The Wet 111th Boston Marathon

On Monday I watched the 111th Running of the Boston Marathon. Anyone watching the Weather Channel the last week observed a Nor’easter battering the east coast; a huge storm system reaching from Cuba to Maine. The pre-race forecast on Sunday for Monday’s race was grim. Temperatures were to be in the mid 30’s with winds up to 50 mph, predicted to be a headwind none the less!! Not exactly the weather you want to run 26.2 miles in. On race day, the Nor’easter was still pounding the East coast, there was coastal flooding, rain was pouring down, winds were reaching 20 and 30 mph.

In the face of the additional challenges courtesy of Mother Nature some 2,300 runners could not conjure the courage (or stupidity) to run in such conditions, leaving roughly 10% of the bib numbers unclaimed. For the vast majority of the 23,000+ runners, the horrible weather could have sent them home too, yet they ran. The reenactment of the battle of Lexington was cancelled, yet they ran. The reenactment of Paul Revere’s historic ride was cancelled, yet they ran. Many towns and neighborhoods lost power, roads were closed, school day’s were cancelled, yet they ran. Mother Nature, played kindly for about 2 1/2 hours at the start of the race, from about 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.: leaving the temperature mild in the 40’s, pausing the rain and severe wind for a bit. It was a short-lived respite and about 12:30 p.m., the ugly weather reared its head once more. Winds whirled, in fact that brutal head-wind showed up to make Heartbreak Hill and the end of the course even more challenging. Just for fun, the temperature started dropping severely as well. Inspiring; watching runners, particularly the non-elite runners, push through pain and swirling winds in extremely variable weather conditions that on race day added another surprise of temperatures that plummeted around 10 degrees during the race. There were a myriad of reasons to stop, yet they ran. So to all you volunteers, fans, support crews and runners, especially the age-groupers and charity runners, to all who finished the wild, wet 111th running of the Boston Marathon: I congratulate you. In addition to your medals, you will all have a badge of courage with a distinction for gumption, and a great story about how the April 2007 Nor’easter crushed the East Coast, yet you ran.

Haiku at 6:32

A few years ago, I was on a software development team of around 20-25 people. The project manager at the time was a big fan of the 2 hour plus status meeting. He insisted on bringing us all in the room and he'd go around and ask everyone for a quick update on their status. Not a very productive model, as not everyone needed to know what everyone else was doing; except my manager of course, so the plan optimized his time but not his team's. One key benefit of being stuck in a room listening to status that has no bearing on you, is that your mind wanders and craves for some intellectual engagement. A few coworkers and I stumbled upon haiku to pass the time. Before you knew it a Haiku movement was born. We wrote somewhere between 30 and 50 haiku during the remainder the project. The project went live, the manager has moved on, and the Haiku movement lost momentum and sadly petered out.

If you are ever stuck in mind-numbingly dull situation and you need something to pass the time, I recommend haiku. 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Who knew 17 syllables could be so flexible. As a tribute to the past movement I've decided to craft a haiku, here at 6:32, when I've started this post.

work is drudgery
haiku may be the answer
Meeting Survival.

You need to lookup Terry Fox

I recently moved, ok- so it was three months ago, but the point is I’m still catching up on the back-log of my out of control “to-read” magazine pile. On the top of the pile today was Runner’s World, January 2007. One of the cover stories has a tag-line of “The Most Inspiring Runner Who Ever Lived: The Terry Fox Story”

For those of you you don’t know Terry Fox, and I was one until this article, here is a quick summary of what I learned in the Runner’s World Article. Terry Fox, was a young man who was diagnosed with bone cancer and had his right leg amputated when he was 18. One of his coaches (he was a High-school athlete) provided him a magazine story about the first amputee to complete the New York City Marathon. (This was 1980). This seemed to have set the wheels of destiny in motion, and Terry decided to run across Canada to raise awareness and funds for cancer treatment related research. A unbelievable task for anyone to undertake. The plan was to start in Newfoundland and head west to his native British Columbia. He dubbed this the “Marathon of Hope.” He would run on average a marathon a day for 143 days. He did not know it at the time, but his cancer had metastasized prior to the amputation, on his 143rd day of his “Marathon of Hope” he was unable to continue. He was flown to a hospital it turned out to be tumors in his chest, lung cancer. He would die 10 months later. An amazing fact is that Terry, only had 3 days “rest”, so he ran roughly 140 Marathon’s in 143 days. I believe the article said he raised $27 Million during the Marathon of Hope, which is absolutely unbelievable for an individual achievement, especially without the corporate machinery of modern day fundraising. His goal was to raise $1 from every Canadian. In 2005, the Canadian Mint has issued 1$ silver coin with Terry Fox’s image on it, I think the symbolism is fitting.

The article is a very good read, so if you have access to a Jan 2007, Runner’s World, I highly recommend reading this article, go to the library if you have to, its worth it. ( I tried to find it at the Runner’s World website but was unsuccessful.) If you do not have access to Runner’s World, I suggest a little googling or wikipedia or the CBC Website.

