Reason To Run

Reason to Run 2010

2010-01-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

Reason to Run #187: Having a targeted goal is a great way to succeed with a New Years fitness resolution.

Reason to Run had an amazing year in 2009. It was our first year organizing races and we met so many great people. With the partnership of our wonderful sponsors, we were able to raise over $17,000 for the charities associated with our events: the Micah Project, Alex Martinez Memorial Fund, CERN, Caring Bridge and the Catalyst Partnerships.

In April 2009, we had the Spring Burst 5k and 10k, with Pace of Courage 5k and 10k in August and then we finished the season with the Catalyst Challenge in October.

These three events are back for 2010, so add them to your race calendar and come out for more fun with Reason to Run: http://reasontorun.com/races.html

The first event of the year is the Spring Burst 5k and 10k: http://reasontorun.com/springRaces.html and registration will open in early January.

Join us on our Facebook event for the Spring Burst and invite your friends to share in the excitement leading up to April 10th: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214848049130

Happy New Year!!

Darin and Trisha

www.ReasonToRun.com

Diva Premeire: King Arthur's Quest

2009-11-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Leah's premiere in the world of theatre in a presentation of King Arthur's Quest at Mary Woodward elementary school.

The play was well produced with cool costumes and it was amazing how well prepared the kids were with only a week of practice. Hosted by the Missoula Children's Theatre, a traveling non-profit that has a mission: The development of life skills in children through participation in the performing arts.

Leah was one of the Camelotians (a citizen of Camelot), specifically a hard working baker. She particularily liked the boogie dragon music production. Ask her about it!

3 5ks: Run Like Hell, Pumpkin Regatta and EA Sports

2009-11-07T00:18:00.000-08:00

To kick start me getting back into shorter speedier runs and to celebrate my 39th birthday (ouch) I signed up for 5ks in 3 weeks.

Back on October 25th, I ran the Run Like Hell 5k in Portland. Last year I ran this race pacing James to a 5k PR so I knew it was a fast, fun course. I also had won an entry from the Run Oregon bl og so a free race made it all the sweeter. I had a good day placing 3rd in my age group, 23rd out of 750 with a time of 19:13. James did another great run and shaved another 4 seconds off his PR...wahoo!

On October 31st, I ran the Tualatin Fit City Pumpkin Regatta 5k. Part of this course was on the courses we used for the Reason To Run Spring Burst and Catalyst Challenge so I was quite familiar with the layout. This was a low key race and I was a little disappointed with no race results or mile markers but otherwise was polished for a first year event. In the picture, to my right you can see the two Bowerman Athletic Club woman athletes who smoked me. I was first male and third overall in 19:14. (picture courtesy of Dan ial Payne Photography). I even got interviewed by someone with a TV camera..famous for 5 mins :-)

Today was the EA Sports Active 5k Challenge From what I understand, EA Sports, video game maker, was sponsoring these events nationwide to promote fitness. The Portland EA Sports 5k was free and anything that promotes fitness is cool in my books! Alan Rasmussen, founder of the upcoming NW Running League, stepped up to organize the Portland run. Have you signed up for the NW Running League?...you should! This course was more cross country and also had a nasty half mile stretch into the wind. How come the tailwinds never quite make up for the headwinds? I had hoped to get under 20 minutes once I saw the course but with bad math out on the run I ended with 20:14. Live and learn...all part of racing. Some good strong runners reminded me of the strength and speed word I have ahead...I was lucky if I was in the top ten.

Next weekend: Malibu marathon pacing Trisha to a PR and watching Jon and Lynsey complete their first one!!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

Another Halloween is on the books.
Leah dressed as a vampire this year and became quite proficient at a great evil laugh.

Cole, well he came up with a costume all on his own: a protester. His protest sign reads: "No More Long Boring Speeches that Explain Nothing". Directed at parents, or teachers or politicians?? He is smartly sticking to "No comment".

Lots of candy, good time with friends and many, many laughs.

Catalyst Challenge 2009 Wrapup

2009-10-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

On October 17th we had the inaugural running of the Catalyst Challenge 5k & 10k.

We have great weather and the fall colors of Cook and Tualatin parks added a nice touch to the event.

The race numbers:

155 registered runners
81 people finished the 5k
63 people finished the 10k
Many first time racers came out to try the event
We had the Rustvold family out running barefoot and pulling strollers and rickshaws.
Amazing weather and great course
More door prizes than should be allowed
Approximately $4,000 was raised for the Catalyst Parnerships

The 10k results can be found here. The 5k results can be found here. The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Our sponsors, Club Sport Oregon, Cornerstone Chiropractic, Road Runner Sports, Clif Bar, Strands, Bear Naked Granola, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, GNC, Print Sync Inc., Jamba Juice, Al's Garden Centers, Tualatin Haggen Food and Pharmacy, The Gardener's Choice and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We would also like to thank the Mary Woodward Ambassadors for coming our and helping to work the aid stations and direct the runners and walkers out on the course.

We look forward to seeing you for the next Catalyst Challenge in the Fall of 2010!

2009 Jog-a-Thon

2009-10-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

Both Cole and Leah participated in their schools annual Jog-A-Thon on Friday October 2nd. Trisha and I volunteered and I got to still run with both kids. Cole hesitated when I asked if he wanted me to run with him...he is starting to worry about the cool factor ;-)

Cole and Leah did amazing with Cole running 24 laps (@ 3 miles) and Leah completing 27 laps. Cole had some gut cramps that slowed him down (too much water) but was good at keeping on moving even if he had a grimace on his face ;-)

The rain held off to just as the last group of kids finished their running and we finished taking down the temporary track field. Nice!

Pace of Courage Wrap Up

2009-10-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Back on August 15th we had the inaugural running of the Pace of Courage 5k & 1ok.

Be all measures the event was a huge success:

421 registered runners
237 people finished the 5k
125 people finished the 10k
Many first time racers came out to try the event
The 10k event was won by a family: dad running, 2 kids in the stroller!
Amazing weather and great course
Have you seen a better food spread after a race?
Over $12,500 was raised for the Alec Martinez Medical Fund, CERN and Caring Bridge
Everyone was inspired by Alec's life and legacy

The 10k results can be found here. The 5k results can be found here. The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Our sponsors, Graystone Partners, Cornerstone Chiropractic, Market of Choice, Clif Bar, Great Harvest, Road Runner Sports, Sheridan Fruit Company, Bear Naked Granola, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, FruitaBu, Food Should Taste Good, POM Wonderful, AMR, Snap Fitness, Jamba Juice, Stevens Printing and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We look forward to seeing you for the next Pace of Courage in August 2010!

Catalyst Challenge

2009-09-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Reason to Run #76: Running a fall race is a great way to stay motivated through the change of seasons.

Your training and running should not end just because summer does. If you are looking for a goal event while at the same time supporting a great cause, look no further than the Catalyst Challenge 5k and 10k

The Catalyst Challenge, hosted by Reason to Run, will occur in Cook Park, Tigard at 9:00 am on October 17th, 2009. The proceeds from this event will be directed towards the Catalyst Partnerships, a grass-roots movement that simply wants to help neighbors who need assistance with home repairs due to physical or financial limitations.

The course will explore the paved and bark mulch paths of the Tigard park to present you with an urban trail 5 and 10k. Please see the reviews from our Spring Burst event that made use of a similar course: Runners Reviews.

To read more about the Catalyst Challenge please see www.ReasonToRun.com/winterRace s.

Register today and give yourself a reason to run this fall! One week remains to take advantage of the discounted early registration for the Catalyst Challenge 5k and 10k races.

See you in October!

PCT 50 miler: Great day for a 50k. Oh no! 20 miles to go!

2009-07-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday July 25th, 2009 I ran the PCT 50 miler.
Short version: I had hoped to really nail this race and run around 8:20. Didn't happen. Still figuring out why. Good hard day out on the trail running with new and old friends alike.
50 miles in 9 hours and 19 minutes
Averaged 11:10 per mile
Awesome crew support from Trisha and the kids!!

