Bikes and Bytes

UNC Asheville’s Director of Networking and Infrastructure is a National Handcycling Champ

By UNC Asheville

October 7^th, 2021

When UNC Asheville’s new director of networking and infrastructure Dustin Baker heads home after work, it’s typically not to relax in front of the TV. More often than not, he’s hitting the road on his handcycle.

“My training regimen is six days a week,” Baker said. Those rides can range from an hour-long recovery ride to intensive interval trainings on weekends. “I get, out of a year, about five days in a row that I don't cycle. I do cycle on Thanksgiving Day. I do cycle on Christmas. Last year I went with my wife and her family to the beach for Thanksgiving. I take the bike everywhere we go, and I was doing training on the beach, and I was doing 27 in a 20 and got pulled over by a cop.”

In addition to the speeding ticket, Baker’s handcycling speed has earned him numerous awards, dozens of marathon medals, and three championship titles, including two podium finishes at the U.S ParaCycling National Championships this year. Now he’s heading to Massachusetts, where he’ll compete in the 125th Boston Marathon on Oct. 11, 2021.

Baker began handcycling after sustaining an injury while serving in support of Operation Northern Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom in the Middle East, working in the US Air Force doing cable systems and tech control. “We did everything from satellite communications, point to point communication systems, cryptography systems, and specialty communications packages for field use,” Baker said. His injury eventually left him without the use of his legs; a fellow veteran introduced him to handcycling, which helped Baker regain both his physical and mental health.

“The first ride I couldn't even do a mile, it was a struggle to move,” Baker said. “But it got me hooked, because it was it was a realization that even being disabled there's still a way I could get out and be active.”

In addition to his work with the Air Force, Baker also worked for the Stennis Space Center and the Navy Special Warfare Group, among others, before coming to UNC Asheville, where he serves as director of network infrastructure systems. “We're responsible for all of the servers that the different departments connect to, the wireless network that we all use throughout the campus of both for faculty and for staff, all the cabling between the different buildings on campus,” Baker explained. “Everything that basically allows all of our electronic devices to connect together.”

Baker said his work at UNC Asheville allows him to connect his expertise in IT with his passion for education.

“The way that we educate the youth is going to directly affect all of our futures,” Baker said. “We're in a really interesting crossroads, in my opinion, where, as we've seen in the last year, IT is becoming more and more something that that we integrate with the way that we educate. So my passion is trying to find ways that we can help complement our teachers, and give them tools within the IT space to provide the best learning possible for our students.”

UNC Asheville’s liberal arts and sciences mission also appealed to Baker, who holds degrees in both electrical systems theory, IT business administration, and social psychology.

“I use it professionally within cybersecurity, because part of my view on it is that not only do we have to understand the thoughts behind maybe malicious actors in our environment, but also it's really critical to understand the people we're supporting, and how we might want to adapt our IT security conversations with those individuals to make the most impact,” Baker said. “I also use it when I volunteer a lot within a couple different veterans’ groups, so it complements both sides.”

Baker has partnered with the Asheville VA Medical Center to help more veterans discover handcycling. “I have two spare cycles that I keep ready and any new veterans that are interested I take them out, just like the vet that first brought me in,” Baker said. “I'll see if they're really interested in it, put them on a training plan, and if they're really passionate I help them with their paperwork with the VA to get their own handcycle.”

Baker’s own handcycling career takes him to races all over the country, where he is often accompanied by his wife, children, and his service dog, Kitty.

“Kitty is trained both for helping me with wheelchair related issues, and with PTSD,” Baker said. If Kitty notices Baker’s anxiety levels going up, she’ll nudge his leg, or even climb up into his lap. Of course, before a race, an athlete’s anxiety will crank up just before the start. “We have pictures both at the start and the finish of some of these major marathons where she literally has come over and went, ‘something's wrong,’ and climbed up on top of my chest on the handcycle. I tell her, ‘no, no, this this is good stress, we're good, we're good.’”

After the upcoming marathon in Boston, Baker will head to Michigan just a week later for the Detroit Marathon on Oct. 16. He’s working towards the long term goals of competing in the world championships in Quebec in 2022, and in three years, the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Race Result Update

Baker finished in the 2021 Boston Marathon in 1 hour and 18 minutes after blowing a tire in mile 21 and riding a flat to the finish, earning him fourth place overall. Despite additional tire issues in Detroit, Baker took second place in the 2021 Detroit Free Press Marathon.

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