Little Cayman Loop

Running around Little Cayman was a really cool way to see this sister island. We spent the first part of this amazing week on Grand Cayman. I represented HORST Engineering at a health care symposium hosted by one of our key suppliers/insurers. We have a self-funded health plan and we are members of an insurance captive so the symposium doubled as our annual meeting. The captive includes more than 20 other mid-sized businesses proactively looking for ways to provide better quality and lower cost benefits to our employees.

Debbie and I had never been to the Cayman Islands, so when the opportunity was presented we decided to take full advantage. Last year was HORST Engineering’s first year in the program and two of my colleagues represented us at the conference. They enjoyed the trip with their spouses and had great things to say about their hosts and the accommodations (resort setting).

Grand Cayman was cool, but it has developed rapidly and the associated costs are becoming a bigger issue for the island’s full time inhabitants (about 69,000) and visitors alike. Congestion, accidents, and other issues are having a negative impact on the island experience. Apparently, it got even more crazy during and after the COVID-19 pandemic with a surge of new interest from outsiders. This week’s edition of the local newspaper, the Cayman Compass, reported on two recent fatal hit and run collisions with cyclists. I hate reading about that type of news, but I can see why. Even running was difficult as the roads are not cyclist or pedestrian friendly. Grand Cayman has few sidewalks and narrow or non-existent shoulders. There are almost no street lights (they replaced them with rotaries) so traffic is always flowing. It’s hard to cross the street when there are no breaks in traffic.

The conference started late on Sunday and wrapped up mid-morning on Wednesday. We had a few pockets of time to explore. Debbie didn’t attend all of the business sessions so she got some extra beach time. We did some running and swimming, and generally enjoyed the weather, which is spectacular. That means hot, humid, and sunny. It’s hot all of the time, even at night. The salt air has healing characteristics and the ocean water is amazing. It’s clean, warm, and a brilliant shade of blue.

We decided to stay for two extra days. The conference hotel was sold out and at first, we booked a neighboring hotel for Wednesday and Thursday, but we made a switch. Several months ago, when I was doing some Internet research, I checked the Fastest Known Time website. I searched for runs and was surprised and pleased to see that there was a previously established route on Little Cayman, which is 91 miles east of Grand Cayman, and known as one of the two sister islands. The other sister island is Cayman Brac, which you can see from the southern and eastern points on Little Cayman. Little Cayman is about 10 square miles and Cayman Brac is only slightly larger. We were able to cancel our Grand Cayman hotel and instead, book a small one-bedroom bungalow (with a kitchen and laundry) on Little Cayman.

The only way to get from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman is on a small plane. I’m sure you can get there on a private plane, but Cayman Airways has a commercially available flight (usually daily) on a de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter. The 35 minute flight was a cool experience for an aviation/aerospace fan like me. The Twin Otter seats 17 passengers plus two pilots. On our flight, there was only six passengers, plus the two pilots. We had an extensive conversation with the captain, who was originally from Africa, but found his way to the Cayman Islands many years ago. There were no flight attendants and very limited ground crew (at Little Cayman). After landing, he rolled the baggage cart over to the terminal. That’s neat.

The runway crosses the island’s main road, so if you are driving, cycling or running when a flight is arriving or taking off, look out! Twin Otters like the one we took are powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-20 turboprop engines. The plane is known for its ability to make short takeoffs and landings, which we witnessed on the tiny Little Cayman airstrip.

Before this week, there was only one Cayman Islands entry on the FKT site. A fellow by the name of Dave Stock created the Little Cayman route and completed it in 2018. His write-up says he has the goal to do an FKT on all three of the Cayman Islands, but so far, Little Cayman is the only one that has been logged. We tried to reach Dave through social media channels, but didn’t have any luck. His brief report on the 22.4 mile loop (a circumnavigation of the island) highlighted the most important factor: oppressive heat and humidity.

We started our run just before 7:00 A.M. We could have started earlier, but we made a tradeoff. We had a full night of sleep and some food before starting. We were worried that running at dawn or dusk might expose us to the nuisance of mosquitoes, but we don’t know for sure if that would be a factor. The island is very rural with only about 160 full time residents. For the first few hours of the run, only four vehicles passed us, so doing it at night with lights/reflective clothing would be safe. I don’t think there will be a “next time” for us, but we would recommend to others that they consider that strategy. Of course, you would avoid the sunshine, but the heat and humidity are present 24 hours a day. Even at night, the temperature remains in the 80’s (Fahrenheit).

Despite a slight headwind, we went out at a good clip, running 8:15 to 8:55 miles for the first nine miles, but our bodies eventually told us that was a foolhardy pace to sustain. Our first mile above nine minutes was mile 10, but several more followed. It was slightly overcast, but by 9:00 A.M. the heat of the sun was already baking us. We made two beach stops to splash (salt) water (which is warm, not cold) on our arms, legs, shoulders, and heads in an attempt to cool off but results were marginal. The water is very warm here. It’s not refreshing at all.

Most of the houses are connected to the grid, so they have electricity, but water is stored in cisterns as there is no “city water.” Air conditioning in most buildings is produced by heat pumps. I switched from a ball cap to a wide brim hat. Debbie was lucky she brought a bandana because she used it to cover her shoulders. It also worked well when she soaked it with water to cool off her head. Things really started to heat up in the second half. The combination of broken asphalt, sand, and gravel roads were easy to navigate and we ran at the edge to try to get some relief from the sun. The vegetation is low lying so there really wasn’t much shade at all. I used Altra Escalante road shoes, but Debbie used her Altra Mont Blanc trail runners. Both worked fine.

Thankfully, around mile 16, we ran by the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) on the island’s north shore. We didn’t see anyone there (we called out through the doors), but the place was open, and they had an outdoor sink. We assumed the water was potable. We took a sink shower and refilled our UltrAspire hydration packs. This was life saving. When Dave Stock did the route in 2018, it appears he was accompanied by someone on a bicycle who helped by carrying extra water in a basket. We were self-supported, so relying on CCMI wasn’t part of the original plan, but it worked out. I’m sure they do good work at the institute and we are grateful for their sink!

Late in the run, I had to mix in some intermittent walking as my legs were blown. As usual, Debbie got stronger as it got longer, and she waited for me. Before we started, we debated doing the FKT individually, but I’m glad we stuck together and did it as a team. Naturally, I led the first half and then faded, while she guided us home with a strong finish. We had designs on running faster, but ended up doing it in 3 hours and 33 minutes. It was a good training run for Debbie as she has several ultramarathon trail races on the calendar for 2023. I was just tagging along.

As noted, the road surface was a mix of pavement, gravel and sand. Some of the sand sections were slow. It wasn’t deep, but there was enough that you felt the drag. The island is lovely. There were some great ocean views along the route. Also there were multiple interior salt ponds. They have a pungent smell, but they are frequented by amazing birds, of which there are many, including the rare Red-footed Booby and Magnificent Frigatebirds. Judging from the number of “For Sale” signs (some existing structures, but mostly raw land) that we saw, Little Cayman is at risk of having a development problem too. We read in the Cayman Compass that some people want to see the airstrip and other infrastructure expanded so that more people can get here. I’m sure some of the long time residents who enjoy the seclusion wouldn’t be happy with more development, but the businesses that are on the island would probably benefit from more customers.

We were fortunate to see three Rock Iguanas at different points along the route. They are endangered and there were numerous signs warning motorists to stay alert and watch for them on the road. Collisions are a risk to these reptiles. Little Cayman is my kind of island. The beaches are remote, the location is very rural, and accommodations are rustic. Along with Cayman Brac, Little Cayman is mainly known as a hard core SCUBA diving destination. Birders and fishing enthusiasts like it too. Now, it’s known as an FKT destination!

Debbie and I were happy to spend some time together, but whenever we have a fun trip to a new place, we wish our kids were along for the adventure. I guess we will just have to return to the Cayman Islands to share the experience with them.

2022 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships

The 2022 USA Cyclocross National Championships returned to Hartford, Connecticut after five years. It’s been an eventful five period since January 2017. The state of cyclocross is in flux, but last week’s races were a fantastic celebration of the sport. It was also a celebration of the cycling community and especially the New England cyclocross community.

Everything culminated with last Sunday’s elite championship races at Riverside Park. The setting was perfect. The day dawned cold and wintry, and by sunset, a snowstorm had settled over the area. The snow was the perfect ambience for the final two races of the week.

There were so many highlights from the week, but on Sunday it was Clara Honsinger’s dominance of the elite women and Curtis White’s hard fought victory over Eric Brunner and the rest of the elite men, that stood out.

You can search the Internet for reports, analysis, video, and many more photos.

Included here are some of my images from the day.

It is worth noting that HORST Cycling, the predecessor to Team HORST Sports, promoted the first ever cyclocross race at this venue 19 years ago in 2003.

We laid out a Riverside Park course for the first time and it way back then, we envisioned that it was a national championship worthy venue and location. Hartford has now hosted CX Nats twice. That’s pretty cool.

2022 Manchester Road Race

What a great day! The 86th running of the Manchester Road Race (MRR) was spectacular. The event has been at legendary status for a long time, but in my opinion, it just keeps getting better. It’s so cool for a big race to be in our “backyard.” Today’s weather was fantastic. It was cold (low 30’s Fahrenheit at the start), but there was no wind and the sun was shining brightly.

With such great weather, the spectators were out in force. There had to be more than 30,000 people cheering from the sides of the roads. It was awesome. The four of us ran well and for the first time in 10 years, we wall ran independently. For the last five years, I ran with one of the kids (not counting the COVID-19 virtual version), but this year I was able to give it my all. Both kids are now strong enough and skilled enough to navigate a race with more than 9,600 runners. This was Shepard’s 10th MRR and Dahlia’s 7th.

Once again, HORST Engineering sponsored Veteran’s Row.

One reason why I wanted to run this one hard was because it was my first year in the 50-54 age group. 50 is a milestone unto itself and I wanted to see how my time would compare with prior years. This was my 33rd MRR and 28th in a row. My first was in 1985. The race was much smaller then.

Debbie ran her 24th overall (and in a row). It just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without running the race. Our tradition is a shared tradition. So many other families have long streaks as well. Our friend Todd Brown did his 46th MRR today, and they have all been in a row. Last night, we sat with him at the annual pasta dinner at the Elk’s Club. It was fun to reminisce. Amby Burfoot was also at dinner. He finished his 60th MRR today. That’s the most of anyone…for now. He also won the 75-79 age group for good measure.

The race is full of traditions. We walked over from Spring Street around 9:00 A.M. At 9:10 A.M. we took the annual Shenipsit Striders “team photo” in front of St. James Church. I’ve been the photographer for as long as I’ve been a Strider, which is about 22 years. After the photo, I do a warmup (in recent years with Shepard) in the streets behind the church. We wind our way past the old Cheney Mills (now apartments) and by the Cheney mansions.

This year, I went for a second short warmup and trip to the port-a-potty. I normally wait until the last moment to get into the runner corral for my seed group (under 30 minutes) just before the national anthem is sung. This is usually at 9:50 A.M. The race starts sharp at 10:00 A.M.

Today, I found Shepard in the corral. He had already lined up. There were about 150 people in front of us and more than 8,000 behind us. This year’s official registration numbers were more than 9,600 runners, though the results show 8,304 finishers. Last weekend, nearly 1,000 children participated in the Little Manchester Road Race. I’m sure some people didn’t start and some people didn’t finish the 4.748 route. Among the finishers were some great champions. The men’s race was won by Conner Mantz of Utah. He broke the course record, finishing in 21:04. The women’s winner was a repeat from last year. Weini Kelati couldn’t best her own course record, but she won again and kudos to both of them.

All of the Livingston’s had good runs today. Debbie was probably the least satisfied. She hasn’t felt fast and is searching for more speed. Of course, it’s all relative. She was still sixth in the 45-49 age group with a respectable time of 34:52. I know she was hoping for better and I’m sure she will increase her focus in 2023.

Dahlia was also a bit slower than last year, but this was her first time running on her own without a parent to support her. She did great navigating a high density field of runners and nabbed third in the under 13 age group. She was disappointed with her 36:18 but cheered up when she learned about her podium position. She is excited for 2023 when she joins the high school cross country team. I bet her time plummets.

Speaking of plummeting times, Shepard was the MVP of the family today. He absolutely crushed the race, posting a 26:14. That earned him ninth in the highly competitive 14-18 age group. Five of the guys in front of him were 18 year old college freshmen. He had a great battle with his Rockville High School rival, John Glidden. Bolton and Rockville are in the same conference, so Shep and John have battled each other for two years at events ranging from the 800 to the 5,000 (cross country). Last week, they were both honored at the Connecticut XC All-State banquet. I expect their rivalry to continue on the track this spring.

Today, John went out very hard and it looks like he paid the price after the hill. He and Shep traded spots, but eventually John got him back and held him off by two seconds. Lucas Thompson of Simsbury squeezed between them. He nipped Shep by 13/100ths of a second. Shepard’s time was far better than my best, which was 27:00 in 2009.