Long Version:
Start to Little Crater Lake : 6 miles in 52:28 minutes
The first six miles are rolling and a great way to get out the early race anxiety but one must be careful not to go to fast and dip into the reserves that will be needed on the return trip. Right from the start I had urgent calls to hit the trees. Nerves, wrong food before the race, wrong food the night before...have to figure it out before the Where's Waldo 100 km.

Little Crater Lake to FS58 3.2 miles in 33:48 minutes
Once out of first aid station at Little Crater lake, you have some more rolling and then the start of the first real climb. I loved it. Except for the pit stops.

FS 58 to Frog Lake (Hwy 26) 5.2 miles in 47:46 minutes
This is where you start to do more climbing and experience the first real views of Mt Hood. It really is too bad we no longer will get to do the race up to Timberline...a loss all around in my books. Couple more pits stops.

Frog Lake to FS 58 5.2 miles in 43:20
Stomach started to settle down a bit and actually started to really enjoy the race. Scenery continues to be amazing.

FS 35 to Little Crater Lake 3.2 miles in 31:00 minutes
I was able to finally push a bit here and had likely the most fun of the day besides the step over the finish line :-)

Little Crater Lake back to the Start 6 miles in 1 hour 11 minutes
The dreaded dusty flatlands. This was a preview of the last 20 miles of the race. Just no gas on the ups or the flats. Running downhill worked well. My guesses are I fell behind on fueling in the early stages from the touchy tummy, residual fatigue from Hardrock pacing, lack of sleep in the previous 2 days (Clackamas campground was NOT quite this year)...I think more likely lack of fuel since I could "pound" the downhills when the opportunity arouse. This is where the title of this post comes from. Finishing here would have been GREAT: nice time for a 50km with some decent running. Call it a day. Oh no! Still 20 miles to go :-(

Start to Red Wolf Pass 4.5 miles in 1 hour and 9 minutes
Hot, dusty road running. Seemed to be all uphill for 4.5 miles. Really, really slow. Lots of attempted power hiking to keep moving. Grumpy. Discouraged. The Grandma Wolf aid station really helped and my family loved the recounting of the aid station signs sayings (all Little Red Riding Hood based). I learned to love those little white signs. The ice at this aid station was awesome!!

(Note: I forgot to take a split here and only have the total running time of 2:39:50 for Red Wolf back to Red Wolf)
Red Wolf Pass to Warm Springs Meadows 5.5 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes
After Red Wolf you get some downhill and then likely the steepest sections of the course. Oh, MAN...those are going to hurt coming back! Then you cross the Warm Springs river and you get the privilege of more climbing. Not so much fun this far into a race. Sealed it for me that the new course is tougher than the old.
I was feeling sorry for myself when I hit Warm Springs. Trisha really helped me by simply saying to "Enjoy the day for what it is". Yep, time for an attitude adjustment. Not the day you had hoped for but still an amazing day out on the trail..smarten up! :-)

Warm Springs Meadows to Red Wolf Pass 5.5 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes
Back we go. Down, down to the river. Good running, passing some people. Then the flat and then oh, no...the dreaded up. Climb, climb, walk, walk. Even the Lanny and Ruben (first and second the whole way I think) walked some of this section and these guys are TOUGH!
Getting close to the Red Wolf aid station I started seeing little white signs everywhere. And power lines. Where is that aid station. Phew...there it is.

Red Wolf Pass to Finish 4.5 miles in 51:30
The first 2-2.5 miles of this is sweet downhill where I almost got back to really enjoying the race :-) Then I hit the gravel road again. Hmmm...I remember this all being uphill. How come it now all seems like uphill again? I really, really should have had a better split on this section heading out. Next time! Finally see the campground and know I am a half mile out. Spit out onto the road and there is Trisha to pace me in for the final third of a mile.

(Note: I am not sure about the distances. Anyone who can correct me, it would be greatly appreciated. I can't make it work out to 50 miles with the web info and what I remember from the aid station signs on race day??)

I think I did a good job of staying hydrated and salted (win) but was riding the wrong curve on staying up on calories with just the base amount of gels and then PB & J in the aid stations. Maybe should have forced the issue and stuck to the plan? Possibly a good puke would have rebooted the system?

Thank you to Olga, Monika and Mike (race directors). I think you did a fine job of adapting and hosting this race with late breaking course changes. Thank you to all the volunteers. The aid stations were really well hosted with lots of volunteers eager to help.

Now back to planning to be ready for Waldo.

Pacing at 2009 Hardrock 100

2009-07-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

A new bar has been set. Everything I do from now on will be measured against the running / pacing I did at the Hardrock 100. It was the hardest, most extreme running I have done. I am happy to not try anything harder.

With that said the privilege, experience and opportunity to pace Ronda for 55+ miles of Hardrock was AWESOME! This is my story of the 33 hours, 56 minutes and 29 seconds that Ronda raced to place as second woman (Full results are here). Again AWESOME!

The race started at 6:00 am. We got up at 4:30 am to load the car and wish Micheal and Ronda a fun and great race.
After some time in the Silverton, CO high school gym, soon enough the runners were sent on their way for the adventure of a lifetime.

As crew and pacers, we were lucky enough to have time to grab some breakfast and caffeine in Silverton before driving to meet Ronda at the first crew spot: Cunningham Gulch.

The Hardrock course can be summarized simply: extreme climbing followed by extreme downhill running. There is NO flat. See the course profile to the left if you do not believe me.

Cunningham Gulch is after the first big climb and 9.2 miles into the race. Ronda showed up about 30 minutes ahead of her pace plan and looking really strong. But we all know that the first 10 miles of a 100 has little to do with the race :-)

We then were off to Sherman / Barrows Park to crew. This aid is after the second set of climbs and just before the runners prepare to climb to the highest point on the course: the summit of Handies Peak at 14,053 ft Ronda had maintained her pace and was currently running in about 6th place for women. As a crew we were excited and nervous all at the same time. It was about 3 pm (7 hours of running) in the afternoon at this point and some clouds were starting to roll in. Would we have some extreme weather as well in the form of thunderstorms?

The next aid station is Grouse Gulch at mile 42.8 (at the end of coming off Handies) and was were I would jump in to pace Ronda.
Since Ronda had just finished a long downhill, we started with the long uphill to Engineer's Pass and Oh! Point around 6:30 pm after Ronda had been running for about 12 hours.
My job for pacing was simple: make Ronda climb as fast as possible and then after seconds of reprieve of the current summit, switch gears and mercilessly pound the downhills. Repeat about 6 times over the 20 hours we are out there together.

We crested at Oh! Point and started the first downhill to the Engineer aid station. Phew leg one done...now the CRAZY descent into the town of Ouray. Miles and miles of downhill running on a trail cut into the cliffs. I was pretty glad it was dark and that neither of us caught a toe on the endless shale. It was quite the relief to make the Ouray aid station and have Ronda move into 3rd place for the women. After a quick "Nascar" like pit stop with Bill, we were of on the climb to Virginus Pass or as I have come to know it: the scary ice climb of death :-0 After about 8 miles of uphill you have the privilege of summitting the last pitch to the saddle using a rope to ascend the last 300-400 feet of vertical frozen snow. The adrenaline rush from this climb helped cure both Ronda and my stomach issues we had been dealing with on the climb. Nothing like a little fear to cure what ails you :-) Sorry no pictures as it was 3:00 am when we summitted and reached the Kroeger's Canteen aid station in the pass at mile 68. Click here for a video of what appears to be the first pitch of the ascent.

