).

Rob attacked with 1 mile to go… but it didn’t last long

Tom & Mark sprinted in for 2nd & 3rd place, respectively

An all orange podium (the winner just happened to have an orange jersey also)

Our team had a pretty successful race. I think this was Tom’s 5th podium finish of the season, and Mark’s 1st. This was also an interesting race in that it was:

  • the first criterium where nobody crashed immediately in front of me (though I am told there was a crash behind me…). Apparently Eric the bike destroyer wasn’t there :)
  • the first criterium where I finished with the lead group (mostly due to being caught behind crashes in all previous crits)
  • the first bike race where I actually won a cash prize

The Mountain

While in San Francisco a couple weeks ago I spent one afternoon riding Mt. Tamalpais. Mt. Tam is probably the closest mountain to San Francisco, located about 20 miles north of the city in Marin County. This was the fourth time I’ve ridden it and it holds a special place in my heart as the first mountain I ever rode on a bicycle.

I started in downtown San Francisco and made my way out of the city, over the Golden Gate Bridge (which I rode 5 times during the trip). It was so foggy that day I literally couldn’t even see the bridge until I was on it. As I was approaching the bridge I passed two tourists on rental bikes intently studying a map, looking around, and pointing different directions. As I passed I called out to them, “Are you looking for the bridge?” They replied, “Yes.” I responded, “It’s this way.” I have been there several times before, but no matter where I travel I always seem to be the one who gives directions to other tourists, despite the fact that I don’t actually live in these places.

Once over the bridge there is a nice little descent into Sausalito. There are a lot of bikes in this area as well. One of the popular routes for tourists on rental bikes is to cross the bridge to Sausalito, then take a ferry back to San Francisco rather than ride back (it’s a little hillier than the average tourist can handle). The route to Mt. Tam follows the bay for a few miles before shooting inland.

Mt. Tam is a little over 2500 ft high. The main climb is 10 miles long and averages around 5% gradient (though this includes a few downhill sections, it’s mostly steeper than that). It starts on a very curvy section California Highway 1 at Tamalpais Valley Junction, just slightly above sea level. These first two miles can have a fair amount of traffic, depending on the time of day. Fortunately, this road is also heavily travelled by bicycles, so nearly all the cars behave sensibly when they encounter a bike. There wasn’t a whole lot of traffic on the afternoon I chose.

After turning off California Highway 1, there really wasn’t much traffic for the remaining 8 miles. Once I reached about 1200 ft of elevation I broke through the fog & clouds and it was perfectly clear and sunny. In fact, once I got to about 1600 ft the sun was absolutely blistering. I was sweating profusely and going through water like it was… er, water. I even got sunburned. This was not what I was expecting when I left town, given I could only see a couple blocks ahead of me.

I had been looking forward to this ride literally for months, so you can imagine how I was feeling when halfway up I entered Mt. Tam State Park and saw this:

Audrey, when they close the road they put up big signs, like this one

I was pretty devastated. I stopped riding and walked across the road to the ranger station. I found a map and started to plan the remainder of my ride (I still had a few hours to kill). Maybe I wouldn’t get to ride all the way to the top, but I would still try to find somewhere interesting to go. As I was standing there I overheard a couple of hikers chatting with the ranger. The ranger was telling them it was okay for them to go hiking up on the mountain. Hmmm. After they left I walked over to the ranger and asked about biking. I was delighted to hear that the road was only closed to automobiles, and bikes were quite welcome to continue up the road. So I can just walk around the gate and keep riding? Apparently.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because there was no auto traffic on the road for the last half of the ride. I was basically all by myself (well, there were some horseflies).

From 1800 ft I could look down at the clouds rolling in from the Pacific

From 2500 ft (west peak) I could see the downtown skyscrapers over the clouds

Mt. Tam has three peaks (west, middle, east). The east peak is the highest, though the road doesn’t go all the way to the top. The west peak is slightly lower, but the elevation of the road is the highest there (a little over 2500 ft). The two steepest and hardest sections of the entire ride are right as you reach the east peak and right as you reach the west peak. Go figure.