I’ve slowed, but I’m still proud of my ability to run fast. Today I ran 27:43 and that got me second in the 50-54 age group. I was well behind Brian Murray of Coventry who ran 27:02, but I’ll take it. I did several morning workouts over the last month in an attempt to hone some speed. I haven’t run much on the road, but having done this race so many times, I know exactly how to pace it. I felt good today and this was a good time. I ran a second slower in 2016 and hadn’t put up a significantly faster time since 2012, 10 years ago. I went out hard but not too hard. I ran the hill steadily. I kept Brett Stoeffler in site until the top, but that’s when I started to falter. The uphill is my strength and I usually struggle from the top of the hill until the 3.5 mile mark. I kept things in check and lost a few spots, but was able to mostly hold my ground. I was able to accelerate a bit towards the end, but lost a few more spots on Main Street. Regardless, I’m pleased with how my 50 year-old body responded. It was a bit of mind over matter.

There is so much more I could write about the race, but I’ll stop here. I love this race. My family has come to love this race. We saw so many friends today. One friend I’ll mention is Eric Fleming. He and his wife Julie brought their three kids down from their home outside Boston. Eric grew up in Manchester and we were HORST Cycling teammates dating back to 1997. He texted me this morning before the race and we were able to connect in front of St. James. It was so nice to see him.

My legs are sore from the pounding they took on the pavement, but I’ll be buzzing for the next few days. The pain is worth it.

Race Results

Full Replay – TV Coverage

2021 USA Cyclocross National Championships (Singlespeed) + Season Wrap-Up

As last Saturday’s daylight faded at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois, my 2021 cyclocross season came to an end. The conclusion of the Singlespeed Championship was much less eventful than 2017 when I DNF’d with a broken leg. Even though this year’s SSCX race may have been one too many (number 19 on the season), I came to Illinois to finish what I didn’t in Reno. Before I continue with the story, you really should check out this fantastic video. It’s delightful.

SSCX has such a great vibe, and the race at Nats is always awesome. My “A” race was the Masters 50-54 Championship, which I wrote about last week, but the singlespeed race was the capstone to my season.

This was my first year in the 50+ age group and I made the most of it. I’m technically 49 until later in 2022, but with cyclocross’ weird age group rules, I got a head start on my 50+ racing. That’s why cyclocross was my main overall endurance sports objective for 2021. Despite the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, I pinned a number on 40 times this year. Along with the 19 cyclocross races, I did 11 triathlons (nine were off-road), four road running races, three trail running races, and three mountain bike races. That’s a good mix for me.

This is absolutely my best cyclocross season in the 26 years that I’ve been doing the sport. My www.crossresults.com profile proves that point emphatically. My cyclocross season goals included 1) winning my age group in the CT Series of Cross 2) consistently placing top 10 in the regional age group races and 2) finishing top 20 in my age group at Nats. I accomplished most of this. I fell short of the Nats goal, but made up for that with stellar regional races at the GP of Beverly and the Northampton International. Arguably, other than Nats, they were the two most competitive Masters races that I did all year. They had strong fields and I performed above my own expectations.

I mixed in a few New England SSCX Series races for fun and then as noted, finished the season on the singlespeed bike at Nats. The final race day had lots of drama. My age group race was a week ago (last Thursday). On Friday, I had a full day that included a training ride, lots of cheering at the race venue, a supplier visit, and Cross Spikes sales at the race EXPO. On Friday afternoon, a storm front blew in and it brought heavy rain and high winds. My teammates, Arlen Zane Wenzel and Adam Skepner, decided to take down all of the Team HORST Sports and HORST Cycling stuff (i.e. tent, table, displays, etc.) in advance of the storm. A lot of other teams and companies left up their tents and paid a heavy price. We learned our lesson in Reno when we lost a tent in a wind storm.

In Wheaton, the winds accelerated overnight and by morning, they had made ruins of the EXPO and club/team area. The winds also wreaked havoc with the course, which resulted in a three hour delay and cancellation of a few non-championship races. The winds persisted throughout the morning, but we were eventually able to set our tent up again. Saturday morning and early afternoon were hardly restful, so by the time the singlespeed race start came at 3:45 P.M., I was already cold and tired. The cheering on Saturday was extra special because the race schedule included most of the Junior races. We had two CCAP Team HORST Junior Squad riders out there. Alexandra Miller-Davey and Boden Chenail. Each was in their respective 15-16 year old age group. They were joined by several other CCAP Travel Team athletes and I screamed loudly for all of them. I wasn’t at the top of my game by the time my race start rolled around.

Regardless, I gave it a go and hung tough for three laps, but I was outclassed by the all-ages field of talented riders. The conditions were tough. The course was muddy, heavy, and slick. The hills and off-camber turns were challenging. I had an OK start, but steadily lost ground. I’m usually good when there is a lot of running, but it was slow running if you know what I mean. I could have switched to “party mode” and started taking hand-ups and horsing around, but that isn’t my style. I pushed hard until the end, even sprinting for a spot, even though I was in 60th place. I had to end my season pushing because that is how I started it back in August.

Overall, Nats was great experience. Arlen and Adam were awesome. We sold a lot of Cross Spikes, made a lot of new friends, and spent time with old friends. The course conditions were ideal for our marketing efforts – they were muddy and slippery.

When I finished my last race, I had to clean my bike because it was covered in mud and the drivetrain was packed with Cantigny Park grass. By the time I got back to the tent, Arlen and Adam had most of our stuff packed up. They were ready to go. My hands were frozen solid and it took a while to clean up and get warm clothes on. We departed for home as the sun was setting. We said our goodbyes to our EXPO neighbors, and hit the road. I took the first shift and drove for a few hours. Adam took over and drove until we stopped for dinner. I didn’t warm up until we reached Ohio.

The three of us “traded pulls” for 15 hours and after dropping the boys off, I pulled into my driveway around 10:30 A.M. on Sunday morning. I was exhausted but ecstatic to be home. I spent the afternoon cleaning my bikes (again), doing laundry, cleaning the trailer, and putting away the gear that I won’t need until next season. It felt good to end the season healthy. I’ve got a slew of minor issues after a season full of crashes (part of the game), and hard efforts. It was great to reconnect with Debbie and the kids after several days on the road. Looking back on the 2021 cyclocross season, I have nothing but good feelings. I can name several races where I could have done better. That competitive desire is what keeps me going, but in the end, none of those results matter and no one will ever care. If I’m having fun on bikes, I’m happy.

Race Results

The State of Manufacturing 2021

My emotions have been running high during this 75^th anniversary year at HORST Engineering. It’s been a year of reflection as we struggle to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and recession. Despite the stress of the situation, I’ve remained incredibly optimistic about our business and the future of manufacturing in Connecticut. Immense pride drives us to persevere through one of the best times, and one of the worst times in our history. Over the last five years, there has been renewed interest in supporting local manufacturers, but some momentum has been lost during the pandemic. So, at the start of Manufacturing Month, it is important that I share the message that we need policy makers and other advocates to redouble their efforts so that manufacturers recover from the pandemic slowdown, and thrive again.

Growing up around this family business, I never thought that I would be leading our company towards a diamond anniversary. In 1996 when we celebrated our 50^th, I organized a modest celebration, but as business careers go, I was just a rookie with a lot to learn. I was less than a year into my “full time” career when we hit that milestone, and I had no idea what I was in for. We were slowly clawing back from that awful early 1990’s recession that changed the aerospace manufacturing economy forever. The fall of the Berlin Wall, and end of the Cold War triggered a massive wave of downsizing and consolidation among the big defense manufacturers. The large customers made a strategic shift to outsource most of their part production. 

The aerospace manufacturing supply chain is made of thousands of small businesses. Those that hung in there were poised for growth. 

Long lead times and deep backlogs are the main reason why aerospace and other advanced manufacturing businesses are often last into a recession. It also means they usually are the last out. When I started my career at HORST Engineering, we were hurting. Thankfully, we stabilized and started to make a series of investments that set us on the right path. Over the last 25 years, our growth has come in cycles. As the military aerospace sector struggled to adjust, the commercial aerospace sector was beginning to take off. That’s right around the time that the world started to “get flat.” As the global economy recovered, and low cost airlines emerged, air travel became more affordable and a travel boom ensued. 

Those that innovated, embraced the use of computer technology, and leveraged the beginning of the Internet era, made the leap from old-school manufacturing to advanced manufacturing. Our company could no longer compete in the wide ranging markets (i.e. typewriter components, hardware, machines, etc.) that we had supplied parts to in the past, but with aerospace and a few other high technology industries, we were able to reconfigure our enterprise to do the high mix/low volume, precision products that are critical to Connecticut’s success. 

The cycles continued and our business rode the waves. Growth was interrupted in September 2001 when the terrorist attacks on 9/11 dealt another blow to the aerospace industry. In the period that followed, passenger air travel struggled to recover, while defense industries returned to the fore. We adjusted our approach and persevered; a common theme in our history.  Security became paramount and with the necessary changes that were implemented, commercial aviation soared again. 

In 2008, it took a global financial crisis and a Great Recession to stop the growth. At HORST Engineering, we didn’t bottom out until 2010, and then it took several years to recover from the economic meltdown. Another period of intense innovation, technology investment, and renewed interest in American manufacturing followed. The high cost of energy drove new aircraft programs geared towards fuel efficiency and improved reliability. 

As a supplier, if you kept pace, you were rewarded with more business even as high precision work went offshore. Our family business has never made “cheap crap” and we never will. Our Core Purpose is to “help people fly safely” and whether that is taken literally when we make critical “flight safety” fasteners for jet engines or metaphorically when we do similarly close tolerance work for our non-aerospace customers. 

One of the special aspects of aerospace technology is the trickle-down effect. Aerospace is literally “rocket science” and the knowledge gained benefits so many other industries. HORST Engineering’s capabilities have been honed by our aerospace work. We are also part of a network of suppliers. That ecosystem is vital to the success of manufacturing in Connecticut and throughout New England. We have one of the highest concentrations of high tech suppliers in the world. Within a short distance, we can reach other suppliers who specialize in heat treatment, coatings, testing, and other special processes. We count on them, and they count on us. Some of our longstanding suppliers have done business with us for more than 60 years. These connections are what make our supply chain so deep, and so amazing. 

When you measure success in financial terms, we had a heck of a run between 2013 and the first quarter of 2020. Over the years, we have tried a lot of different things in an effort to grow and diversify. This has included prior expansions and acquisitions. 2019 was a “banner year” and we reminded everyone on Team HORST what that looks like. After sharing the success, we launched our biggest project in company history with the acquisition of a large, but blighted building in our “hometown” of East Hartford. We knew that the aerospace super-cycle was getting old but we had prepared for a downturn. 

On the commercial side of our industry, a duopoly exists and one of the two companies at the top was really struggling. So, when 2020 kicked off, we were literally bracing ourselves for what might come. The good news is that we had built a strong balance sheet and our past history of reinvestment gave us the protection that we thought we needed to ride out another down cycle period while still executing a construction project and move. 

This has been quite a downturn. When we built our 2020 business plan, “pandemic” wasn’t one of the threats that we listed. I am proud that we were quick to react, even quicker than most companies. Our first Covid-19 Task Force meeting was on March 16th, 2020. I was following the news coming out of Asia and was aware that the Covid-19 virus was cause for concern, but how could you predict how bad this would be? Throughout 2020, we worked very hard to keep our people safe. We were an essential business and as a manufacturer, we had a built in advantage because “safety” is part of our everyday habits. 

Things got worse as the year progressed. The speed of the downturn was quicker than past cycles and even as businesses that are part of the “stay-at-home” economy have flourished, the transportation and hospitality sectors have languished. We aren’t guessing when permanent improvements will kick in, but we are optimistic that we will grow again. In the meantime, we completed our renovation, executed a huge move, made a difficult decision to consolidate our Massachusetts operations, and increased our focus on lean enterprise. You don’t get opportunities like this too many times in your career. I’ve been saying that we are a “75 year-old startup.” We have the benefit of an incredible legacy and we are now in a state-of-the-art factory. 

Committing to an expansion plan in East Hartford, Connecticut in the midst of the doldrums is a bold endeavor, but we are making it through and poised for an upturn. Many have questioned why we would pour so much money into a project in a high cost location. I wondered too, but when I did the deep thinking required before initiating the investment, I determined that advanced manufacturing was here to stay. Connecticut has a lot of issues, and in my younger idealist days, I thought that I could single-handedly change the politics, the negative vibe, and the economy. 

I’ve wizened and realized that there is less in my control, but that I can still make a difference. We took a 50 year-old dilapidated building and transformed it. It’s incredible. Over the last two and a half years, we have gotten much-appreciated support from our town and the state. Even the federal government stepped up and we have used the contributed resources as intended. The combination of outside support with our own savings were vital to the success of this project.