You should know what is next: miles and miles of punishing downhill. Down, down, down into the town of Telluride. Some running, some sliding, some falling. The city was beautiful at night but also seemingly close yet taking sooo long to reach. Aid station at mile 73 and then out to climb to Oscar's Pass; another climb up and over 13,000 ft. This climb seemed to go on FOREVER! But it was beautiful watching the sun rise and then finally cresting at the top. And the the rock pounding down into Chapman Gulch aid station at mile 82 after about 26 hrs of running for Ronda (only . We pushed hard in this section and Ronda moved into second place. Next the climb to the rock scramble of Grant-Swamp pass. You climb about 3000 ft to then end in a bowl with no discernible way out. No problem for Hardrock...use your arms and legs and pick a route and go! And then watch for any falling rock!! Something special at 85 miles into the run :-) We watched Micheal make it up, took a deep breath and took the plunge to grunt it to the top.

At this point I was starting to have trouble running hard on the downhills. Wimpy feet with sore meta-tarsals is what we think. I was helping on the uphills but I was having trouble keeping up on the downhills. Not good...but Ronda was doing awesome and solidly in second place! So we pulled into KT aid station after another long downhill and I was hurting. But I knew we had some long climbs ahead and could still help out. So quick refuel and up into Putnam climbs. These are evil! Not as high as the earlier climbs but 12,500 ft is still high by any measure. And would some switchbacks really be all that hard to add? Straight up is never the easiest! :-)

Ronda powered on past the Putnam Creek aid station with 5.9 miles to go...most of it downhill back into Silverton. I was a liability with my "speed" on the downhills so she dropped me. Hard on my ego but I had done what I could to help her achieve her goals and I will always be proud to say I was dropped by her at Hardrock. It was so cool to watch and see all the hard work pay off.
Ronda "kissed" the rock (the official way to finish at Hardrock) as second woman, 33 hours, 56 minutes and 29 seconds after she started!! Full results are here.

Hardrock is amazing in its extremes: brutal climbs, leg pounding downhills, little to no "easy" trail running. There are either rocks or grass clumps grabbing you at every opportunity. Your feet are always wet from stream crossings. The scenery is as breath taking as the altitude. The race is very well organized and the aid stations are second to none. Be warned though: you need to know this course before race day. Course marking is only sufficient if you know where you are going. We got off course twice and we had spent over a week learning and reviewing the course. There are almost no "feel" good markers.

If you have any fear of heights, exposure, falling rocks or ice climbing in the middle of the night at 12,000 ft, this race is not for you. I have seldom experienced the fear I tasted during this run. The fear forced razor sharp focus at several times in the adventure. Conquer it or not...no half way. Very Yoda-ish. Words kinda fail to express it...you have to be there. You have to do it to experience it.

So if you ever want to set a new bar of extreme for your racing experience I can pretty much guarantee you will find it running Hardrock. As a small sample: can you find the course and runners in the picture to the right? This is looking up to the scree scramble at Grant-Swamp pass. Next time I am bringing a rock climbing helmet!

Congratulations to all the finishers...truly inspiring. From the youngest at 24 to the oldest at 73!!

I am now more excited than ever to race the PCT 50 in two weeks. I will always have the extra advantage in the back of my mind knowing it is easier than Hardrock :-)

Two 14ers in One Day

2009-07-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

On July 7, 2009, I jumped at the chance to climb two 14000+ foot mountains in one day: Redcloud and Sunshine. Redcloud is 14,034 ft and Sunshine is 14,001 ft.
There is a saddle between these two mountains which makes the double bagger possible. I went out with Bill and Steve and we started on the 12 mile total hike/run at 7:45 am.
For quite a while you follow Silver creek before making a right turn and starting some serious climbing up to Redcloud.
Seems my body is adapting well to the altitude as I was able to run / hike well and no altitude headache as in past days. I reached the first saddle leading up to Redcloud and took a nice pause as Bill and Steve made their way up.
We then turned right to push up to the summit of Redcloud. Soon we summitted and took some time to record our names and eat some food.
Then is was the 1.3 miles down over the saddle to Sunshine. More food and pictures on this summit.
Then it was time to retrace to the summit of Redcloud and back down to the Silver creek and the car.

Was a great adventure with amazing views and lots of time exercising about 13,000 ft.
Definitely a great way to ensure you are tired and hungry when you get back to civilization :-)
Total running time was about 4:20 minutes

Bagging the Mountains in Colorado

2009-07-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

The last two days that I have spent in Colorado have been really cool.

Lots of driving on Jeep roads in the mountains to get high and then a fair bit of hiking and running up above 11,000 ft...most of it higher than the peak of Mt Hood in Oregon!

On July 3rd, we climbed up part of the Hardrock 100 course to around 13,300 feet. This is the highest I had been in my life and you really do have to work harder with that missing oxygen. This is to help get me ready to pace the last 57 miles with my friend Ronda.

After the hike/run we did a quick clothes change and head for Telluride. Neat little mountain town that has really good flat crust pizza!

On July 4th we started the day off right doing a local 5k / 10k called the Blue Ribbon run. The course was obviously short but at any distance pushin' it at 9321 ft a some good honest work. My time was 41:51.
After a quick change and refuel we heading for the hills...or rather mountains to bag a 14er: Handies Peak.
The weather was perfect and after a tough but very scenic climb I peaked out at 14,048 ft! I spent some time at the top and snapped several pictures as Micheal and Ronda. I started to get cold so it was time to head back down. Nice casual run back to the car. While I waited for the others I was able to snap some pictures of the wild flowers that are waking up the valley from its winter sleep...BEAUTIFUL!

Girlfriend Summer Run Clinics

2009-06-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hey girlfriend! Are you interested in:

Getting more enjoyment out of your runs
Running faster and stronger
Training for a race such as Pace of Courage or Race for the Cure
Finding new running routes
Learning more about the sport of running
Meeting new running friends

Reason to Run is presenting the Girlfriend Summer Run Clinics this July and August in the Tigard area. All levels of women runners and joggers are encouraged to come out and join us. We will meet on Tuesday and Thursdays from 7 am to 8 am. Participants will be emailed the location specifics.

The cost for each training clinic is $50 and includes:

Eight, one hour training sessions
Very cool Reason to Run technical t-shirt designed by local artist Tyson Mangelsdorf, styled and sized for women
Door prizes and sponsor goodies
Post clinic celebration run and Bear Naked Granola sponsored breakfast
Optional Saturday trail run in Forest Park
Discount on a future Reason to Run race
A fun, supportive environment

Tuesdays will focus on a specific running work out, while Thursdays will be girlfriend run day. Work outs will include track, hills and tempo, and during the sessions we will talk about topics such as injury prevention, stretching, nutrition, training plans, running shoes and clothing, hydration, iPod music selection, running partners, and trail running.

Trisha from Reason to Run will be hosting two sessions:
Session 1: July 14 - Aug 6
Session 2: August 18 - Sept 10

For more details and to register please see http://www.reasontorun.com/runClinic.html
Hope to see you there!

(Note: This is a repost of content we provided for the Run Oregon blog)

Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Marathon 2009

2009-06-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

At the post race bag pick up station, a volunteer asked me if the race was fun. I wish I could say that I was polite and gracious, but instead I just blurted out 'No' I realized from the shocked look at his face that he had expected a somewhat different response. I looked at my friend Cheri and we started laughing. Seriously, who runs 26.2 miles for fun?

I first heard about the Rock 'n' Roll marathons years ago and when I heard Seattle would be hosting one I quickly signed up. It was great to have my friend Cheri sign up too.

Cheri and I and our two daughters left early Friday morning to hit the marathon expo and have a girls day in Seattle. The expo was in the Qwest Event Center and was first rate. There were tons of samples, everything from Bear Naked granola and yogurt (a shameless plug here) to peanut butter dog treats. There was a Brooks Running photo booth where we did crazy mother/daughter poses and a 'spa' bus complete with parafin wax hand treatments and makeovers. Leah loved getting eye shadow put on. Everything was free. More than two hours later we went for lunch and then headed to our hotel so the girls could go for a swim. I had booked a hotel in Kent near the marathon start and we were a little worried about what we would get for our $57. As we pulled up to the Kent Holiday Inn we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel is newer and clean and the outdoor pool was wonderful. Cheri and I didn't get to enjoy the complementary breakfast the next morning, but the kids and hubbies said it was really good. Waffles, omletes, fruit, etc.