The Pocket Rocket at the east peak

At the top I filled my water bottles and ate a couple Clif Bars. There was a soda machine which appeared to have cold lemonade for $1, which sounded perfect. I reached for my wallet only to discover a lone $20 bill. Damn. I made due with water.

Now the hard work was over, it was time to coast for 40 minutes (okay, there were a few small uphill sections on the descent). The first 8 miles of descent were traffic free. About a quarter mile after turning onto Highway 1 I caught up with a car (yes, I was going significantly faster than the cars downhill) and had to follow it the remainder of the way down (there was no room to pass). I broke my $20 bill for a bottle of Gatorade at a gas station at the bottom of the descent. Then I made my way back to the city.

What a great ride. The best part was seeing how well my little Pocket Rocket held up. Not only was it great at climbing, it handled amazingly well at around 40 mph on the descent. It truly is a no compromises travel bike.

I got one last view of Mt. Tam as I was flying out of the San Francisco airport. If you follow the wing all the way to the end, then look up you can see Mt. Tam.

Ride Information
Date: 2008-06-13 1:24 PM PDT
Mountain: Mt. Tamalpais
Road Elevation: 2492 feet
Climb Distance: 10.0 miles
Climb Ascent: 2492 feet
Climb Average Grade: 4.7%
Climb Maximum Grade: 20%
Ride Distance: 49.5 miles
Ride Total Ascent: 5685 feet
Ride Maximum Speed: 37.4 miles/hour
Ride Start: San Francisco, CA (0 feet)
Ride End: San Francisco, CA (0 feet)

The Proctor Classic

Today was the Proctor Classic criterium bicycle race in downtown Peoria. I, along with six other Wild Card Cycling riders, did the Cat 5 (i.e. beginner) race. The good news was that we had a pretty sizable group of very good riders who can work well together. The bad news was that it was a criterium, by far my least favorite type of bike race. The course was a one mile loop on closed (unlike West Lafayette) city streets. There were eight turns each loop, most of which were only separated by one block each. This is a lot of turning, and the speed was high, and that always makes me a little bit nervous.

Rob before race

Mark & Rob on lap two

Karl & Thomas

The race started well enough. I was near the front. I dropped a few positions each turn and I moved up a few positions on the longer straight sections. On the third lap I was near the middle of the pack when the guy right in front of me (it’s always* the guy right in front of me) slid out in one of the turns. I had to brake hard and turn sharply to avoid running into him. This crash split the field in half. I accelerated as soon as possible, but at the point it was too late. The front half of the field had a gap and they were going too fast for me (or anyone else behind the crash) to catch them.

I rode the rest of the race by myself. It kind of sucked to watch the leaders pull farther ahead of me each lap, but at the same time it was a bit of relief to not have to worry about other riders in the turns. Nobody passed me the rest of the race, while each lap I would pass one, or two, or three riders who dropped from the lead group.

Mark, Stew, Tom, & Dan in the lead group

Mark, Dan, Tom, & Stew in the lead group

Tom & Stew

Rob chased alone almost the entire race, but never caught the leaders

Tom finished 2nd, Stew finished 3rd

I don’t know all the details how the race unfolded at the front, but Tom finished in 2nd place, and Stew finished in 3rd. Dan and Mark also finished in the top dozen or so. I’m 95% sure I was the first person to finish behind the lead group, but the results showed me near the bottom of the field. I questioned the race official about this and she agreed this was incorrect. She went to go re-figure the results while we waited around and watched the next couple races. I never did hear back. I wonder what my official place will be…

After our race was a junior race. Next was the Masters Cat-1,2,3 race, which was won by Dave Stone, a guy who sometimes trains with us. There were many other races throughout the day, but Melissa and I had to take off at this point to visit her parents before heading back to Urbana to walk Ravage (we were dog-sitting).

Dave Stone (who sometimes trains with us) won the Masters Cat-1,2,3 race

So the race went well for the team, as well as other local riders. It was only so-so for me, but at least I learned a few things. Next time I will be a little wiser and hopefully a little luckier.