Our employees, suppliers, advisors, and customers all had to deal with the same circumstances. We are getting through this and now that we are operating from our new factory, we are even more excited about the future. The technical schools are also regaining their footing. After some setbacks, Goodwin University, Asnuntuck Community College, Manchester Community College, and the other institutions who help train the next generation of talented manufacturing workers, are making progress again. Skills have always been a competitive advantage for the people of Connecticut. Job growth will return, and wages will grow. 

Productivity will offset inflation while improving quality. For many years, I spoke loudly about how “high tech” manufacturing was, and is. I argued that technology wasn’t video games and apps, but that technology was a rocket engine and a space suit. I always pointed out that HORST Engineering had parts on these life-changing products. I described manufacturing as clean and advanced even as our own factory was a step behind the standard that I desired. I envisioned a “dream factory” that would be the culmination of teamwork and success. 

As I walk across our new factory floor, one that you “can eat off” (just not in Covid times!), I recognize how far we have come. My grandfather, Horst Liebenstein, fled Germany in 1938, and that gives me a unique perspective. He immigrated at Ellis Island, he Americanized his name to Harry Livingston, and eventually made his way to Hartford, a thriving industrial center. He met his spouse, Sylvia, and they started a family. They then founded our company in the North End on Garden Street, just over a mile from the Connecticut River. The entire Connecticut River Valley is a corridor of manufacturing prowess. The Aerospace Component Manufacturers refer to it as “Aerospace Alley.” 

I grew up in this business with my father Stanley, Uncle Steven, and mother Adeline as mentors and guides. They took risks before me and added to the foundation that my grandfather built. With the help of many key employees, we have capitalized on the head start that our predecessors gave us. I have no idea what the future will bring, but we will be ready. As noted, we have gotten good support from many, including the State of Connecticut, but policy makers need to know that more should be done. Retirements and competition will require more investment in programs to develop manufacturing skills. My hope is that a reckoning in higher education will redirect more people to skills oriented programs that won’t leave them indebted and unhappy in their jobs. 

Doing business here doesn’t have to cost so much. Policy makers still need to moderate regulations and ease up on taxes. I’m worried about health care costs and about the impact of the pandemic on business travel. I’m worried about a lot of things, but we stayed in Connecticut, we are investing, and are diversifying here.

I want our story to inject a bit of joy. East Hartford, Connecticut, and New England may not reclaim past industrial glory, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be better. Lean enterprise is all about respect for people and continuous improvement. Manufacturers understand that more than most businesses.  Let’s build on that theme. I probably won’t be around in 75 years, but my kids should be. By then, they will have kids and grandkids of their own. One of the benefits of being the steward of a family business is that you are guaranteed to have a long-term mindset. 

You look back, and then you look ahead.

Journal Inquirer: Conversation with Scott Livingston

An interview I did was published in this weekend’s Journal Inquirer.

Click here for the full link.

The reporter, Tim Leininger, had a few factual errors as a result of using a voice recorder and transcription software. I corrected them (marked in blue) and the online version has since been updated.

MANCHESTER — It was 1938 when Scott Livingston’s grandfather Horst Liebenstein emigrated from Germany to the United States, where he eventually established what would become Horst Engineering, now based in South Windsor and East Hartford. Livingston, who lives in Bolton, is the third generation running the business and discusses his family’s history and taking over the family business.

Q: Did you grow up in Bolton?

A: I grew up in Vernon.

Q: What was life in Vernon like for you?

A: I grew up on Hickory Hill Road. I started on Taylor Street. My parents moved there in 1969, the same year they got married. They were married Woodstock weekend. My father jokes that he had friends choose the concert over the wedding and wishes he was there himself, but instead got married.

I’ve lived on the Rail Trail all my life; four different locations, twice with my parents and twice since I’ve been out on my own, including where we live now in Bolton. The trails are a central part of my life. Growing up in Vernon was just exploring the woods and the trails. I went to Lake Street School. I have a younger sister, Stacie. She lives in Coventry. She’s not involved in the business, but she’s still an important part of the family. She’s a physical therapist.

Q: Since this is a family business, were you groomed from the get-go to potentially take over?

A: No. My grandfather founded the business in 1946. He had three sons. My father is the oldest of the three. The middle son is Steven, and he became partners with my father, Stanley, early in the ’60s, but wasn’t official until the late ’70s. They had a younger brother, Bert, and he only briefly worked in the business in the ’70s after college; my father, Stanley, and Steven had been really firmly involved with the business for years at that point. There really wasn’t room for all three.

My mother joined the business in the early ’80s, and she’s been here for more than 35 years. The three of them really were the partners that ran the business in the second generation. She deserves as much credit as Steven and Stanley.

I got involved as a kid growing up in the business like anyone else in a family business would. I was exposed to the business along with my sister being exposed to the business. I had the good fortune of seeing my grandfather still working day-to-day until he passed away in 1998. By then I had started there full-time. But there was a period during my high school years going into college where I did not plan to work here. I was looking for something different.

Q: What did you want to do?

A: I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. I was in ROTC briefly, but because of some medical disqualifications in the early ’90s I wasn’t able to pursue that path. In the subsequent period where I was rethinking what I wanted to do career-wise, I worked here and that exposed me to the opportunity. It also exposed me to the challenges, which I thought I could help my family with. I went back to school.

Q: Where were you going to school?

A: I went to Boston University to start and I ended up finishing at Boston College. If you know anything about Boston schools, they’re opposites. I needed a change of pace and I went from downtown BU to somewhat suburban BC just to get through it. I studied economics and I came back to work in the business full time after college. I went to high school at East Catholic in Manchester, even though I grew up in Vernon. I went to the Middle School in Vernon.

I wasn’t going to work here and I didn’t study engineering. It was my grandfather’s dream that I did work here and all his kids and grandkids would work here because that’s the whole reason why he built the business. He came from Germany and he didn’t do it the easy way. He persevered and got the business to a point where, when Stan and Steven got involved and then with the support of Lynn, they were able to take it to the next level. My Uncle Bert remained involved and had an ownership stake. So once it was clear that I forged a career path here, he and I became allies. It was an opportunity for him. He lives in Florida. He wasn’t involved in the day-to-day running of the business, but he was an advocate in transitioning the business in a proactive and healthy manner from the second generation to the third generation.

My father, uncle, mother, and I; the four of us engaged experts to help us and we’ve invested heavily in family business education over the years. We’ve invested in non-family management to build a strong professionally managed business that still has the qualities and core values of a family-owned business.

Q: What year did your grandfather move to the United States?

A: October 19, 1938, Ellis Island. He came here with almost nothing. His birth name was Horst Rolf Liebenstein and that’s the name he arrived at Ellis Island with. He changed his name. He Americanized it. Horst became Harry, Liebenstein became Livingston. My grandmother was Sylvia Hurwitz and she grew up in Hartford. She was born here. Her roots are also Eastern European but I believe a mix of Russian and Polish.

The German culture is really what dominated the business. My grandfather got a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ilmenau (University of Technology), but he had to leave his life in Germany behind and start from scratch here. He had two brothers, an older brother, Berthold, and a younger brother, Hans, and both of them kept their names and they both ended up in Africa in the mid-’30s. They left Germany prior to Horst. There were German colonies in Africa and Berthold ended up in Kenya and Hans ended up in South Africa.

Berthold passed away at a young age around 1940 so they didn’t see each other again. Hans raised three daughters in Cape Town and I believe that my grandfather reunited with his brother after 30 years in 1964. Ultimately, approximately 15 years later, he moved the bulk of the South African family to Connecticut. One or two end up in Israel. There’s Jewish roots in this family and it’s a big part of the origin story of the business.

Q: Was the tension in Germany part of the motivation to move?

A: Yes. Kristallnacht was in November that year. It was a long process to reclaim the home he had abandoned in 1938. His parents remained behind and perished during the subsequent period. He was the last of his generation in the family to remain there. His parents didn’t want to leave. They weren’t in great health. They operated a small store on the first floor of the home in this town, Bad Liebenstein.

 

The house was returned to us in 1999 a year after he passed away. It was through a formal process with the United Restitution Organization. It was East Germany and what happened was a family moved into this house after the war.

I don’t know the particulars … but the same family that lived there for decades in the house bought it back from us after we got it back. So it was effectively a paper transfer.

Q: When your grandfather came here, how did his business start?

A: His metalworking skills came from working in a bicycle factory in his teens in Germany. He was highly educated as a mechanical engineer, but he also was a tool and die maker. He was a hands-on engineer and he knew how to make stuff. He came from New York to Connecticut around 1940. He met my grandmother. She helped him learn English. They lived in the north end of Hartford and he had this plan to start his own business. There was no intent to work for others after experiences he had gone through. But he needed to learn. He needed to learn the language, he needed to learn the industry in the area. He basically sampled a variety of processes at area shops and manufacturing companies in 1940 and 1946. He worked wiremold (at Wiremold).

He worked at John’s Hartford Tool Company and a handful of other companies over that six-year period. He started to moonlight, and he was doing engineering design work on the side in the evenings.

When he founded the business in Hartford in 1946, he called that Horst Engineering and Manufacturing Company. That’s our full legal name and it was at 602 Garden Street on the second floor of a barn. The business moved to East Hartford in 1950 and we’ve effectively been headquartered in East Hartford ever since.

But his designs didn’t take off enough to pay the bills, so he started making parts for other people and really evolved into a contract manufacturer. There’s so much industry here.

My father really took that to the next level. They didn’t have design engineering capabilities in the next generation. My father brought the sales, supply chain, the front end of the business expertise. My uncle was a disciple of my grandfather and he was the engineer and the manufacturing expert; tool and die maker himself. Their combination, with the support of my mother and HR and finance, allowed them to develop as a contract manufacturer and push into higher precision products because between 1979 and 1989 everything changed.

By 1995 all of the commercial industry was under pressure here in Connecticut. If you were in basic products it first went elsewhere in the country, particularly the South and Midwest and then it went offshore. What remained was high precision, and in Connecticut that’s primarily aerospace and medical. High precision aerospace components are one of Connecticut’s greatest exports and that’s where we really carve out our (spot).

Q: Are you the sole family member now running the business?

A: The three second-generation leaders still work here part-time.

Q: Is there a following generation?

A: They’re too young. My children Shepherd (Shepard) is 13 and Dahlia is 10. My sister has children who are 16 and 13. I have a first cousin from the youngest brother who was involved in this business, and she’s only in her early 20s. She interned here a couple years ago. For the foreseeable future we are continuing with our non-family member (management strategy). We have a lot of families who are in our business that are not Livingston family. That’s common in this industry. We’ve got brothers and sisters. We’ve got fathers and sons, multiple father and son combinations. Cousins, nieces, nephews. It fits in with our core values … and our core purpose. Our core purpose is to help people fly safely. Who knows what the future brings, but we’re making a major investment, and we wouldn’t be doing that if we didn’t see a good path in front of us. We’re expanding. We’re going to be consolidating the three Connecticut plant sites underneath one roof in Prestige Park. We’re renovating a 101,000-square-foot building. It’s a massive project and a big commitment to this community and to the industry.

Crash! Part Trois: Unfortunately This Time a Motor Vehicle Was Involved!

The rib pain and back pain are terrible, but the x-rays were negative and showed no fractures, which is fantastic news. The feeling I have is frustration as my third serious bicycle crash (requiring medical attention) in five years occurred during my commute home from work on Monday night.

Those feelings of frustration are fueled by all the news I read and hear about the challenges that cyclists experience all over the world. The story about the glass bottle thrown at one of my teammates on Wednesday night that resulted in double flats–the story also from Wednesday night about a cyclist killed in Connecticut in a head on collision–the crazy story about a chain reaction crash that claimed the life of a cyclist in Brooklyn earlier this week–the July hit-and-run of former Bicycling editor Andrew Bernstein in Boulder. I could go on and on. Every circumstance was different.

After visiting Boulder and Ft. Collins, Colorado last month, I wrote about them in this blog post. Both cities are cycling “Mecca’s” and hold Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community honors from the League of American Bicyclists. That’s great, but as mentioned, Boulder isn’t even a safe place to ride a bike. Nowhere on the roads of America appears to be safe.

I’ll avoid casting generalizations and try to narrow my focus to my home roads. It’s dangerous out there. I admit it, I choose to take the risk every day. I’ve commuted to or from work 60 times this year and LOVE doing it. It checks all the boxes for me.

• I value a car-free commute.
• I lower my carbon footprint.
• I get my exercise on my way to work, which is a very efficient way to accomplish two things at once.
• I experience nature.
• I identify with a community of like-minded riders.
• I get to ride my bike.

I tell people all of the time that my best days are the days I ride to or from work. I find that morning rides are a great way to start the day and help me plan ahead for the items on my to-do list. Equally enjoyable are the evening rides when I get the chance to unwind before walking through the door at home. It gives me so much pleasure, but is it worth it?