The next morning Darin drove us to the race start and we roamed around a bit with the 25,000 other marathoners and half marathoners. Lots of port-a-potties, UPS trucks for the bag drop and slightly staggered start times made for a well organized race beginning and the weather was sunny, but not too hot. I felt a little silly having my iPod with me because this was the Rock 'n' Roll marathon and I really should be listening to the bands, right?

The first 12 miles of the race went through neighborhoods, wound around Lake Washington and went over the floating bridge on the Lake. It was fun to have residents cheering from their houses and playing tribute Micheal Jackson music. The Rock 'n' Roll aspect of the marathon was not at all what I expected. Obviously I had this unrealistic idea that I would be hearing music the entire race, but when bands are a one to two miles apart and you are running past, you really only hear the music for 2 - 3 minutes. Some of the bands were playing love ballads when what I really needed was a really good beat to keep me going.

It felt like the second half of the race was a lot of freeway and/or highway running. Lots of concrete and three tunnels (Note: please don't put a band in the tunnel, the acoustics really don't work) The race I wanted to run fell apart at mile 17, but after a change in attitude, I felt good as I finished. This is a fairly hilly course and there was a nasty little hill at mile 25 after a 2 mile industrial out and back section. The post race medical team was great - lots of ice wraps for sore knees and legs, but the food was very limited: bananas, oranges and a single volunteer handing out half bagels. We did manage to find a table with some bags of Fritos and other chips - score.

Then it was back to the hotel to shower and sit around the pool enjoying the sunshine. We topped off our trip with a stop for sushi on the way home.

Portland All-Comer Track Meet: Fun and Fast

2009-06-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

(Note: This is a repost of content I provided for the Run Oregon blog)

Summer is here and that means so is the Portland All-Comer Track meets on Tuesday nights.

Schedules and general program of the meet can be found in this previous post by Kelly.

And also thanks to a post from Kelly I had no choice but to run the mile tonight!

To set the stage: I am a long distance running. And this is not in terms of a track meet. Long runner in terms of marathons and ultra-marathons. My legs start getting limber after about 5 miles :-)

That said, I had a ton of fun running the Predict-a-Mile and the 200 meter events and then watching many of the other events on the schedule at the track meet tonight.

Traffic was crazy getting to the meet so when I arrived around 6:15 the meet was underway. Registration was handled very well by the Foot Traffic organizers and you just cannot beat the $2 price for as many events as you can handle!

Tonight was a record attendance for an All-Comer meet with my estimation of over 500 people with probably half kids under the age of 12. In the Predict-a-Mile there were over 50 people who ran...awesome!

So what exactly is a Predict-a-Mile you might ask?

First, you sign up for the event and write down, in hard black and white, what time you think you are going to run.

Then you run 4 and bit laps of the track while your legs and lungs burn and scream to stop but you brain steadfastly refuses to quit and pushes you on to experience that euphoric feeling of crossing the finish line and gasping to reduce your oxygen debt.

Finally you wait with baited breath to see if you were close to your predicted time. Why not just look at your watch that you took splits with and timed your mile? Because watches are NOT allowed for this event!! Makes perfect sense for this type of event but man did I miss my splits. I live by my watch during a race: should I speed up, should I slow down...WHAT IS MY TIME! :-)

Later, the official times and results are posted and the first 5 places are those people who correctly predicted the closest to their actual mile times. Mile times ranged from 4:52 to over 12 minutes. I was off predicting my time by 10 seconds but I did tie my PR from the only other mile event I have ever ran and that was 9 years ago! 5:32 is my line in the sand for the mile. The winner predicted her time to within 0.26 seconds!

And yes, I did run the 200 and was attempting to smile the whole way as I powered in for a

strong last place. But I really could care less as the crowd is really supportive to every athlete and it also felt really good to try to run that fast! This attitude of just doing you best and having fun permeates the events.

I was also inspired watching the other events from kids running

their first mile to the guy who won the 400 meter in 50.8 (as shown in the picture)!! Great family fun and athletic event all rolled into one.

So check the schedule and come out with your two bucks for some speedwork, a great time and a well organized Foot Traffic event. See you next time as I try to get better predicting my time running a mile without at watch!

Notes & Thoughts from Portland Eclipse DemoCamp Galileo 2009

2009-06-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

What do Test Code Generation UI, ECF 3.0, RAP, Android and Code Smells all have in common?
These topics were the focus of demos at the Portland Eclipse DemoCamp sponsored by Instantiations. Here are my notes from Wednesday night with my commentary at the end. Get in touch with the presenters and check out the links to learn more.

ECF First up was Scott Lewis (EclipseSource) and a demo from the Eclipse communication framework.
Some 3.0 highlights:

ECF moved to runtime top level project
Distributed OSGi
Twitter Client (Twitter Hub)
Presence API user search
Real-time shared editing/Cola + Sync API

Working on distributed OSGI EE RFC 119: discovery and remote services
Your distributed services code lives above ECF and can make use of the ECF providers or you can roll your own.
Scott demoed client/server OSGi discovery and remoted services and Toast Vehicle Management Portal: p2 magic for install and uninstall at runtime.

Next up was John Roberts (Mind Warm): Using Android with Eclipse
John threw out that Android could overtake the iPhone by 2011?!
Demo of the Eclipse Android tooling.
Seemed very quick to try out and develop with an emulator
Challenges that remain with the toolset: tough to design UI with base set within Eclipse.
One recommendation was DroidDraw - recommended as WYSIWYG

Android app site is http://www.android.com/market/
It would seem that searching for apps on a phone could be clunky?

Jaime Wren (Instantiations) presented Test Code Generation UI

The CodePro AnalytiX JUnit Test generator needed a new UI. Challenged with making a modern UI using only the SWT features from Eclipse 2.1 (wow!!)
Nice review of the choices and reasoning behind the decisions. But hey...please don't start your demo with "This is not very exciting". May not have been exciting but it was interesting. Let your audience decide ;-)

RAP Elias Volanakis (EclipseSource) Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) and the New Eclipse download wizard
RAP: Eclipse for the web
Eclipse dynamic download web page: check it out here.

Why bother with RAP?: "know how" reuse and use of familiar tooling.
Closer to "holy grail" of having single source for web and client.
New for RAP 1.2:

new widgets - scale, dateTime expandBar, slider, colordialog CCombo
Cell editors
intro/welcome support
more SWT+ JFace APIS

Basic steps to create RAP App: http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipseRAP/article.html
Tune in on July 9th for more: http://live.eclipse.org/node/718

Emerson Murphy-Hill
Finding code smells within Eclipse.
Presented a smell detector - lovingly called the Stench Blossom. Non-intrusive indicator of smells existing with the code currently being browsed. Inform without overwhelming.
Built based on the Seven habits of a highly successful smell detectors .

My commentary: I have been to many, many democamps. I have been doing Eclipse development since the dawn of time.
What hit me several times last night was the diverse nature of what was being done within and with Eclipse. AND how a large majority of the demos were on OLDER versions of Eclipse. This would have never happened several years ago. Eclipse has reached the maturity level that cool new products can be developed on versions of Eclipse that are 2 or 3 years old. 3.5 and the latest and greatest is really cool (see Ian Bull's countdown and all the Galileo blog reviews) but at the same time older versions are cool as well.
Take my day job. We just shipped the Jazz Foundation 1.0 which is based on Eclipse 3.4.

Is this bad? I really don't think so.
Bleeding edge, pushing the envelope work can continue at Eclipse as it always has while the community can adopt and adapt only as much or as little as they deem necessary for their success. This keeps everyone happy and winning.
I propose Eclipse has fully become the framework it was intended to be. Eclipse can now respectfully step back out of the spot light and allow the applications that have been built and will be built on its impressive shoulders their time to shine. Just like every proud parent should do...
(These are of course my thoughts alone and may or may not reflect the position of anyone else).