* As a side note, a rider directly in front of me has crashed at some point in five of the seven mass start bike races I’ve done (all four criteriums and one of the three road races). Fortunately, only one of them took me out as well. The lesson is don’t ride directly in front of me.

Update: The results have been posted and they correctly list me behind Mark, which as it turns out was 17th.

The Confirmation

After ten years of running (1993-2003) and two full seasons of triathlons (2002 & 2003), I tore cartilage in my left knee while running in the spring of 2004. This put both my running and triathlon enjoyment on hold. After months of trying to get back to running and arthroscopic surgery a year later it became clear that running was no longer an option for me. While giving up running was very hard for me, my consolation was that I was still able to bike. Bicycling (which I really only started as a means to an end, triathlon) became my only fitness outlet. Since that time I have biked most days, traveling tens of thousands of miles by my own power.

Last August, after nearly four years off running, I decided on a whim to run a bit. It went well. A few days later I ran again and it went well again. I started running once a week, then twice a week. I mainly ran on grass and dirt, rather than concrete and asphalt, since it is easier on my knee. I slowly started to get my speed back.

By the end of October I felt ready to do a race, the Deuces Wild Duathlon. It had a 2 mile run, a 20 mile bike, then another 2 mile run. I made a good effort and ended up 7th overall and 1st in my age group. At this point I was pretty sure I could make a full return to triathlon.

I did several short races (and one loooong one) over the winter and spring (with some success), but I was really just biding my time until summer. I needed to compete in a triathlon to confirm to myself that the old Rob was back.

Last saturday was the day. Melissa & I travelled to Indianapolis, where I did the Indianapolis Sprint Triathlon at Eagle Creek Park. It was a short race, with a 500 yard swim, a 10 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. I did this race in 2002. In that edition I got a flat tire, which took about 9 minutes to fix, and still finished respectably. I was pretty sure I could do better this time around.

The race was packed. There were over 600 people registered and there was huge, slow moving, line to pick up packets before the race. This caused me to completely miss my warm up before the race.

The swim was harder than it should have been. It was only 500 yards, but I had only swam 4 times this year prior to the race. Yes, this was dumb. I was underprepared and it showed. I swam kind of slowly. In the past I would typically finish roughly 60th for the swim in a race this size, where on Saturday I finished 86th. Not terrible, just a little rusty.

My first transition (swim to bike) took an eternity. Not only did I not practice swimming enough, I didn’t practice using my wetsuit at all. After nearly 5 years I had a really difficult time taking the damn thing off. The transition took about a minute longer than it should have.

The bike went amazingly well. The 5 years of practice I’ve had really showed. I passed way way way more people than I’ve ever passed in a triathlon bike leg, and I was passed by far fewer people than any other tri I’ve done. In the past the bike leg was always by far my weakest, but that is no longer the case. I finished the bike with the 30th fastest split, averaging 22.2 mph for a not particularly fast course. The beginning of the out and back course had lots of turns. The middle section had big bumps every 50 meters.

The second transition went much more smoothly. Nothing notable to mention.

The run was okay. Running after biking is always a little weird. Even though I never practiced this in training, my body handled it pretty well. My legs felt great, but I started to get side stitches while running. This generally doesn’t happen to me, and it was unfortunate that when it did happen it was during a race. I would have liked to have run faster, but I’m content with how it went. My run split of 19:33 (6:31 pace) was the 39th fastest. I was hoping to run under 19:00, with a pie in the sky goal of closer to 18:00.

I finished 36th overall (out of 559 finishers), and 8th in my age group (for which I won a race towel). At some point in the past 5 years triathlons changed age grouping from age on race day to age at the end of race year, meaning I was competing as a 30 year old. The 30-34 age group is typically much tougher in triathlons than 25-29.

I did well, but I had room for improvement. The good news is that the old Rob is back. Surely I will have a few more chances this summer to compete in other triathlons and hopefully continue to improve.