Connecticut isn’t Ft. Collins, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; or San Francisco, California where there is a culture of bicycle commuting, a much larger community, better cycling infrastructure, and more motorist awareness. They have their problems too. The roads of Southern New England are filled with riders. Boston is a busy city and has a strong cycling community. I ride there a lot and have a long history with the city having gone to school there, but it has been plagued by deadly accidents in recent years as traffic increases and distractions abound. Last year, MassBike produced one of the most chilling videos a cyclist will ever watch.

Is it worth it? This is a rhetorical question that even I can’t answer. When I phoned my Mom on Monday night to tell her the news before she heard it from someone else, it bothered me. It was an emotional conversation, just like the calls I placed in 2014 when I crashed on Soapstone Mountain and fractured my scapula and in 2018 at the USA Cyclo-Cross National Championships crash when I broke my fibula. No motor vehicles were involved in those wrecks so even cycling without traffic has its risks, but I can manage that risk better. It’s the risk that is totally out of my control that I’m struggling to reconcile. She knows I don’t call her about the “little” crashes because we talked about that. She also sees me commute because we have worked together for 30 years. Sometimes she is at work when I arrive on my bike. She knows the roads I ride and she sees the way people drive. It’s a huge risk.

I’m a dedicated commuter and was thrilled when the East Coast Greenway was expanded from Manchester to Bolton Notch. A new section of paved bike path (it’s actually a multi-use path) now connects with the Hop River State Park Trail, a rail trail that is right out my front door. I ride that trail all of the time. I can now ride to East Hartford with even less time spent on the roads that are shared with motor vehicles, but that hasn’t stopped me from riding with vehicular traffic.

On Monday, I called home at 5:28 P.M. and told Debbie my plan. I left HORST Engineering’s South Windsor plant site at 5:47 P.M. I rode towards Prestige Park to meet up with Mike Reilly, a friend from the cycling community. We both commute regularly but had never ridden together. He messaged me in the morning to see when we could ride and I told him I brought my bike and that today would be the day. I was late as usual, but five minutes after I rolled out.  We intercepted each other on Long Hill Rd., chatting amiably on the descent, and then headed towards Wickham Park. Tolland Street was under construction. The top layer of asphalt had been skived, but we have gravel bikes and managed. Dealing with road repair is another challenge for cyclists. We cut through the park where they were setting up for the Monday Night Summer XC Series (running) and then got on to the Greenway at the Burnside Avenue intersection.

Burnside has a bike lane now, but there were three cycling deaths on that road during an 18-month time frame in 2010-2011. I ride Burnside a LOT. It’s sketchy, but much better after the improvements. It used to be a four lane road without a divider and the speeds were high. They removed the second lane headed in both directions, narrowing the flow of traffic and reducing the speeds. Sadly, much of the paint markings for the bike lane are fading and there has been little maintenance. Mercifully, there has not been a “Ghost Bike” placed on Burnside since 2011. If I can avoid that road, I seek an alternative route, but that is not always the case. The paved bike path is a huge help. Mike and I spent time chatting about our love of cycling and the risks involved. He was surprised to learn that I was a bicycle messenger during college back in 1991. I gave that job up after my third big crash involving motor vehicles and thankfully have pursued other career options. We had to briefly get off the path where there is a missing section in Manchester between Bidwell Street and McKee Street. We got back on the path and rode to Charter Oak Park where we split up. He headed towards Mount Nebo Park which is closer to his Manchester home, and I stayed on the Greenway headed towards Bolton.

In June of 2018, I had a bad incident during a commute home. This episode didn’t involve a crash, but did result in a citation to a motorist and an arrest of a passenger in the offending car. They tried to “door” me on East Center Street in Manchester. I wrote about that incident too and described it as “The Perils of Bicycle Commuting.” Is it worth the risk?

After splitting with Mike, I hemmed and hawed about which route to take. I mix it up a lot, but on Monday I decided to take the bike path all the way to Bolton Center Road. Before the extension, I used to always ride up Camp Meeting Road, but the shoulders have deteriorated and are no fun to ride on. They are full of cracks and debris. Plus, cars travel at a high rate of speed and there are some blind corners. Again, I ride that road all of the time, but Debbie refuses to go on it and I’ve heard from others that they avoid it too. Now that the bike path continues through Bolton, there are better options depending on where you are headed.

It’s nice to have the Greenway, but it’s worth mentioning that the path parallels sections of I-384 and also I-84. That subjects you to the exhaust fumes from all the vehicles on the highway. There are some nice spots, but there are also spots covered in glass and debris that gets tossed from vehicles on the highway. Plus you are always subject to the highway noise. It isn’t; very peaceful. One of my favorite spots is where the path actually crosses under the highway and you ride along the Hockanum River. You can hear the vehicles above you, but I often imagine what this area looked and sounded like 300 years ago. Periodically I will see a Great Blue Heron in the water. Other sections have wide cracks with long weeds growing up from the openings in the pavement. My newest bike has extra wide 42 cm high volume tires and they do a great job soaking up the road shock, but I shouldn’t have to resort to that option. Sadly, no one maintains these paths. Last week, I rode the spur between Tolland Turnpike and Burnside Avenue and was dismayed to see the memorial and dedication plaque overgrown with weeds with the nearby benches crumbling. It isn’t the prettiest place to ride, but it’s safer than riding in traffic.

My commute continued and I rode the new section of the bike path along I-384. I had the option to continue to the Notch and then get on the unpaved rail trail, but I wanted to get home sooner and figured the express route down Bolton Center Road for 2.3 miles to my house would be fine. I ride that road ALL of the time. I’ve ridden that road thousands of times. We moved to Bolton 15 years ago. When there was no bike path extension through Bolton, I took that road even more frequently. It’s a busy road and doubles as Route 85, and I worry about the traffic every time I’m on it, but that didn’t deter me.

Sometimes I take my 13-year-old son Shepard on that road and we talk about the danger. I’ve taught him to ride defensively. His friend Alexandra lives off of 85 near the exit ramp and I’ll often meet him there on my way home from work, and then we will ride home together. Our kids are involved with mountain biking and cyclocross, but not with road cycling. They ride on roads, but they don’t train or race on roads like I did. I still ride on the road frequently, even beyond my commuting, but I haven’t raced on the road in years. Lately my only exception has been triathlon. I have done more than 400 road bike races but that is a risk I stopped taking. It’s crazy but I have not data to prove that racing is more or less risky than commuting. I stopped for some of the same reasons that others have stopped commuting, including the fact that crashing is often out of your control. The pavement is so unforgiving.

On Monday, I was on the road and I was riding my new Seven Evergreen XX bicycle. I didn’t have a headlight on because I was running my handlebar bag and haven’t mounted a light on the new bike, but I often ride with one. I have an adapter for it, but just hadn’t gotten around to installing it. I’ll often wear a reflective vest and reflect ankle straps, but not always in middle of summer when it is light out. I was wearing my bright orange Team HORST kit with an orange helmet. I have reflective material on my bike and I had my rear tail light on. It was the same set-up that I’ve been running all summer.

I’ve got all the details on this ride because Strava captured it. You can see the spot where I crashed because there are all these squiggly lines. I approached the Birch Mountain Road intersection where Bolton Center Road bends to the left. I was just cruising along at 16 mph with about 1.4 miles to go. It was about 6:45 P.M. I recall seeing a car on Birch Mountain and they pulled out to head east on Bolton Center towards the town green. I saw a vehicle approach (I now know it was a mini-van but had no idea at the time) coming towards me. I don’t recall if they were using their left turn signal but they never hesitated and that surprised me. I’m not sure what came out of my mouth but it was probably “Hey!!!” which is a common alert I use. It all happened in a split second. I was clearly going straight and the vehicle turned left, right in front of me.

In an instant I grabbed both brake hoods with all my might while yanking my bike to the left to avoid a collision. It felt like the vehicle was inches from my nose. This new bike has hydraulic disc brakes and they have serious stopping power. I didn’t even skid because I squeezed them so hard. There was no way for me to prevent going straight over the bars. I flipped over (doing an “endo”) body slamming into the asphalt. I’ve described it as WWF body slam without the soft mat and without the acting. My rear wheel went straight up in the air and I stayed clipped into my pedals until my back impacted the ground. As soon as I grabbed the brakes with such force, I was doomed to crash. I was alert and conscious the whole time but in that instant, I was flat on my back looking up at the blue sky with no air in my lungs. Every breath had left my body as I slammed into the pavement.

I was in such pain that in that instant I did not know:

1. if the vehicle hit me
2. if I crashed avoiding the vehicle but they subsequently ran me over/hit me
3. if I completely avoided a collision and crashed on my own.

I think that I ended up in the best possible scenario as it was the third one. I don’t think I ever contacted the van. I think the drive also hit the brakes at the last moment. I don’t know. It was a blur. I saw my life flash before my eyes, reacted, and then I was down. I know I tucked my head, which is instinct and I thrust out my left arm to brace my fall. I think the damage to my bicep was from my bicycle’s handlebars. That seems to be the best explanation given that I couldn’t hit the outside of my arm on the pavement at the same time as the inside of the arm. The bars must have jammed me good because I have a deep black and blue welt.

In the seconds following the accident, I laid there flat on my back trying to catch my breath. I noticed more than one vehicle around me as I was right in the middle of the road and holding up traffic. I glanced up and there was a man standing over me. I think he was the passenger from the offending vehicle. I heard someone say, “Get him out of the road.” I put up my right hand in a “stop” motion and rasped, “don’t touch me.” I needed to self-assess and could barely get the words out, but I didn’t want to be touched. I was worried I broke my back or even worse, my neck. From all my past first aid training, I knew that you never move someone with a suspected injury like that.

I again made the plea to let me be and said, “give me a minute.” It felt like several people were around me, but I wasn’t seeing that clearly. I asked this man if “he hit me.” I think he said something like “by the grace of God” you avoided a collision. I don’t know exactly what he said, but I know he absolutely said “by the grace of God.” I don’t really look at things that way. I was thinking to myself that God or whatever had nothing to do with this. I also knew that it was my quick reflexes that saved me from a potentially even worse injury and not the reaction of the driver or some higher being.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only two minutes, I realized that I could move my legs and arms and wanted to get up, so I rolled on to my side and curled into a ball to see if I could flex my back. After a few moments, I used my arms to push myself into a seated position and saw where my bike was positioned to my left. I saw the vehicle and realized it was a mini-van. I think it was maroon, but I could be wrong. I was not in the right frame of mind to start taking pictures. I gathered my strength, and stood up. I think someone else grabbed my bike (maybe the passenger) and I walked to the side of the road where there is gravel and dirt with some sparse grass and weeds in the corner. I sat down on the ground with my bike to my left and pulled out my iPhone. I said out loud to everyone listening that I wanted the situation documented. It was 6:50 P.M. and I made the 911 call myself.

I could barely get out the words as tears ran down my cheeks, and snot mixed in my beard, but I was lucid enough to describe the intersection I was at. I explained the situation and my condition. The dispatcher said they would connect me with the State Police. They put the call through and I repeated everything that I told the 911 dispatcher including my location. The call lasted a minute.

It felt like longer, but five minutes later at 6:55 P.M. I dialed Debbie. Between whimpers I told her that I was in an accident, but OK. I gave her my location and she said she would get Dahlia and be right there. Our son is away at Boy Scouts camp. I thought that State Trooper Eckman arrived before Debbie, but I don’t remember. I also thought it took 15 minutes for him to get there, but it must have been quicker. I didn’t talk to anybody. I tossed my iPhone on the ground next to me and just sat there with my head between my knees waiting. I occasionally glanced up as the passenger from the vehicle stood nearby. I had to make sure they didn’t drive away. I thought about taking some photos of the scene, the vehicle, their license plate, etc. but I was zonked. I just sat there.

When the trooper arrived, I recall getting up and approaching him. Maybe he spoke with me while I was seated. It doesn’t matter. I think I was seated. He asked for my ID and I dug my wallet out of my handlebar bag. I gave him my license and waited. He must have collected a license from the driver too and went to his vehicle. I think it was when he returned that I actually got up to talk to him. I told him I wanted the “case” documented. He said there was no case, but that I could call the barracks and get the records if I needed them. I figured there would be a claim against the driver and their insurance company, but I didn’t have my wits and had no interest in engaging with the driver.

I never even saw the driver. I didn’t want to look at the driver. I had no energy to complain or argue. I told Officer Eckman that I had ridden this road a thousand times. I told him that I hadn’t even planned to take it on this ride. I told him I took the Greenway and then switched to the road. He said without any sympathy, “Well, then this was bound to happen at some point.” He went on to compare my situation with a car accident in that they happen all of the time. In hindsight, I think that he has probably seen a lot of tragedy, pain, and suffering and that he realizes how dangerous it is on the roads. He likely sees the same crazy antics and distractions that I witness every day.