Pace of Courage 5k and 10k, August 15, 2009

2009-06-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

Pace of Courage
Saturday August 15th 2009

On August 15th, 2009 Reason to Run will host the Pace of Courage Run/Walk to help support Stephen, Vananh and their 3 year old son Alec Martinez in their fight against cancer and with their goal to promote cancer awareness.

One family, two cancers: To read the complete Martinez family story please see the article in the Beaverton Valley Times and their webpage at CaringBridge.

The Pace of Courage will include a 5k and 10k that will start at 9:00 am on August 15, 2009. We are running out of Oak's Park and continue on an out and back along the beautiful Springwater corridor.
More details can be found here.

Use this event as a goal at the end of your summer or fill in your training for a fall marathon. If you are starting out running or walking as part of a more active lifestyle or using the baby jogger to hit the trails or roads, come and join us.

We know what you look for in an event: excellent organization, safe and fun courses, with great support including post race food. See our reviews from previous events here.

Come do a great run and support a great cause.

All event proceeds will benefit the Alec Martinez Medical Fund, the CERN Foundation (Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network) and CaringBridge, a nonprofit web service that connects family and friends during a critical illness, treatment or recovery.

Register, come run with us and make fighting cancer a reason to run.

Rim2Rim2Rim...Running the Grand Canyon

2009-06-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Trisha and I spent many hours enjoying running in the Grand Canyon.

The BIG run was Sunday starting at 4 am. We had traveled to the canyon with a large group from Portland and on Sunday morning we started running with Ronda, Micheal, Cheri and Gary. Micheal and Ronda quickly disappeared into the dark ahead of us as they were running this as a training race for the Hardrock 100 and hoping for a time around 12 hours. We were planning for around 15 hours.

This run is epic. It is long, dry, hot and includes 11,000 feet of climbing. The scenery is close to unparalleled and the trail is really good shape and easy to follow. All of us in our group of 4 had never run in the canyon before and were both nervous and excited to tackle the challenge.

The day we did the run was as close to perfect a running day you can get for the Grand Canyon in late Spring. We had a high of only 90 degrees in the canyon (Ronda and Micheal have had it 118 in past crossings) and glorious cloud cover for both canyon wall ascents.

We did the run from the much less traveled North rim to South rim to North rim. This means you get to start with 14 miles of downhill. This also means you get to finish with 14 miles of uphill!!

Coming down off the North rim in the dark was really quite cool. We could see several of the groups ahead of us moving down the valley as we tracked their headlamps and hand-held lights.
Soon enough the lights were stored away and we were moving nicely down the Bright Angel Canyon. The longest stretch of the canyon run without a "break" is from Cottonwood campground to Phantom Ranch. This is 7 miles of gradual downhill mostly following the Bright Angel creek to the Colorado. The canyon you run through are amazingly scenic...it was hard to keep the eyes on the trail sometimes. Everyone was running well and we made really good time to arrive at Phantom Ranch feeling strong and encouraged. Now time to cross the river and start climbing!!

For the next almost 5 miles we would be working our way up from the river to the South rim...5000 feet of climbing. We interspersed some good hard running with some focused power walking to trudge up the hill. The climb was made more challenging with having to navigate the mule altered trail. Between the manure, large puddles of urine, strong smell and gouged out trail it really made you focus to not have a misstep :-)

After 6:36 we crested were standing on the South rim of the Grand Canyon. Looking back from where we came It was also really cool to have the tourists asking how far/fast we were going and saying really encouraging and ego boosting words like "you guys are heroes for running that far!" . We made sure to pick up the pace after that! We grab a cold Coke from the deli at the rim and then prepared to head back down. Just starting out we caught a glimpse of a California Condor. Man, those are BIG birds!

The downhill was harder for me than the uphill. It was hard to get into a rhythm and my feet were hurting some from blisters (note to self: remove sand from shoes earlier rather than later!). This is when Gary and Cheri took off running strong for us not to see them again until we finished. Awesome running guys!
We made it back down to the Colorado and Phantom Ranch were I did some quick work on my feet to drain and dress the blisters...ahhh that did the trick. I bought a sausage to quench my protein craving and Trisha downed a lemonade from the ranch store.
Now though we had those pesky 14 miles of uphill that we had sooooo enjoyed earlier in the morning. Less than speedy but steady would characterize our next seven miles. We were happy to make it back to Cottonwood campground and have the long stretch behind us. Now let the real climbing begin! Trish did awesome in this section working to keep us moving towards the North rim and eating into those 6000 ft of climbing. I made a "good" mistake in the last stretch: I thought we had 1. 3 miles left when we only had 0.7 miles. I know this does not sound like a large difference but after over 15 hours of being out on the trail we were very pleasantly surprised to see the end of the trail and the car ride back to a hot shower.

Total running was around 48 miles with 11000 ft of climbing.
Running time to the South Rim from North Rim: 6:35
Running time from the South Rim back to the North Rim: 7:45
Total running time: 14:20
Total time on the trail: 15:45

We are already thinking of going back and the good times running and hanging out with friends. This run is not one to be taken lightly but it is definitely a goal worth training and striving for!

My words hardly do the crossings justice...I hope you enjoy the pictures are much as we enjoyed the adventure.

Having fun Getting ready for the Grand Canyon

2009-05-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

The last two weekends have been great fun as we bump up our endurance training to handle the cool stuff we have planned for this summer.

On May 16th we did about 7 hours of biking for our annual 100 mile Reach the Beach bike ride on a tandem with Mary and James. No flats, amazing weather, almost no wind and close to 17 miles per hour average. Also a great leg workout without the pounding of running (we would do that the next weekend!!).

We once again stayed at the Craftsman Bed and Breakfast in Pacific City with Mike and Laura as our excellent hosts. If you are in Pacific City, stay at their place. An evening soaking in the hot tub with dinner at the Bistro catching up with new and old friends was how we ended a great day.

The following weekend was hills and Gorge running!

Trisha did some Dog Mountain repeats with Ronda, Micheal, Cheri on Friday to smash those quads into shape. Dog Mountain climbs straight up 2,800 feet in 3.2 miles. Up, up and more up!

On Saturday, I did about 7 hours of running in the Gorge. Herman Creek to the PCT then up to the Benson Plateau. We then hit the snow and blindly made our way across the Benson Way through the snow to the Ruckel Creek Trail. Pounded down to the Gorge 400. Across on the Gorge 400 trail and then back up on the Herman Creek trail to tackle the Nick Eaton Ridge. Then some amazing cruising down the Gorton Creek trail to finish up. Ronda gives a great account on her blog.

It was hard. It was amazing. I hit the toughest section of trail I have tackled. I was working as hard as I could and it took me 39 minutes to do 2 miles!! Try the Nick Eaton trail if you are really looking for a challenge!

Why all the training? Trisha and I are running the Grand Canyon this coming weekend. Rim to Rim to Rim. From the North Rim to the South Rim and back up the North Rim. 45 miles of fun with 11000 ft of vertical to keep you honest! We are ready and we just cannot wait!!

Tigard Youth Track Home Meet

2009-05-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Back on May 2nd, Cole and Leah competed in their second track meet of the year.

This was the home meet for our Tigard Youth track club at the local high school.

Both raced in the 800 racewalk and then two sprints: 100 and the 400.
I was bursting with pride with all the results and the efforts that they did out on the track.

We called it a day after these 3 events and MAN were we glad we did. Just as we were leaving the wind and rain reached close to hurricane levels and ended the meet.

We are excited to hit the last meet of the year for us on June 13th in Salem.

Cole and Leah have worked really hard this year and it is cool to see them learning how to dig deep and enjoy the personal satisfaction of giving it all they got!

Eclipse DemoCamp Galileo 2009

2009-05-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

A public service announcement for all those Eclipse enthusaists who live close to Portland...or who need an excuse to visit our amazingly beautiful city!!