The Marin Headlands

We were in San Francisco for seven days. I was able to go on a bike ride five of those days. Every single bike ride I did I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. There are (at least) two reasons for this. First, the path along the northern coast of San Francisco combines with the bridge to form several miles of continuous roads/paths with very few stop lights or stop signs. Riding through the city is fun, but stopping every other block at a stop light is not the best way to get a workout. Second, just on the other side of the bridge lie the Marin Headlands.

The headlands are the hilly area at the southern tip of Marin County, just north of San Francisco. San Francisco is known for it’s hills, and while many of these hills are quite steep they are typically only 200-300 ft high. Hawk Hill, in the headlands, is 920 ft high. This is the closest big hill to San Francisco. Additionally, it provides an absolutely spectacular view of the city, bridge, and bay.

One of the routes I took to Hawk Hill

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, with the Marin Headlands in the background.

The bridge has wide paths on both sides. One is for pedestrians & bikes, the other is for bikes only.

The hills rise up immediately from the bay on the north side of the bridge.

The climb up Hawk Hill is 1.8 miles long and ranges from 3% to 12% gradient with an average of 7%.

I rode Hawk hill three times last week. The first time I had a meeting immediately following the ride, so I was really moving, around 9-10 mph. The second time I wasn’t quite as pressed for time, but I still needed to make it back in a timely fashion and averaged 8-9 mph. The third time was a much longer ride (3 hours) with no tight schedule so I rode a more leisurely 7-8 mph. At the rate I was getting slower each day it’s a good thing I didn’t stay another week or I may not have been able to maintain forward motion…

The view from the top did not disappoint. It was crystal clear on the first trip.

The second trip was a little foggy.

“Classic Rob” according to Meli

With any luck, this will be an interactive 360˚ panoramic view from the top of Hawk Hill. Click on the image and drag the mouse left and right to change the view.

The Telegraph Hill

On Wednesday morning I headed out towards the Golden Gate bridge for a bike ride. I headed north on Kearny intending to turn left onto Columbus when I saw a monster hill. Kearny St. headed up Telegraph Hill is steep. It is closed to auto traffic. I tried to ride up this street on the Dahon a few years ago, but after slowing to a complete stop I had to get off and walk the bike the rest of the way. This time I was on the Pocket Rocket, so I figured I’d give it another go. It was still steep, but I made it without too much difficulty (though I’m kind of glad it was only one block long). From there I was close to half way up Telegraph Hill and I had never been to the top, so I figured why not go the rest of the way.

Coit Tower is at the top. This was built as a memorial to the firefighters who died in the 1906 earthquake fire. It is an impressive building, and Telegraph hill provides beautiful views of the city.

Coit Tower

San Francisco from Telegraph Hill

San Francisco from Telegraph Hill

A statue of Columbus is in front of Coit Tower. Alcatraz can be seen in the background.

Lombard St. from Telegraph Hill towards the crooked section at the top of Russian Hill

The Flooding

Rains of biblical proportions hit Champaign County last week. Champaign county is very flat and the water doesn’t really go anywhere, so there was a lot of flooding. I spend a lot of time bicycling through the country side and I have seen standing water in just about every field. Several roads were under a foot of water. The flooding was even more apparent when viewed from above, as I was flying out of Champaign last Sunday morning on my way to San Francisco.

A lot of fields in Champaign county were flooded last week

The 2008 WWDC Keynote

Yesterday was the keynote presentation for the 2008 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The big news Steve Jobs announced during the keynote was a new iPhone revision with faster cellular networking (nice in theory but only available in major cities, i.e. nowhere near where I live), GPS (yay), a lower price tag (yay), better battery life (yay), a non-cracked screen (I suppose the original model has this feature as well, until you drop it on concrete), and a higher monthly service fee to AT&T (boo).

2008-06-10-Cracked-Screen
Stupid cracked screen

Even more interesting to me is the iPhone 2.0 software (which will also be available for first generation iPhones) which allows 3rd party applications to be installed and run. This was originally announced a couple months ago but a few more details were provided during the keynote. There were also lots of demonstrations from 3rd party developers who have been working on games, productivity, and educational applications for the iPhone. Who knows, maybe the DataBook software will be available on an iPhone in the future…