In that moment, I wasn’t thinking about his perspective. I digested the comment and my retort was quick, “Well, that’s one way of looking at it, but it shouldn’t have happened tonight. That driver wasn’t paying attention.” This is when the frustration really kicked in. In the background, my daughter was bawling as she saw how hard it was for me to move. She saw me upset. She saw my tears. She saw me bleeding. Contrastingly, Debbie was quite stable and tried to calm our daughter down insisting that I was going to be alright. She is a strong woman.

I was upset after the exchange with Trooper Eckman. I grabbed my bike and straightened out my brake hoods. They were bent in at 45 degree angles. I spun my wheels to make sure they were running true. My chain was off. I asked Debbie for help to put it back on the front ring. She asked me what I was doing. I said, “I’m going to finish this ride.” She insisted on loading my bike in our VW Eurovan, but I wanted nothing to do with that. I didn’t look around. My focus was on getting home. I climbed back on my bike and got rolling. I got home around 7:20 P.M. It took me a little more than five minutes to go the last mile and a half. My back ached, but I was able to spin my legs no problem. The entire time from crash to getting home took about 26 minutes but it felt much longer.

I let myself in through the garage, put my bike in the basement, went inside, and got undressed. Debbie arrived home shortly afterwards. She said she spoke with the officer and he said he gave the driver a $185 fine and citation for “failing to grant the right of way.” That should help prove it was the driver’s fault and not mine. She also said she glanced into the vehicle. The driver never left her seat. She reported that the driver was female and then gave me some additional background information. Like I said, I was disinterested in meeting this person. Accidents happen, but normally for a reason. I don’t know if she was distracted, if she was a poor driver, if she was tired, or if as the passenger claimed, that she just didn’t see me. When he spoke, he said, “they” indicating that neither of them saw me. He had also referenced the sun, but at that moment when I was still sitting on the ground waiting for the police to arrive, I looked up and know that it wasn’t that bad. Speed doesn’t appear to be an issue. The limit on that road is 40 mph. Not far from the crash, there is a section of road that permits passing, which I think is wrong. That road is too narrow and winding for passing to be allowed, but that wasn’t a factor here. I could find all kinds of problems with how our roads are laid out and governed, but that’s not going to change. In my case, some combination of factors resulted in the fact that the driver was unaware of my presence on the road and she turned in front of me.

I’m sure the driver was shaken up by the situation. It could have been worse for her too. Distracted driving is an epidemic. The number of people that I see on their phones talking, texting, or performing other tasks is beyond alarming. In addition to all my riding, I spend a lot of time driving too. The problem is completely out of control. I don’t see that changing. Driving under the influence (DUI) reached a critical point in the 1980’s and people became more aware, but that hasn’t changed the fact that people still drive impaired by alcohol, drugs, and prescription medications.

In addition to those risks, people are angry. They care less than they used to. More people are selfish and that shows up in their driving behavior. They don’t get enough sleep and drive when they are tired. They don’t do enough to manage the stress in their lives and they behave badly behind the wheel. People are in a bigger rush than ever. They fail to use their signals, they drive way too fast for conditions, they pass on the right, and they constantly blow through stop signs and traffic lights. I see it every day. Cyclists have a unique vantage point. They are higher up than most cars and they can see what’s going on. Vehicles are bigger than ever. Some SUV’s and trucks have large mirrors that stick out and come very close to you when they pass you. How many cyclists have been struck by a rearview mirror?

In recent years, I’ve been “coal rolled” multiple times. It’s disgusting. One of my pet peeves is that some vehicles have windows that are tinted so darkly that you cannot see the driver. You can’t see what they are doing. You can’t see what direction they are looking. You can’t see if they are staring at their phone. There is no way for you to tell if they see you. My fear is that their obliviousness is camouflaged by the tinted glass. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

The anger on the roads is just an extension of the broader anger in our society. When the bike path was being expanded in Bolton, our small town of 5,000 people 15 minutes east of Hartford, it caused so much angst. There has been a small but vocal group of people who have railed against the expansion of the Greenway and other paths. They have claimed that it’s a waste of their taxes. They have wrongly asserted that cyclists shouldn’t have access to roads because they “don’t pay taxes.” It’s a joke. They have blamed the problems on government. They have said that cyclists and pedestrians should stay off the roads. They have said even worse.

The vulgarity and anger is so bad that I’ve ignored it. Social media has only fueled this problem and that’s just using OUR small town as an example. The “Everything Bolton” Facebook page is full of this nonsense. I don’t pay attention to it, but I know it is there. Who mounts professionally printed signs on trees to protest bike paths? Are those the same people that take their anger out on the roads when they get behind the wheel of a car?

The roads are in bad shape. I mentioned the cracks and debris. There is little funding to care for our failing infrastructure. The safest place for a cyclist to ride is as far right as possible, but sometimes that is on the worst possible surface. Many roads have no shoulder. It is best to avoid those, but sometimes you go from having five feet of space and in a matter of no time, the road narrows and you are left with nothing.

In Connecticut, a big deal has been made about the “three feet passing rule” or “three foot law.” It’s not followed and it is not enforced. There has to be more awareness and education around cyclists and pedestrians on the road. Debbie and I run the roads of our town too and it is only marginally safer than riding. As pedestrians, we face traffic and can stay just off the edge of the road when the space permits. But whether you are riding or running, the problem of distracted motorists is the same.

Back at the house, I got my shredded cycling kit off and took a shower. The body has amazing healing powers and I wanted to get a jump start on my recuperation. I laid on the couch for a while. Then I had some dinner and went to bed. Despite a fitful night of rest and waking up stiff as a board, I was out of the house by 6:15 A.M. and back on my bike. Since I had left my car at work the night before, I figured the only logical way to get to work was to commute back. My psyche hadn’t changed and this was my way of saying, no motorist is going to stop me from doing what I love. Adrenaline was still coursing through my body and I knew that in the coming days, my pain and stiffness was only going to get worse. I wasn’t thinking about medical attention despite the pain I was feeling. There is no question that my pain threshold is higher than average. Debbie offered to take me to work and we have three vehicles, so I didn’t have to ride, but not riding was not an option.

Tuesday was a long day at work and by the end, I was out of gas. I returned home to an empty house because Debbie and Dahlia were at the 10th and final Winding Trails Summer Tri Series Race. I talked with my friend Arlen Wenzel and described the pain I was feeling. He suggested I get it checked out to make sure I had no fractures in my vertebrae or ribs. I got worried and decided to follow his instructions. Again, I didn’t want to go to the emergency department at the hospital, so I drove to the Go Clinic in East Hartford. This is the same clinic where I took Shepard when he broke his wrist back in June at the West Rock Superprestige Mountain Bike Race.

I signed in and then had a word with the technician. 30 seconds later, I was deleting my info from the iPad and walking out the door. The mobile x-ray unit that they used on Shepard was not going to cut it for my back and ribs. I thanked them for not wasting my time and returned to the parking lot where I sent an email to the same orthopedic doctors that treated my broken leg in 2018. I cc’d my PCP who is an Ironman triathlete veteran and understands my thinking. I requested an appointment with the ortho. By the time I got home, I had a reply from both doctors with some advice and the ortho cc’d one of his assistants so she could reach out to me in the morning. I went to bed.

I was feeling even worse on Wednesday morning, so I stayed home to work from the kitchen island and to work on getting an appointment and x-rays. The entire Wednesday saga and challenges of navigating our broken medical system is a long enough story for its own blog post, so I’ll save it. I spend a lot of time on healthcare issues because after wages, materials, and special processes (heat treatment, coatings, testing, etc.) health care premiums and related costs are some of HORST’s largest expenses. Even though I hate the topic, I’ve learned a lot about medical insurance. I’m thankful that my family is generally healthy and that my personal experience with it has mostly been related to injuries rather than illness.

I spent all day trying to get an order for x-rays and then a follow-up with a back specialist. By evening, I was frustrated and just ended up driving to UCONN in Storrs where there is a walk-in clinic. They had the large General Electric x-ray machine needed to shoot back and ribs images. The clinic was dead quiet as students have only just started to return to campus. I was seen immediately and the doctor wrote an instant order and I had the x-rays taken in the adjacent room. I was bummed that I waited and worried all day. I could have had this done by 10:00 A.M. and it was now approaching 7:00 P.M.

Within minutes, the doctor came back with a report that the x-rays were negative. He said he wasn’t an expert and that a radiologist would review them overnight, but that barring a major miss, he thought there were no fractures, breaks, or bone related issues. He said the spacing between my discs looked normal. He said I had a lot of muscle trauma, inflammation, contusions, and related back spasms. He said a combo of Tylenol and Advil would be a good over the counter option to manage the pain and reduce the swelling. He also suggested that I take hot showers. I drove home and followed his instructions.

On Thursday morning, the pain was reaching its peak. I was up quite during the night, but still got up early. I spent all day at work and again was tired by evening. I went to see Bob, my longtime massage therapist at Buckland Therapeutic Massage and had the best and worst massage of my life. I needed the work and knew it would pay dividends, but the suffering was immense. Just getting face down on the table was hard. After the message, I drove home, ate a little food, and went straight to bed. Friday morning, I got up and was feeling the after-effects of the body work. My wounds were weeping a bit, but I decided to spin for 30 minutes on the stationary bike with no resistance. I needed to move my legs and it felt good despite a few jolts of pain in my mid-back.

Friday was a little better and I could tell that the healing process was underway. By the end of the day, I was tired again. Debbie is away for the weekend at the AMC Women’s Trail Running & Yoga Retreat that she is hosting at the Highland Center in Crawford Notch. I didn’t feel like cooking, so I took Dahlia too Rein’s Deli. My elbow is getting better and I hope that by Monday I’ll be ready for some outside exercise again. I know that I have to take it easy. I’ve got some thinking to do about how active I plan to be in the short term. Cyclocross season is coming and I had a full season planned. However, I can’t afford to crash again. I’m in super shape right now, but I’m banged up. I went from an amazing high at the Niantic Bay Triathlon last Sunday to an amazing low on Monday night during the commute home. Close family and friends are always reminding me what I have “at stake.” I’m well aware of my family, work, and community responsibilities. I view it differently. We all have a lot at stake. Everyone has a different risk tolerance. Mine happens to be quite high. That’s probably why I continue to “swim with the sharks” by commuting and riding on the roads.

One of the unfortunate results of my crash is that I’ve fallen way behind in the HORST Engineering steps/activity challenge. My FEELTHEBURNhamSt Team is still in 5th spot, but we are losing ground to The Daily Grind and Waka Waka Waka. We have 2,105,919 steps since the challenge started last month and I’m now holding the team back! At least I can laugh a little about an awful circumstance. We have more than 70 employees participating and the initiative is being led by our F3 Team (Fit, Form, Function) focused on employee health and wellness. It’s a good thing. 

I’ll likely turn more attention to bicycle advocacy, though I fear it is a losing battle. I already support MassBike, BikeWalk Connecticut, Bike Walk Bolton, the League of American Bicyclists, and other groups. I’ve talked about these matters in the past on the Bicycle Talk radio show/podcast. I won’t stop, but I’m doubtful that we can change the way people drive.

I went years without a serious bike crash, but I’ve now had three major ones in a relatively short stretch. The physical and mental scars linger for months and years. The older you get, the harder it is to bounce back. You become less willing to push as hard. I’ve spent more times on trails for a reason, but I still love to commute. I’m sure that I will be putting more thought into my commuting routes. I’m sure that I will make even more use of the rail trail and the East Coast Greenway in an attempt to limit my exposure to motor vehicles. The days are getting shorter. Darkness and foul weather will become a bigger issue again as summer wanes. I plan to revisit my attire and anticipate that I’ll add even more lighting and reflective materials.

I can feel my body healing as I type, so I know that I’ll be back in the saddle soon. Some people might quit after a crash like this. Others would certainly slow down or delay their return to the road. Mentally, I’m ready to ride again. I’ll monitor my back throughout the weekend and see if by Monday I’m ready to ride again.

HORST Engineering Expansion

In recent years, I’ve written more about running and cycling adventures than I have about business adventures. The pattern of highlighting my family’s outdoor pursuits won’t stop, but today, I’m sharing news of a major expansion at the HORST Engineering Family of Companies.

Our website post and press release cover the basic facts.

There is sure to be more news coverage (and we hope positive) about our expansion, but also more generally about the resurgent growth of manufacturing in the USA, and particularly in Connecticut. I’m proud of our 73-year, three generation track record of crafting precision machined components for aerospace and other high technology industries.

Our Core Purpose has never been more powerful: We help people fly safely and keep our communities strong by making precision parts in the USA.

Yesterday, I gave a new hire presentation for four people (including a summer intern) at our Massachusetts operations (HORST Sterling Machine) and I repeated our Core Purpose multiple times. I showed them that in the front of my notebook, I carry a laminated copy of the Core Purpose along with a copy of our Core Values, so that they are ready to share at a moment’s notice.

Manufacturing is a tough sport, just like cyclocross, ultramarathon trail running, and some of the other crazy endurance activities that I do in my “spare time.” My business experience helps me become a better athlete, and my athletic strengths (and training)  make me a better businessperson.