ECLIPSE DEMO CAMP GALILEO 2009 – Portland, OR

Instantiations and The Eclipse Foundation will co-host a pizza and salad buffet, including beverages. Come as a presenter and demo the cool stuff that you have been working on in Eclipse and network with your local Eclipse community!

Here are the official details and where to sign up:

The Eclipse Foundation and Instantiations proudly present the Eclipse DemoCamp Galileo 2009/Portland

Date: June 17, 2008

Time: 7pm – 9pm (Presenters set up at 6pm)

Location: Lucky Lab Beer Hall, 1945 NW Quimby, Portland (Directions)

Cost: Complimentary; attendance is limited

Registration: To register, add your name as presenter or attendee to this wiki:

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_DemoCamps_Galileo_2009/Portland

If you have questions, please contact Tina Kvavle at Instantiations . Feel free to pass this along to your colleagues, and be sure to sign up on the wiki if you would like to attend or present! We look forward to seeing you there.

Reason to Run: Big Sur Marathon 2009

2009-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

This morning I ran the Big Sur Marathon. And when I say morning I use that term very loosely!!

The Big Sur marathon has a start time of 6:45am. Not too bad you say. Well then throw in that you have to bus out to the start and you have to be on the bus no later than 4:15 am!! This is as crazy as my ultra running friends start times for 100 milers!! So I get out to this beautiful spot in the Big Sur park at around 5:15 in the morning. The sun is not even up yet. So nothing to do but pull up a piece of road and sleep for 30-40 minutes. I would have slept longer but my shivering in the pre-dawn cold woke me up ;-)

Now enough whining about the start. The Big Sur marathon is well organized, efficient and flows very nicely as an event. I have a new respect and perspective on this since hosting our f irst Reason to Run events back in April. They co-host about a million events: walks, 21 miler, marathon, 10 miler, marathon relays, 5k and more. All told 10,000 athletes take part in the weekend. It is big. This event had the best water and food support I have seen at a road marathon. Lots of lots of opportunity for both water and fuel. Gels at many locations. I also liked the Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) support for refills of handhelds.

I hope my pictures give you a small glimpse at why the race is so popular. The course is just that beautiful. And challenging. This was the toughest road marathon I have tackled. It actually was much closer in style to the trail ultras I run: miles of up and down that constantly challenge you mentally and physically. No mile upon mile of flat running here!

The profile:

And there was a little issue with wind giving us an extra bang for the buck today. At the aptly named Hurricane Point, when I picked up a leg at the end of a stride, the wind would blow it over to smash into the other leg!!

I had never planned to race this weekend but rather run hard and have a good time. I ran with a camera for the first time and really tried to push but not punish the body. It was hard to hold back in the first 10 miles. Similar to the Boston marathon and as you can see in the profile, the first couple of miles are a good downhill. Watch those quads! After that natural fatigue set in and we were fine ;-)

Overall, I had a great time, got in some amazing training and posted a 3:35 finishing time. The legs and body feel good, I think I fueled and hydrated well. My nemesis, my gut, did try to hijack the run a few times but running at the sub-race pace kept it under control.

I would go back but I don't know if I would ever try to really pound this one...boy that would hurt! I also tried doing a cheap hotel to keep the trip cost down and it worked out great. $40 with WiFi at the Good Nite Inn in Salinas. I booked using Travelocity.

Now it is time to head out for a recovery run with my best friend Trisha and then to bed to attempt to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Reason to Run Honduras

2009-04-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Our Spring Burst 5k and 10k was held on April 11th, 2009. One of our goals is to have all of our runs be beneficial to as many people as possible: the runners, the racers, even the organizers, as well as to those who are reached by the designated charity.

For our spring events, we were proud to provide financial support towards the establishment of an automotive technical school for the young men of the Micah Project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

While we were running here in Tigard, Oregon, the young men and staff from the Micah House were staging their own event in Honduras: Reason to Run Honduras!! Too COOL: our first event goes international!!

Great job goes out to John, Wilmer, Marvin, Rebecca, Erick, Charly, Michael and Cristofer for pounding out a 10k. We just know you guys sweated more than us thanks to the Honduran heat!

Going forward, we are hard at work on our upcoming events...currently scheduled for August 15th and September 19th. We are excited to help provide you many more Reasons to Run!

ING Bay to Breakers 12k Race Discount

2009-04-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

The ING Bay to Breakers 12k is being savvy and I think using their advertising dollars wisely. They have approached numerous running blogs to promote the event AND provide a discount to the blog readers.

I am heading to near the bay area this weekend for the Big Sur Marathon so I will not be going down again to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers. But if you are planning to go or are looking for a cool destination race, read on to get your discount.

Special Offer for the 98th Annual ING Bay to Breakers 12k : May 17th, 2009

You can get an additional 5% off the early registration price for this year’s race. Don’t miss this opportunity to join (and support!) one of the most original and zany road races in the county.

Visit www.ingbaytobreakers.com for details about the race
Register online by midnight on April 30th, 2009 to receive the early registration price with an additional 5% discount http://tinyurl.com/cy3vkw
Enter this coupon code 5RUNCODE09 (case sensitive) and click ‘redeem’ before completing your registration
This offer is limited to the first 100 registrants, so make sure to register as soon as possible!

Please direct any questions to info (at) ingbaytobreakers (dot) com

The Fine Print:
- This is an online offer only
- Discount is valid only for the registration fee. It is not applied to optional purchases such as the MUNI pass or packet mailing fee

A discounted race entry fee is a great Reason to Run ;-)

Five Dollar Runs

2009-04-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend I participated in two very different runs that both cost five dollars to enter. What an amazing deal for the money!

On Saturday, it was the ice breaker track meet for the Tigard Youth Track club where I am an assistant coach for the long distance runners. The meet was out in Sherwood and the weather was great for the event!
Cole and Leah both race great events.Leah set a PR doing both the 400 and the 100 meters and placing 3 and 2nd in her heats. Cole did the 400 and posted a good solid time better than the start of last season but not quite a PR.
I had not planned to run but as the day rolled out it just made sense for me to slap down the five dollars and race the 3000 meters Masters event. Turned out to be a really nice hard 11 minutes of running. Felt surprisingly good and strong with how little speed work I have done this spring. Only 3 seconds off my PR for this event. Wahoo!

Sunday started early heading out to explore Ruckle Creek trail with Micheal and Ronda. I do not think I have been on this particular trail before and it is a great workout! Another five dollars to park at the bottom but totally worth every cent.

We had lush green forests, wild flowers peeking out in the sun and herds of deer skirting around us as we marched up the hill. I had to turn around to have time to make church so I did not hit the real snow and the Benson Plateau. It was great fun trying to run fast down while staying vertical and soaking up the strain in the quads.

Get out to the Gorge...great workout and amazing scenery!!
These are some of my reasons to run :-)

2009 Spring Burst 5k and 10k

2009-04-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

April 11, 2009 was the first running of the Reason to Run Spring Burst 5k and 10k.

We had ~150 people come out to Cook Park to tackle the trails for the 5k and 10k events.

We were blessed with warm weather and no rain and I believe the sun even made an appearance or two.

These races are urban trail runs: more challenging than a traditional 5k or 10k out on the road and a great way to mix it up and try something new and different.

After an inspirational prayer to set the tone for the runs, we counted down and the runners were off promptly at 8:30 am. They followed the road within Cook Park (SW 92nd) towards the boat launch on the Tualatin River. Then it was off the road to enjoy a section of bark mulch trail. After this warm-up, the runners picked up the pace on the paved bike path towards the Ki-a-Kuts pedestrian bridge and over the Tualatin River.
Over the bridge and down on the paved trail into Tualatin Community Park, a U-turn and the next bark mulch trail section coming back to the bridge. This is the section of the course that has an explosion of trilliums!. Then back over the bridge and into Durham City Park for more paved bike path. After a "lollipop" out and back the runners returned to Cook Park and the finish line within the Butterfly Garden.
BUT WAIT...it was only the finish line for the 5k runners. We happily directed the 10k runners out for 3.1 more miles of fun on the out and back trail along the Tualatin River towards 108th Ave. This is the challenging section of the course were you have to dig deep and push to maintain your pace. One more section of trail once back into the main section of Cook Park and then the 10k finish!