According to the CBC Website, To date, more than $360 Million dollars has been raised in Terry’s name for cancer research.

Inspirational
Recommendation

Aussie Wines

Aussie Wines

My friend posted a few French Wines that he quite enjoys and he laid the guantlet for a responding post with additional recommendations.

First on my list is a wine from Majella Wines, a called "Malleea", it is outstanding red blend wine, bold flavors, strong body, but incredible smooth. A true joy to drink. However, I've never seen it states side. However, I've had all the Majella red's and they are good. So I'd recommend them all from this winery. (If I had to choose, the Shiraz is probably my second favorite after the Malleea from Majella)

In case, Majella does not have an Importer in America, I'll provide a broader recommendation, Currently , South Australia has a stretch of two wine regions that are making some of the best reds I've had, it is very hard to make a bad choice from these two regions. So look for any red from Barossa or Coonawarra (Preferred Choice), and you'll fine a very quality wine. Some wine expert was telling me that in this region the vines are finally old enough to start producing the outstanding wines and that starting from 3 or so years ago and continuing for the next 30 years, this region is at its prime for producing reds.


My next recommendation will be a broad one as well, as I really like boutique wines and there is a good chance that specific one won't have an importer, so the recommendation is a Sparkling Shiraz or Sparking Chambourcin. I've had several from the Hunter Valley region in New South Wales, an there many excellent ones. Since there My advise here, is spend at least $25 US. Sparkling red-wines are little new to most peoples palates, and (trust me) you don't want a below average one. (Apthorpe, and Tambourline wineries each have very good ones if you stumble across them)


Now for a drink-able white. On warm sunny afternoons, a good chilled glass of Verdhelo is quite satisfying. Again, I've had many, many from mostly boutique's. (Tambourline is very good one, as is the Gartelmann's) Verdhelo's can range from super dry, to fruity and tad sweet. My favorites are a hint of fruit, not sweet, but very, very crisp. The wine regions I'd recommend are again Hunter Valley in New South Wales, and this, Margaret River or another Western Australian winery. These make for a very nice table wine, great with a summer meal, or just have a glass or two with friends.

while on the topic of Australia, if you ever go to Hunter Valley, you MUST, MUST, MUST stop at the Binnorie Dairy, and buy (you can try it first if you must, but it'll be a waste of time, just buy it) the Binnorie Marinated Feta, it is other-worldly. Rumor has it that the cheese maker (sp?) spent 5 years in Europe learning from the masters, and he moved to Australia and started this Dairy. Apparently, he took some of this Marinated Feta to a cheese expo in Europe, and internal taste test of the cheese makers, not the critics, it was voted, best cheese at the show.

So in summary, my basic recommendation is anything red from Coonawarra Valley or Barossa Valley, very helpful I'm sure

Claiming myself on technorati
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Oddman once again

Last Saturday I competed once again in the Oddman Duathlon. The course was the exact same as last years, and feel and management just as pleasant. For a few more details, have quick read of last years blog post . All the logistics are the same.

As you can tell from reading last year’s entry, I was not very fit and learned a fortnight of training is not enough for me anymore with out a base level of fitness. This year, I signed up about a week earlier, so I had a potential of 22 days to train, which is like a 50% increase of training time off of last year’s preparations. In addition, I was much more active this winter than last, so I was hoping my base fitness was also significantly higher. All told, my goals for the race were simple. 1) Finish (no one likes a DNF or DFL for that matter) 2) Beat Last years time and a stretch goal for number 3) Break 2 hours.

Very happily, I comfortable achieved all three goals, with a time of 1:54:45 (ok, so maybe I didn’t “comfortable break 2 hours”...) I was very much satisfied with these results. My splits were (from my wrist watch, not official splits)

(the course was a 5k Trail run, two loops of a 5mi bike course followed by the another 5k)

R1: 26:49
T1: 01:36
B1: 28:15
B2: 28:00
T2: 02:05
R2: 27:57

So this was 15 minutes faster than last years time, so that made me very happy.

The winner ran it in something like 1 hour and 20 minutes, which reinforces something I’ve thought for quite awhile now....most races are structured to provide an unfair advantage to those who train and are in super fit. Not fair I tell ya !!!

Hopefully I’ll repeat the other two races I competed in last year (a sprint triathlon, and 67km charity ride) to hopefully show that this year, so far is much better year for fitness. I hope it continues!!!

A separate idea kicking around in my head is try an olympic distance triathlon, but I’m such a weak swimmer that 1.5km swim might kill me...(especially when the 800m swim in the sprint last year took me over 22 minutes!!!yikes...I’m sure I could go faster if I just would have floated...)but the olympic distance tri idea is lingering...
race report

Test with MacJournal Take 2

There’s now been updates to MacJournal, and Blogger.com has upgraded/merged with google...so I thought I’d try this again.