The passion that I have for business is very strong and that comes through whenever I host a shop tour. I did one last Friday for a group of new hires at our Connecticut operations (HORST Engineering) and they were thrilled with the prospect of moving to a world class factory. It helps that our new location will only be three miles from our legacy Cedar Street plant site where my grandfather moved (from 602 Garden Street in Hartford) in 1950. We have accumulated a LOT of stuff over the last 69 years. This will be no ordinary move!

At our Massachusetts plant site, where we lease the building, we are also making improvements to the work environment with updated offices, conference space, and a renovated cafeteria. A modern factory is a key part of any manufacturing company’s infrastructure, but we have survived (and thrived) since 1950 headquartered at our current location. We have never had a chance like this to realign our manufacturing processes using lean enterprise to organize in cells and flow lines. This move requires an entirely new way of thinking.

Naturally there have been many expansions over the years, but the opportunity to get our three Connecticut plant sites under one roof is a huge step forward. I’ve personally worked on the project to acquire 141 Prestige Park Road (East Hartford), since last August. It was an atypical deal that required a lot of perseverance. It’s helpful that perseverance is one of our five Core Values and that I practice it all of the time.

I spend most of my waking hours working. That ethic has been in my family’ s blood for a long time. If you know me then you know that I commute to and from work by bicycle frequently. Those rides are when I do a lot of my thinking. My role as a business leader and manager requires a lot of decision-making and it is in solitude when my thinking is most clear. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this expansion and the risk associated with it. Despite the success of our key customers and strong demand for our products and services, manufacturing in New England is a battle. We have a tough business climate, particularly in Connecticut, and the cost of doing business is very high. That is often a tradeoff when a region has a highly skilled workforce. I want to believe that the business climate is better than perceived. I wish it wasn’t so negative, but I don’t have control over how others react to the situation.

I choose to focus on what I can control and I’ve put 100% into improving our business by focusing on four principles: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. These four are espoused in Scaling Up, a book that I keep on my desk. Our Senior Leadership Team and our Management Team have rallied in support of the plan that we have in place and the foundation is the Core Purpose and Core Values, which are “forever.”

I’m sure that I’ll share more about this project as it progresses. The building will be green…very green. Our goal is to grow responsibly with the welfare of our people at the top of the list. Everyone knows that it is very hard to recruit skilled workers to the manufacturing sector. We have made much progress by focusing on our culture and investing in technology and lean enterprise. We spent the better part of the last four years implementing a next generation ERP system. It has been rough going at times. The building project has been on the back burner for nearly 20 years. I first started looking at new locations in 2000. Sometimes it takes that long to find what you want. I passed up (some time regretfully) on other opportunities when the timing wasn’t right, or the risk was too great. The good news about being the steward of a 73-year old business is that you can take the long view.

It was a lot of work to get to the closing at the end of April, but we are merely at the starting line now as the major renovation has just begun. That will be followed by a multi-year transition from our current plant sites. The good news is that we have the decades of experience and many business cycles to look back on as we ponder the next steps for our family enterprise. This new factory will be a symbol of our progress and the fulfillment of more than one dream.

Bicycles East and Seven Cycles

Last Thursday, Bicycles East hosted an “Evening with Seven Cycles” event at their shop in Glastonbury, CT. Debbie and I were stoked to have six of our bikes on display.

The event was the “grand opening,” to celebrate Bicycles East becoming an official Seven Cycles dealer. My relationship with Seven goes way back–the go back to before their founding. In 1992, with help from my grandfather, and after working a lot of overtime (in the turning department) at Horst Engineering, I saved up and bought a Spectrum Titanium. I still ride that beautiful bike. Tom Kellogg designed it, but it was fabricated at Merlin Metalworks, the legendary Boston area titanium frame building company.

Several of Seven’s founders, including principal founder Rob Vandermark, cut their teeth at Merlin. Rob was a welder, and he may have even welded my Spectrum. The bike went back to Tom Kellogg for final finishing. I raced that bike in more than a hundred road races, including all of the Belgian kermesses that I competed in during the summer of 1994. The fact that my grandfather, who learned metalworking at a German bicycle factory in his teens, helped me get that bike makes it one of the most special in my fleet.

Merlin folded, but the seeds were sown for the founding of Seven more than 23 years ago. I acquired my first Seven about 15 years ago, a Tsunami cyclocross bike that I raced all over New England. I even raced it at the Cape Town Cycle Tour in South Africa. It wasn’t long after acquiring the Tsunami, that I got my first Sola mountain bike.

I’ve been affiliated with Team Seven Cycles since 2010 when they built me a custom Kameha SLX for the Ironman World Championships. I’ve been fortunate to benefit from the relationship and have been an ambassador for the company ever since. I have several Seven’s now, as does Debbie.

So, it made sense that Bicycles East, a key Team Horst Sports sponsor and partner, should become a dealer. The team at the shop has been working on my bikes for several years now. I had an opportunity to make a connection between the two companies, and I’m confident this will be a great relationship. Bicycles East has a world-class bike fit studio and they run a very smooth operation. Owners Steve and Deb Dauphinais put a lot of pride into their small business and it shows.

So, if you are local and want to see a Seven up close, you can check some out at Bicycles East. Of course, you can also always visit my basement.

Team HORST Sports

I often mention Team Horst Sports in race reports, but I don’t often talk about the history of our squad. Last night, we held our 2019 kickoff party, which has been a tradition. For many years, we held a holiday party in December to celebrate the current season, but in recent years, we have done a January event that celebrates the prior year and kicks off the new year.

The team was founded in the fall of 1997. It was born at the Killington Stage Race. Several of us were staying together and competing together, but we were technically on different teams. I recall one evening discussion in particular. It was after the day’s stage and since we were split between four or five teams, we didn’t have the numbers to control the race. We were technically racing against each other, but would have rather been able to work for a common goal. Teamwork in road cycling is vital, but at the time in the New England amateur ranks, it wasn’t common.

The upgrade system forced individualism. The best riders would zoom through the ranks and end up in the next category on their way to the elite ranks. In those days, it went 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and if you were good enough, you could go pro. We were just weekend warriors, racing as Cat 3’s, but we wanted to keep getting better. That first discussion led to the formation of the team. There were some doubts about the organization and financing, but we resolved those issues without much of a fuss. Arlen Zane Wenzel volunteered to lead the effort, and I said I would speak with my family about throwing their support behind the team.

All of these years later, HORST Engineering remains the lead sponsor and AZW is still the Directeur Sportif. That continuity has sustained the team over a period of time that has seen so many other teams come and go. We formed the squad, placed our first clothing order, and had a fantastic 1998 season in which we were voted New England team of the year. With excellent teamwork, we helped three of our members upgrade to Category 2 and though it had an impact on the team (splitting us between categories), it didn’t hurt us. We adjusted and that was the first of many evolutions.

In the early years, there really was a “season” because we had a more narrow focus: road cycling. Now, we are a broad-based endurance sports team with year-round training and competition. We compete in road cycling, cyclocross, mountain biking, gravel riding, trail running, snowshoe running, skiing, triathlon, obstacle course racing, and many variations of these sports that involved cycling, running, and swimming.

We started as group of “mostly single” guys racing in their 20’s and 30’s and are now a group of “masters” athletes in their 40’s and 50’s. We even have a few members whose racing age is 60+. Also, we are co-ed. We have had several women members over our history. In addition to the adult athletes, we also have the CCAP Team Horst Junior Squad with member children between the ages of 8 and 16.

The team has evolved since our founding in 1997 and those of us who have been around since the beginning are older and wiser. We are better athletes than the one-dimensional competitors of those early days. We are proud of our history and appreciate the longtime support of our sponsors, particularly, HORST Engineering, the family business that I lead.

We have reduced our “sponsors” to a small number of organizations that share our core values. Bicycles East came aboard three years ago and it have been valuable partners. They hosted party we had  last night. J. Rene Coffee Roasters and their VICTUS Coffee brand has supported us for many years.  Our uniforms are from VERGE Sport. We also get a little support from Rudy Project and Picky Bars. We have had other fantastic sponsors over the years.

Over two decades, we have had many great teammates. Some folks have retired, and some folks have moved to other teams, but they will always be part of the Team HORST family. There has been very little drama, and that has allowed us to maintain relationships for a long period of time.

We have been involved in a lot of events. For years, we promoted the Frank-N-Horst Cyclocross in Keene, New Hampshire. We held the first ever cyclocross race in Hartford, Connecticut with the 2003 Connecticut Riverfront Cyclocross. We did a race in Rockville called the Fox Hill Cyclocross. For years, we helped Benidorm Bikes with the Chainbiter Cyclocross. Our team members have been involved in the cycling in running communities in so many ways.

Our orange and black “kit” is very visible. I don’t go a week without someone telling me that they saw a team rider on the roads of southern New England. Our riders have been spotted all over the country, and we aren’t that big of a group! The team has been good for our business and our business has been good for the team. We first developed Cross Spikes for members of the team. Our teammates did the research and development.

We will continue to evolve in 2019 and beyond.

2018 Manchester Road Race

Today’s 82nd edition of the Manchester Road Race had to be one of the coldest ever. The temperature at the start was just about 15 degrees Fahrenheit and it stayed in the teens throughout the race.

That didn’t deter 8,242 hearty runners and walkers from finishing this Thanksgiving Day tradition. With more than 12,000 registered, there were a lot of now-shows. The Livingston Family showed up and we were very happy with our finishes.

This was my 29th MRR overall and my 24th in a row. I ran with Shepard who pushed his streak to six races. Debbie doesn’t keep count (it’s her style!), but I’m guessing she has done nearly 20 in a row. I’ll have to do the research! She ran with Dahlia, who has now done three in a row.

Shepard’s race was a real highlight. He improved his personal best time and scored third in the Boy’s 13 and under division. He was very happy with his run despite suffering in the last two miles. That suffering was because he ran a negative split, dropping his per mile pace by more than 30 seconds as he just kept pushing after a somewhat slow start that included the second mile hill. He finished only a second behind the second place finisher (based on gun time) but couldn’t close the gap on Main Street as the road pitched upward to the finish line.

I ran with him, so the HR shown is mine, but we share the splits.

Laps

Lap	Distance	Time	Pace	GAP	HR
1	1.00 mi	7:00	7:00 /mi	6:53 /mi	154 bpm
2	1.00 mi	7:21	7:21 /mi	6:39 /mi	163 bpm
3	1.00 mi	6:27	6:27 /mi	6:32 /mi	161 bpm
4	1.00 mi	6:30	6:30 /mi	6:35 /mi	166 bpm
5	0.77 mi	5:00	6:26 /mi	6:33 /mi	166 bpm

I shadowed him and offered encouragement. I have pushed hard in a few years, but look forward to the day when I hammer this race again. I haven’t run much in 2018, so it felt good just to keep pace with my kid.

Dahlia and Debbie did great too. It was a cold day for our little one. The joke in the family is that she would go faster if she trained more (at all). We saw lots of friends.  The Shenipsit Striders and Silk City Striders were out in force. Another highlight was Willi Friedrich, a longtime Shenipsit Strider, who participated in his 49th Manchester Road Race. This year, he wasn’t able to run or walk, so he got some help. Team Willi helped him along in his borrowed hand cycle. That’s awesome. Willi is a “runner” who inspires us.

For the first time, Horst Engineering sponsored the event, specifically the inaugural Veteran’s Row. We were pumped to finally support the event as we have been associated with the race (primarily through our running) for a very long time.

Despite the cold, there was some great running. The men’s record was broken by Edward Cheserek (21:16), who blew away a strong field that included last year’s winner Paul Chelimo, who finished second. They were followed by Andy Butchart.

The top female was 19-year-old Celliphine Chespol (24:33). She battled with the 2017 winner, Buze Diriba, who was only one second behind. It must have been a great race. Emily Sisson was only two seconds behind them. It was a tight battle up front for the women.

The cold may have kept some runners and some spectators away,  but it was still another glorious day in Manchester. Oh, and I would have taken more photos, but my iPhone kept shutting down because of the deep freeze.

Race Results

AMC Medawisla Lodge and Cabins Revisit

The Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Lodges offer amazing hospitality in gorgeous woodland settings that can’t be topped for their New England remoteness. After our family first visited Medawisla Lodge and Cabins on the opening weekend in July 2017, I wrote about our adventure.

I returned this fall for the AMC Board of Directors annual retreat. I won’t hide my bias. I’m a huge supporter of not-for-profit AMC, and I am a big fan of our organization’s legendary mountain hospitality. Our historical strength has been in the mountains of New Hampshire, but we operate through the Appalachian region in New England and the mid-Atlantic. I’m an unabashed champion of the effort to grow our presence in Maine and New York. The resources generated by our lodging operations fund critical mission oriented efforts including conservation advocacy, climate science, outdoor education, land management, and youth opportunities.