The winning times were impressive with both winners getting under the 6 min/mile pace.
The 10k results can be found here.
The 5k results can be found here.
The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Some of the other blog reports on the event can be found here, here and here.

We have also conducted a survey with all the participants and we really appreciate all the positive feedback about the course and the event in general. As well, thanks for the suggestions for how to make the event even better next year!

We would like to thank all the participants who trusted us with their Saturday run. We were also very excited at how many first time racers we had finish. Once you start running on the trails...do you ever fully go back to be a road runner?? ;-)
Our sponsors, Clif Bar, Haggen, Road Runner Sports, Al's Garden Center, The Great Urban Race, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, lululemon athletica, and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We look forward to doing this event again next year and hope you will join us.
We are deep into the planning of other events for this year including a trail run in September. We will keep you posted!

Reason to Run Spring Events Preview Run

2009-03-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Reason to Run is leading a free "preview" run of the Spring Burst 5k and Spring Rush 10k courses on Wednesday, April 1st with the Road Runner Sports training group.

We will meet in Cook Park in the east parking lot (directions) at 6 pm to explore the course trails.

Come with us to see what you will run on April 11th or simply join us for a Wednesday night training run to meet some new people. As well please invite your friends who are still thinking about doing the event or just want to come out and do a fun bit of exercise on the trails.

RSVP to info@reasontorun.com if you are planning to attend (just showing up is fine as well).

I plan to check on the progression of the Trilliums and cherry blossoms that our family enjoyed finding on the course this past weekend.
See you Wednesday!

EclipseCon Exercise Day 3: Right instead of Left

2009-03-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Great turnout this morning with 17 people joining the group. I just know that tomorrow we will break through and have more than 20 people. With all the out of office emails I received from the reminder I mailed yesterday I now have lots of emergency cell phone numbers to dial to get the crowd out :-)

We broke new trail today for EclipseCon exercise. We did a radical switch and turned right on the creek trail instead of the traditional left. Mixing things up is good and it provided a nice change in scenery and even a few more hills.

At the conference yesterday, I really enjoyed the content of the sessions starting with the keynote "The Social Mind: Designing Like Groups Matter" by Clay Shirky and Jeff Atwood. A deep dive on the nuances of success and failure in the social software space from both a research perspective and practical experience as shown by stackoverflow.com

Some of the key points I gleaned from the talk:

Life is the world's biggest MMORPH - embrace the game-like aspects of your career
Only resource that scales with your users is your users
Bad stuff happens - that is OK as long as the community can deal with it
Need to achieve that it is easier to defend the system than to attack it
Start small and good and then grow. Big and bad will not improve over time

The talk was especially fitting with today being the 14th birthday of Ward's Wiki

I then sat in on Erich Gamma and Jean-Michel Lemiuex 's talk on Jazz. I enjoy seeing demos of products I work on and this did not disappoint. I think we can all agree that creating and delivering software is a complicated and difficult process. A great quote from Phillipe Mulet (fomer Eclipse PMC lead) : Shipping software on time: It is like a duck quietly advancing on the pond but no one realizes that he is paddling like crazy underwater.
Jazz was built to provide tooling to help address some of the common challenges we have seen in the years of developing Eclipse as a globally distributed team:

customization of team process
team growth over time
malleable and live plans
isolation and then integration of component work
the end game...when are we done and good as gold

Make sure to check Jazz out with a free download from jazz.net Call Erich if you have any issues with installation :-)

Then it was e4 time. Lots has been happening in this space since last year and I cannot do it justice here. Improved resource model, styling and work to overcome Eclipse structural limitations, allow mutation of the Eclipse platform into a service provider, and then the promise/curse of Bespin. All with the goal of ensuring Eclipse stays relevant and interesting to its current user base but at the same time allowing entirely new usecases for the technology to emerge with the additional flair and flexibility. Everyone should keep their eye on the e4 space as things are really starting to pick up speed.

I hit other talks and BOFs to fill up the day and even squeezed in a evening run.
Overall a great day of learning and networking.

EclipseCon Exercise Day 2: Back in the light

2009-03-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

A beautiful morning out on the trail greeted the EclipseCon runners this morning. Almost 20 people rolled out of bed to join the group to start the day off right. Good exercise and it was a great way to review the day one of EclipseCon. A few even stuck to the 6am start time and were done before we started (not sure on purpose though)!

Everyone seemed to have had good experiences with their tutorials on Monday with a common theme being that the 4 hour length was just about right for the hands on learning.

The conversation was so good today that one group of runners went what I believe may be the longest session for EclipseCon exercise....about 10km. Not 4 hours of running but still very NICE! I think this may have been partly fueled by the excesses of the Eclipse Community awards and following reception on Monday evening :-)

7 am Wednesday will be the real test...hardest day to get out of bed. Be strong and come join us. I guarantee you will enjoy the day 7ammore...look at how excited these guys are to take on the day :-)

EclipseCon Exercise Day 1: Cold Clear Start

2009-03-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

An early morning start today with even now the sun just peaking up over the mountains. Cold and clear in California...almost seemed like running in Canada!

We had a good group show up for the early start today to run in the dark and cold...no really it was fun :-)
11 people in total and I think everyone had a good time and had anopportunity to meet some new people and fellow conference attendees.

Again this year we had everyone from first time EclipseCon attenders and presenters all the way to people, such as myself, who have been to each and every EclipseCon. We had beginning runners to people training for marathons and ultra-marathons. A great mix. In all we did somewhere between 4.5-5 miles on the paved trails heading towards the bay.

I apologize to anyone who came to run at 7 am this morning....we will be there tomorrow :-)

So please come join us at any of the other mornings for great conversation and exercise:
On Tuesday - 7am
On Wednesday - 7am
On Thursday - 7am

All meeting in the Hyatt Conference Hotel lobby.

Now the conference can officially begin :-)

EclipseCon 2009 - Recession Proof Running

2009-03-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have always heard that exercise and entertainment were the two industries that were recession proof. I know this is a completely artificial sample but the attendees of EclipseCon 2009 are bearing this out.

We currently have 129 people signed up to head out on the trails to start their mornings off correctly for the four day extravaganza that is EclipseCon.

From previous years, I know that most of these people will not make all of the four days of running...actually a good percentage will not show up at all. But that is not important.

The cool part is that for approximately one hour each day we will get out of the conference center and breath fresh, non air conditioned oxygen. We will have a great chance to clear some of the cobwebs out of our brains to make us that much more productive and absorptive for the rest of the day. We will also meet new people, make new friends and likely improve the Eclipse community by creating new cross links between separate areas of concern that otherwise would have never connected but really can benefit from a personal and professional relationship.

We also can get to ask people about something OTHER than Eclipse. Their families, their other hobbies and their passions away from a computer. Where they come from and where they live. A great way to make the conference more personal. This is a reason to run for me: running with someone is the fastest and easiest way I know to get to know each other.

Do you think I am exaggerating what can happen from our four little runs or walks in the morning? I guess you will have to come out, join us and find out for yourself ;-)

We will meet each morning in the lobby of the host hotel of the conference.
Monday we meet at 6 am to accommodate the earlier start of the tutorials.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we start at 7 am.
We will be running something similar to the route here. Any questions just email me. There is a Facebook event as well.
Hope to see you in the morning!

Reason to Run 2009 Shirt Artwork

2009-03-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Reason to Run #127: After a good hard run you get a really cool shirt that you can exercise in but often don't because you want to wear the shirt out on the town!