Medawisla is the crown jewel in AMC’s network of Maine lodges, but it isn’t necessarily better than the other two locations. All three, Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins, Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins, and Medawisla offer authentic Maine sporting camp experiences, though each one is unique.

 

Medawisla is the newest and represents a more modern approach. One example is that each cabin has a propane stove rather than a wood stove. Though off-the-grid, the Medawisla cabins have electric power, including lights and outlets, whereas the cabins at Little Lyford and Gorman have propane lanterns and there is no electricity.

It had been nearly 14 years since I visited Little Lyford. Back in February 2014 when Debbie and I skied into the camp with AMC friends, it was known as Little Lyford Pond Camps. That wasn’t long after AMC acquired the property, and prior to substantial renovations including the construction of a new lodge.

Little Lyford was AMC’s  initial recreation hub in the middle of the Maine Woods Initiative, which at the time was a burgeoning broader land conservation effort.

The AMC website offers a succinct description of our Maine efforts:

The Maine Woods Initiative is the Appalachian Mountain Club’s strategy for land conservation in the 100-Mile Wilderness region. The Initiative is an innovative approach to conservation that combines outdoor recreation, resource protection, responsible forestry, and community partnerships. To date, AMC has purchased and permanently conserved 70,000 acres of forest land, created over 120 miles of recreational trails, opened three sporting camps to the public, established an FSC®-certified responsible forestry operation, and developed a partnership with local Piscataquis County schools. 

Debbie and I have been AMC volunteers dating back to the early 2000’s, and this is my third year serving as a director. I was thrilled to return to Medawisla and see its improved operations during my favorite season of the year. The foliage in west-central Maine peaked weeks ago, but there was still some color in the trees. Not all the leaves had fallen.

There was snow on the ground when we arrived, and the Nor’easter that walloped New England on Saturday brought several more inches of the wet white precipitation on Saturday afternoon and evening.

Last Thursday, I spent the day at work and then in the late afternoon, picked up Dalia at school, and then we went to Windham High School to cheer the Bolton Center School Cross Country Team (Boys and Girls) at their middle school league championships. Shepard is a 6th grader on the team and Debbie is the coach. I was home by 6:30 P.M., packed the car, and hit the road again. I was in Portland by 10:00 P.M. and stopped for the night at my Aunt Terry’s house.

Terry is always a great host. She didn’t visit Medawisla with us in 2017, but she was with us on the first part of that trip to Baxter State Park. After arriving in Portland, I didn’t stay up long. In the morning, we chatted a bit before I did my regular morning Huddles by phone. I had to answer some emails and do a little project work before we parted company.

I drove to Greenville and got there in about three hours. I stopped a few times on the way, including once for gas. Each time, I checked my messages and did a little work knowing that once I got to Medawisla, my connection with civilization was going to be a bit weaker.

Just past Greenville, I stopped at Lily Bay State Park. The gate was closed, but I parked at a turnout a little farther up the main road. I pulled out my bicycle and changed into riding gear. I rode 25 minutes back towards Greenville until I reached the high point where there were great views of Moosehead Lake.

On the return trip to the car, I made a detour into the park and rode down to the lake’s edge. My ride took 65 minutes and then I hopped back in the car for the final 45 minute drive to Medawisla. I got there about 2:30 P.M. in time for the official start of the meeting.

The lodge operations have come a long way since that first weekend in 2017. There is an established “croo” and they were awesome. The croo’s cooking was excellent–I’ve never had better food at an AMC facility. At the  Maine lodges, the food itself has become a draw. The staff was very accommodating of my vegan diet. They not only served me sides, but they made unique vegan offerings that mimicked each course served to the omnivores.

The board meeting itself was very productive and educational. With the Maine theme, we talked a lot about the forest economy and the tourist economy. Both are key to the state’s fortunes. AMC has done a lot to spur economic development in Piscataquis County through sustainable forestry and through recreation. Both efforts are core to our mission.

We got to hear from expert leaders involved with economic development, forestry investment, higher education, and the outdoor apparel/gear business. We also learned more about the evolution of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. AMC’s focus has been on the 100 Mile Wilderness, which is the last (or first) 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail extending to/from Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park.

These lands have been heavily used as an industrial forest over the last two centuries. The timber, paper, and pulp industries are much smaller and the communities in this region have fallen on hard times. Many mills have closed. However, the remaining ones are seeing new investment. Folks in Maine realized long ago that the economy can’t just be dependent on logging, but needs a boost from other sectors, including tourism.

Though I grew up in Connecticut, half of my family’s roots are in Maine, so I’ve always been an interested observer. My mother grew up in Upper Frenchville in Aroostook County, the northernmost part of Maine. I have many cousins, aunts, and uncles who still live in Maine. My grandparents are gone, but I always enjoyed visiting them. It was a long drive–500 miles–from my home to theirs, but it was through a beautiful landscape. I miss those days of piling in to the back of our family car and heading north.

On Friday night, we got to look through the lodge’s telescope. It was a “homemade” model, but not a hack job by any means. It was made by a noted scientist and it was awesome. It was only a few days after the full moon and it was clear, so we got a great look at the surface and all its craters. AMC is working on International Dark Sky designation for our Maine project and facilities. This would be a great accomplishment as Dark Sky destinations are sought out by astronomy buffs.

At Medawisla, I saw some of the local landscape. I got out early both on Saturday and Sunday morning for short runs on the nearby trails. They were cut with cross-country skiing in mind, so they were wide and easy to follow. There are many old logging roads in the area that are also used as trails, especially in winter. In the north country, there has always been conflict between motorized and non-motorized recreation. Both are important to Maine. I won’t wade into this debate, but it’s worth noting that there is a shift towards more non-motorized activities including hiking, cycling, skiing, paddling, and fly fishing. ATV’s and snowmobiles are still seen all over the state, but their popularity is reported to be waning as demographics change.

On Saturday afternoon, some of us ventured out and toured the other two lodges. We first drove to Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins and walked around. Then we drove over to Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins. They are about eight miles apart, but separated by rough and unplowed logging roads. The entire trip took about three hours. By the time we got to Little Lyford, it was snowing heavily. These facilities close during the shoulder season as they prepare for winter and as the roads become impassable. Both Gorman and Little Lyford will reopen right after Christmas, whereas Medawisla (the access road is plowed) will remain open. Gorman and Little Lyford are a bit more rustic than Medawisla, have their own character, and are in beautiful spots. In the winter, you park about eight miles away and the only way to get to the camps is on your skis or snowshoes. Staff hauls in your extra gear using the snowmobiles.

AMC is fortunate to have an amazing team of full-time employees. The entire Maine Woods Initiative “croo” that hosted us were informative, helpful, inspiring, and gracious. They are passionate about their work and great representatives for AMC’s conservation, education, and recreation mission. A trip to Maine would be well worth your time and effort.

I was disappointed to not get out on Second Roach Pond like we did in the summer of 2017. I wanted to paddle some, but the lake was already iced over and conditions weren’t good for water-sports. My only other regret from the weekend is that I didn’t have time to try the Medawisla sauna. Now I have another good reason to go back!

2018 Newtown Cross

Today, Shepard and I a returned to the Newtown Team 26 Cross. For the second year in a row, the race was held at the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard. This horse farm is a lovely property and a great venue for a cyclocross race. For years, the Newtown race was held across the street at the Fairfield Hills campus, but I prefer the hillier and grassier horse farm course.

One change was that this usual late season race was moved to September. That boosted the participation and the host CCAP got a great turnout for the first race in the 2018 CT Series of Cross. Our own CCAP Team Horst Junior Squad contributed to the numbers. So did a strong presence by our Team Horst Sports Masters racers.

The course was slightly changed from last year. It included even more climbing, less pavement, and more turns. I liked it. It was really challenging. The Masters 40+ field was strong. I managed 7th place after an early battle with Patrick Ruane and Joe Kubisek. Matt Kraus bridged up and rode through our group. None of us could hang on. Eventually Patrick left us and moved past Matt to finish 4th. Joe and I continued to swap spots until he jumped me on the 2nd to last lap for 6th. Late in the lap, I slid out on an off-camber and once again smacked my left leg (knee). I got a small cut, but it was minor. Generally, I was happy with my bike handling. I made a few mistakes and chopped the guys in a few corners, but I was pressing hard and that’s how things go. I apologized. My power still isn’t where it needs to be, but I’m getting there.

After my crash, I bounced up, but the 10 seconds that Joe gained was all he needed to hold me off on the last lap. I did my best to close it down, but I just didn’t have enough oomph. I’m feeling stronger week by week, and I hope to keep progressing. I would have loved to score top five in this strong field, but it was not to be. I actually had to work hard on the last 1/3rd of a lap as Karel Citroen put on a huge surge and nearly caught me. I was happy to hold him off. His surge was all the more impressive because it was his second race of the day. He finished 3rd in the Category 3/4 race, three spots in front of our teammate, Rich Frisbie.

Art Roti and Brett Chenail did well in the 40+ race. We started a minute in front of the 50+ race, which was won by our friend and former teammate, Mike Wonderly. He held off current teammate Wade Summers, who rode strongly to score second. Dave Geissert and Tom Ricardi both also rode well in the 50+ field. Ted D’Onofrio, another longtime teammate, was also in the 50+ field and it was good to see him out there.

Our Juniors also had a good day. Owen and Ethan Lezon were joined by Adela Chenail (her first race) in the 9-11 year old category. Shepard was joined by Sean Rourke, Boden Chenail, and Lars Roti in the 12-14 year old category. Cole Ricardi was our lone junior in the 15-18 year old race.

All in all, it was a good day for Team Horst Sports. One negative was that just before we were ready to leave, a rider (Jim) from the TTEndurance squad crashed hard in the corner near where we were parked. His screams were “blood curdling.” I rushed over to help him. He got up, but immediately realized that his right knee was gushing blood. He had cut it by falling squarely on a rock (one of the only ones on the course) and it was deep-right to the bone.

We got him off to the side of the course and sat him down. Someone immediately grabbed a towel and I applied compression to the wound. Getting medical help took a bit longer than we hoped, so was there nearly 30 minutes holding the towel on the cut, keeping him calm, and chatting. A few other Good Samaritans stayed with us until the EMT’s arrived. With one EMT watching the cut, we did a quick swap where I pulled off the towel, they glanced (Jim looked away) at the cut, and then immediately replaced it with a bandage. It was going to need several stitches, so they loaded him on a stretcher and carted him away. I was happy to stay and help and I feel his pain. It was only nine months ago that I broke my leg in a cyclocross race.

That’s why its frustrating that I keep falling on my left side. Sigh. Bike racing is too much fun to give up. I won’t slow down, at least not anytime soon. I was happy to hear that Jim was more mad than sad and that he plans to be racing again in a matter of weeks. He was even in good enough spirits to take a selfie with me. I’m rooting for him to make a strong comeback!

Race Results

2018 West Rock Superprestige MTB Finals

The West Rock Superprestige finals absolutely rocked. It was a full Team Horst Sports and family affair yesterday at West Rock Nature Center in Hamden, Connecticut.

The event actually started with a 5K trail race, the first ever at this venue, which was great for Debbie and Dahlia. We got there in time for the 8:30 A.M. start so they could do the two lap (1.5 kilometers each) course.

It was great to see some of our running friends at a mountain bike race. Like us, some of them are “blended” families and do both sports. Debbie was third woman finishing behind Kerry Arsenault, who was there with her partner (race timer Jerry Turk); and Grace Mattern. I shadowed Dahlia and ran with Rachel Mattern (Grace’s Mom), who were visiting with her family from Rochester, New York. We normally don’t see them until fall when the cyclocross season is in full swing, so it was fun to spend a summer day with them.

Even Dahlia came home with swag, finishing second in her age group to Grace, who is a fine multisport athlete. There wasn’t a whole lot of under-18 females, which suited Dahlia just fine. The race organizers were very generous with their prizes. Grace’s Dad, Craig, and brother, Miles, finished on the podium in their mountain bike races too. Miles actually won the 9-12 year old boys race. Like us, they did scored some nice prizes.

In that junior mountain bike race that Miles won, there were 32 boys and girls, which was a fantastic turnout. Shepard had his best ever race, finishing third, just behind Cade Fravel. They were several minutes behind Myles, but Cade and Shepard had a great battle. Shepard had a conservative start, but moved up from 8th to 3rd, and was challenging Cade by the end of the five lap race. Both boys wouldn’t give an inch and they hammered the final lap with Cade posting a 10 second advantage. It was fun to watch. They were toast at the finish, but it was a breakthrough race, at least for Shepard. I think he learned how to push past the pain point.

We had several other CCAP Team Horst Junior Squad racers compete today. In the 9-12 field, Shepard was joined by Boden Chenail and Lars Roti. In the 13-14, Sean Rourke took second. He was joined in the field by Weston Winbourne, and by his sister, Molly Rourke, who was second place amongst the girls. In addition to the Team Horst Junior Squad kids, there were many other kids who are indirectly related to us including members of the Meyerle and Summers families. Their children are on different CCAP squads, but their parents are affiliated with Team Horst. They are all family to us!

I did the Men’s A race at noon and was in the singlespeed category. We had a blistering fast start on the technical West Rock course. My first lap was kind of bumpy, but I settled in and eventually took the lead amongst the singlespeeders. The race was 10 laps, which was solid for the 1.2 mile short track loop. By the middle of the day, the temperature had risen to the high 80’s under a blazing hot sun, but fortunately, we were mostly in the shade on the heavily wooded course.

I knew I was being tailed, and with three to go, one of my West Rock rivals, Marty Waters, made his bid, shooting past me on the most technical section of the course. There was a brutal rock garden and my Seven Sola SL is rigid, a distinct disadvantage on this section. At times, I felt like a pinball. He got a gap, but I kept him in sight. Over the next two laps, I closed in on the climbs, only to see him pull away on the rocky and rooty sections of the course. Still, I felt like I had managed my effort and had something left in the tank.

In the second half of the second to last lap, Anthony Vecca caught us and moved to the front of our three-man group. I had a rough penultimate lap, bobbling several times and I even had to get off and push through the worst section of rocks when my wheel got jerked sideways, forcing me to lose all my momentum. Anthony took off and I wasn’t sure if we were going to stick with him, but Marty kept contact as I dangled off the back of the group. Once again, I closed down the gap on the final climb and almost made it back up to them by the start finish with one to go. We started the final lap pretty much all together.

The first half of each lap was more technical, so I let it all hang out in an effort to keep them close, knowing that if I could, once we got to the more hilly second half of the loop, I had a shot at the win. When we got to a section where there were a series of three logs, I went left, and Marty went right. I cleared the final large log cleanly while he was slow to get over it. I heard him moan a bit as I accelerated away, and I thought I might have broken him.

Anthony was only a handful of seconds up on me, but I thought that he also may have played his cards too soon. We crossed the small stream and then hit the long leg burning wooded climb that led to the grass climb before the big descent. I felt like this was the spot to make my move, so I came up on his left, called out the pass, and just buried myself to get by him. He yielded, which gave me confidence, but I still figured he would grab my wheel and hang on. This was the only lap I opted to not take a sip from my bottle. There were only two or three spots on the course where you could even get your bottle out of your cage, and this was one of them. I didn’t want to take the chance at a bobble and just pedaled as fast as I could on the gradual incline.

I never looked back, but pushed extremely hard all the way to the hairpin left at the top of the descent. We were hitting 30 miles per hour on this downhill. I wasn’t brave enough to stay off the brakes completely, and needed to tap them a few times towards the bottom where the trail dumped out into a field. There was one more steep descent and then a winding section through the woods with four tough wood bridges to navigate before the final climb.

I thought I heard Anthony behind me, but still never looked. At this point, I didn’t know that we had cracked Marty, so I kept pushing. The big climb had a sharp left and then another sharp left before the final hairpin right, which was all gravel. All of the turns were loose dirt and it was hard to keep traction, especially while pushing such a big gear (singlespeeders have only one). I had to really stand and grind it out, but in each of the turns, I gave it my all, hoping to distance my rivals. I got to the crest of the hill as it turned right into the top of the grassy field by the team tents, and just hammered.

I came through the final hairpin left hand turn, which had some sneaky gravel on it, and on to some broken pavement just before the finish line. I punched it one final time, sensing that I had to keep on the gas. That last effort was crucial because Anthony was right on my wheel, and I ended up crossing the finish line with less than a bike length lead. Our timing chips said we were separated by 1.00 seconds after 64 minutes of racing.

We were 7th and 8th overall. Six guys with gears were in front of us. We had dropped Marty on the last climb, but he finished a valiant third. I thanked them both for the hard racing. It really was a great battle. With more than 1,200 feet of climbing in just under 11 miles of racing, this is a tough race. My heart rate averaged 174 beats per minutes, which is consistent with the hardest of my 45+ minute cyclocross races, but I had a peak heart rate of 196, which is 12 beats higher than I’ve seen in many years. 184 was the highest recorded rate in the 2017 cyclocross season. I don’t know if that is a good or bad sign, but that figure was posted right at the finish line, which highlights how hard that last lap was.

For my efforts, I was rewarded with the prestige of the top step of the podium, a six-pack of Yard Party Pale Ale, $25 (to reimburse a portion of my entry fee), and a Hammer products shaker bottle. That is more than enough swag to make a Masters racer very happy. I would have sprinted for the glory alone!

There were several other Team Horst Sports mate in the A race, including John Meyerle, Brett Chenail, Art Roti, and Joseph Dickerson. Tim Rourke (Sean and Molly’s Dad) won the Masters B Race.

There were many cheering throngs of spectators. The course is laid out perfectly for those who want to watch. You can get to four or five spots every lap. The yelps from Team Horst families was motivating.

I only made two of the five series races this year, but Shepard made three of them. A big thanks goes to Kurt D’Aniello, Annalisa Paltauf, and the rest of the crew/volunteers from D’Aniello’s Amity Bicycles and the Laurel Bicycle Club. They were fantastic hosts and promoters. Their swag was generous, and the post race food/beverage was really appreciated. They did a fine job with the entire series.

Sadly, we couldn’t hang around long. We packed up and took Dahlia to summer camp. After Shepard, Debbie, and I unpacked and cleaned the gear, we headed to Flora Food + Drink for a celebratory meal. Debbie and I were there a week ago, and we were thrilled to return. We ended a Team Horst themed day by seeing our friends, Keith, Paula, and Erin Enderle at the restaurant. They were having a celebration of their own. Keith is a teammate and he is getting pumped for cyclocross season. So am I!

Race Results

The Perils of Bicycle Commuting

Last night, on my bicycle commute from work I had a run-in with a motorist. Technically the confrontation was with a backseat passenger. No one was hurt. It was just a verbal spat that result in an arrest for the (drunken) harassing behavior and drug possession.

Commuting is a great way to combine exercise and low impact transportation while getting outside. This year, I’m traveling less, spending more time at our plant sites, and commuting more than ever. The rationale is simple. The distance from home is about 11 miles, I have to go to work anyway, and I love to ride. I have several routes and variations of those routes that keep it interesting and allow a manageable commute of 11 to 17 miles, that can usually be done in an hour or less each way. My ride home typically takes five to 15 minutes longer because it is uphill.

If there is a single drawback to bicycle commuting, it can be described in one word: motorists. If there were no cars or trucks on the roads, I would love to ride even more. I see a lot of crazy conduct on the roads of Connecticut (and Massachusetts) where I do most of my riding. Cycling offers a unique vantage point and with nothing blocking or filtering your view, you take it all in. That includes seeing a lot of ignorant drivers. I see it all of the time, but rarely write about it. I’m sort of numb to it. However, if you were a new cyclist or if you were less tolerant of the risks, you would likely stop riding on roads altogether. In recent years, many people have told me how they no longer ride on the roads.

I certainly don’t recommend riding on the roads that I use for commuting. I’m a huge advocate for safe riding and especially bicycle commuting, but for the average rider, the risks don’t outweigh the benefits. I’m on Burnside Avenue all of the time and that road has seen three cyclist related deaths in recent years. They have done work to make the road safer by limiting it to one vehicle lane, and by adding a bicycle lane, but that was only in response to the accidents.

Around here, the roads are terrible and getting worse. Despite being fenced off from traffic, even sections of the local paved bike paths have hazards that include cracks, potholes, glass, and weeds. The city streets have even bigger potholes. They are narrow and lack shoulders. They have faded paint/markings. There is even more glass. They have cracks and frost heaves. It’s nasty, but in a weird way, I know every flaw and still enjoy riding these roads. It’s the act of commuting, and not the environment, that keeps me doing it. My routes aren’t entirely devoid of beauty. Sections of the East Coast Greenway are lovely. Riding through Wickham Park is beautiful.

I left Horst Engineering’s Burnham Street plant at 5:53 P.M. I rode up Burnham Street, cut through the industrial park, and accessed the bike path from Tolland Turnpike. This is a typical route for me. I ride this section of path several days a week. It has huge cracks, and at this time of year, long weeds spout from them. It’s unfortunate that this section isn’t maintained. When they extended the East Coast Greenway from Manchester to Bolton, I was against asphalt. I didn’t want them to pave it. I preferred cinder or dirt like the Hop River State Park Linear Trail. The photos show what happens when you fence off a bike path and then neglect it.

It was a hot evening with the temperature in the low-90’s Fahrenheit. It was the kind of summer night where if you didn’t have your air conditioning blasting, then all your windows were rolled down. On a bike, there are no windows and there is no air conditioning.

I got off the path near Wickham Park and then took Burnside Avenue (Rt. 44) to Middle Turnpike and then to Center Street. I was in a rush to make a “belt test” for the kids at Park’s Taekwondo, so I just went straight up 44. It’s not a pretty road, but not every bicycle commute is pretty. Sometimes, you just have to get from point A to point B. On this road, I saw a usual number of distracted drivers, and at a stoplight, reminded one to put away her phone.

I made my way up Center Street towards downtown Manchester. When you ride your bike straight up 44 like this, you are prepared for something to happen. At this point, I was listening to some music, and minding my own business. A car came rolling by me and a person in the back seat on the passenger side hung out the window screamed, “Get out of the road.”

I tapped my EarPods twice to stop the music and waved at the guy in a dismissive manner. He proceeded to flip me off and shout some obscenities. I was riding nearly as fast as the car, so I accelerated a bit. I was in that kind of mood. Most of the time, I just ignore people, but like I said, it was Monday night, the end of a long work day, and it was hot. I was a little frustrated too. In situations like this, I usually weigh my options before responding, but sometimes your reaction is spontaneous. There were a lot of other cars around, so I “let him have it,” shouting back and telling him where he could go.

They had to stop at a red light, and I planned to just ride past them, but as I cautiously approached, he swung open the car door as if he was going to “door” me, all the while yelling at me. I easily swerved out of the way. He was one of four people in the car. Two men were in the back, and two women were in the front. I rode up on to the sidewalk to give myself a little space. You never know what a lunatic like this will do, so I figured that rather than get run over, or worse, get shot, I should be careful.

As I was riding on the sidewalk, they pulled past me once again and this guy was again hanging out the window and shouting obscenities. This time, I decided to “blow kisses” in his direction. I realize, that wasn’t very mature. We discussed my approach at the dinner table later in the evening, and my kids found it amusing, but Debbie wasn’t impressed. My daughter thought that I was using some figure of speech, but no, I told her that I was literally blowing kisses in his direction. I hopped back on the road and kept riding. It wasn’t long before I caught them again. This time, they were sitting at the light at the Center Street/Main Street intersection. I slowly pulled up behind them, pulled out my iPhone, and snapped a photo of the car’s license plate. The driver saw me in the rearview mirror and I knew she wasn’t happy with me, or the guy in her backseat.

I pulled alongside them and pointed at her and said, “He isn’t the only one that’s going to get in trouble. You are.” Just then, the light turned green. They turned left on Main Street and I rolled through the intersection continuing on Center Street. I spotted a Manchester policeman in his SUV on the opposite side of the intersection. I pulled over. He apparently saw part of my interaction with the car, was trying to figure out what happened, leaned out of his truck, and yelled from across the street, “Do you want me to go after that car.” I replied, “They were harassing me.” That was enough for him. He took off. I figured I would keep riding. I knew I could always call the police later and send them the photo.

I got about a half mile up the road and the policeman was parked on my side of the street facing my direction. I came to a stop, he got out of his truck and approached me. The last time a policeman stopped me on a bike, I was the one who got a written warning. That was for running a red light in Truckee, California. That was a memorable ride, with the ticket writing moment captured by my iPhone camera. Now, this ride was becoming memorable too.

Officer Johnson was very kind. He asked me if I had a photo of the car and its license plate. I confirmed that I did. He proceeded to tell me that he was a cyclist, loved to ride, and confided that it was “nuts on the roads.” Like me, unless commuting, he heads for more rural roads. I explained how I commute to East Hartford nearly every day and have done so for a very long time. He was sympathetic after I described the incident and would have talked all evening, but I told him I was in a rush. He thanked me, gave me his phone number, asked me to text him the photo, and then to follow-up with my contact information.

I sent the photo immediately, and then rode off. I got to the belt test in time and both kids passed. Afterwards, I sent the rest of the information and thanked him. Then, I rode the rest of the way home. When I got there, I had another message from him. He indicated that he caught them, and arrested the kid in the backseat. I thanked him again. His final reply: “You’re welcome and you did your part also, made it easy for me.”

So, I guess you could say it was a happy ending. It’s natural for me to feel odd when someone gets in trouble, but if I recall my own anger and frustration when the car first passed me, but I figure that this guy got what he deserved. It’s important to report incidents like this and advocate for cyclists. If you choose to ride, do it as safely as possible and don’t ignore the risks.