Hot from the creative genius that is Tyson Mangelsdorf we have the graphic designs that will the artwork for the Reason to Run shirts for the Spring Burst 5k and Rush 10k in Cook Park, Tigard, Oregon.

The first image is for the women's shirt and will be on a sky blue "silky smooth" technical shirt for the April reasons to run.

This is men's graphic and will be on a manly navy blue technical shirt
Everyone who registers for our 5k or 10k will get one of these shirts. If you want extra shirts or crave to share these designs with others...stay tuned. We plan to be offering the shirts for sale on www.reasontorun.com soon.

Getting the Kids Moving....Run for Fun!

2009-03-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

Trisha (Reason to Run head runner) and Chris (Reason to Run friend) have started a cool new endeavor at a local Tigard school.

At Mary Woodward elementary Trisha and Chris will be offering an after school running program. From the club flyer:

This low pressure running club is perfect for everyone! Runners and walkers are welcome. We encourage parents to join us free of charge for a fun filled work out. We will meet Mondays and Thursdays under the covered area on the playground. One day will be dedicated to conditioning on campus and the other day we will run to Summer Lake Park. Please come dressed in sweats or shorts and tennis shoes. Make sure to bring a water bottle. We will meet for 8 weeks and finish the session with a “Fun Run” to celebrate our training!

Click on the runner logo to above to see the full after school program flyer.

This aligns with one our of core beliefs that everyone can benefit from being active. One easy way to be active is to run or walk.

Trisha and Chris will help the kids see the benefits of running and most importantly, show that exercise can be fun.

We know this program will be a great success and start another generation of active healthy people.

With one month until the Reason to Run spring events, we also look forward to many families coming out to the April 11th events: Spring Burst 5k, Spring Rush 10k and 1/2 mile kids run. Kids are more than welcom at our events whether running, walking or egging on their parents from the jogging stroller.

Life on the Run in Tigard

2009-03-06T07:54:00.000-08:00

Reason to Run got amazing front page press in the latest Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood Times.

We think the article captures the essence of our reasons to run and as to why we have created a race hosting company.

Click on the image at left to read the "Life on the Run in Tigard" article for yourself.

We hope it kindles in you a desire to get out for a run or walk today and to register to join us for our Spring Burst 5k and Rush 10k April 11, 2009 events in Cook Park, Tigard.

Thanks to Stover E Harger III and Jaime Valdez from the Times for the article and the pictures.

By the way, Darin is still happily working for IBM (not Intel).

Be a Friend of Reason to Run

2009-03-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

Reason to Run (Trisha and I) would like to enlist your help in spreading the word for our upcoming Spring events. If you are planning to attend or would just like to show you are a fan of the April 11, 2009 events in Cook Park,Tigard we would ask that you consider putting a "friend" of Reason To Run logo on your web page to spread the word.

HTML Code to use:

<a href="http://www.reasontorun.com/springRaces"><img border="0"

src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w_n3E-D0snA/SYIIuLd-OxI/AAAAAAAABf8/BUuyQ3YHoqU/s200/friend.png"

 height="100" width="130" alt="I am running the Reason to Run Spring Events"/></a>

What it will look like:

Reason to Run Updates

2009-03-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

We have been happily busy finalizing the details of the Reason To Run spring events in our post Hagg Lake trail race glow.

Today we had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot for an upcoming Tigard / Tualatin Times article on the history behind Reason To Run and our passion for running.
We headed to Cook park (the site of our first events) to meet up with the newspaper photographer. The photo shoot was a ton of fun and we felt like rock stars / models running on the trails for action shots.
We had lots of good laughs while the pictures were snapped. Can't wait to see the results with the article slated to hit the stands this Thursday.

Today we got a preview of the race shirt logo design from local artist Tyson Mangelsdorf. Just plain COOOL: retro grunge, yet stylistically current (does that make it sound like I know what I am talking about artistically?? :-) ). Running, nature, trails, beauty and wildness all rolled into one graphic. As soon as the design is finalized we will get it up on the webpage.

We also got listed today as a training run for the Eugene marathon. With our race date 3 weeks out from the Eugene marathon, we know we offer a great opportunity for Eugene marathon participants to have a checkpoint in their training and to test out marathon race day strategy and page.

So make sure to take advantage of all our hard work, kick in your training and register for either the Burst 5k or Rush 10k run in Tigard's scenic Cook park.
A course preview via pictures is available here.

Whether signing up for your first organized run or your hundredth, we know you will love our events as much as we have loved putting them together.

Hagg Lake 50k Recap: The Sun Run

2009-02-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

I am honored to be a guest community blogger at the Run Oregon blog for my recount of the Hagg Lake 50km run I raced on Saturday.

The short version: I ended up having a good run after a relatively tough start on a beautiful day out in the sun.

To read the full story please see my recap of the 50km here

Kelly Johnson wrote up a report for the 25km here.

Trail Factor has also posted a fun Hagg Lake 25k and 50k video at http://www.trailfactor.com/. My spotlight is at around the four minute mark in the video...the guys who doesn't know his finishing time :-).

Great start to the trail season and all the great races.
Please consider adding our 5k and 10k "urban" trail races to your calendar: http://www.reasontorun.com/

Getting Ready to Race and Getting the Race Ready

2009-02-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

This coming weekend I will be racing in the Hagg Lake 50km. My mind is ready. I am not sure that my body is. When I signed up to do the Surf City marathon on Feb 1st and then run Hagg Lake on Feb 21st, those dates sounded a long way apart. Well, the short of it is that my body is still feeling the marathon effort.
I am making peace with this and just planning to take Saturday's race as it unfolds, run my own race as Dane would say (I am reading See Dane Run at the moment). Start a little conservative and see how things go. The course will be in great shape. We have had dry weather for the last week and it does not even look like we will get much rain on race day.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of training both with the Black Saturday crew and Trail Factor group.
Black Saturday means hill repeats, and this time was slated for 3x30 minutes on Saltzman.
The details on this hill repeat can be found on this other post. These are good tough but not impossible repeats: about 30 minutes of running for 3.6 miles with 1200 ft of climb.

On Saturday, I posted a decent time for my first repeat but was having nothing but trouble with my gut. I was paying for the over indulgence of going out for dinner with Trisha for Valentines...and I would do it again :-) My second repeat was about 1 minute slower but again it was more my gut and mind then my legs that slowed me down. I called it quits after the two. I felt bad breaking a cardinal rule of Black Saturday (Thou Shalt Always Do the FULL workout) and also not really getting to run as much as I would have liked with the others including the Trail Factor crew. Next time! It was really nice to not run in the rain.

And then Sunday we had an amazing Spring day. So after church, I headed to Cook Park for more course measuring with the wheel for our Reason To Run Spring Rush 10k route. The pictures throughout this post are from around the course. NICE!
Makes me want to run it...we hope the same goes for you.

See you at Hagg this weekend!

Working and Measuring the Trails

2009-02-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

It was a weekend of preparation. Friday night was preparing taxes...wahoo I smell a rebate! I just love TurboTax. I even get to claim it as a write-off.

Saturday was a trail work day out at Hagg Lake for the 25 and 50km on February 21st (note the races are sold out!). I hitched a ride out to the lake with Ronda and Micheal and we enjoyed talking about the pending race season and all the great adventures that are about to unfold including Hardrock!

We were blessed with an amazing sunny and warm spring day. Ronda, Larry and I covered the section from the last mile out from the finish/start and then to the dam.
Thanks to those who had gone before and done all the real heavy lifting and cutting...I only had some minor sawing to do and mostly just cutting back some blackberries. It is cool to see how this trail has matured under the careful attention of the Hagg Lake Ultra the volunteers and especially Ronda and Stacey. Make sure to say a big THANK YOU. In my opinion the trail is in great shape partially from all the work but also from the dry spring we have had. But we all know that can change really quickly. And don't worry there is still plenty of mud if you want it!

Since I am still enjoying relaxing after the Surf City marathon, I did not feel the need for a long run this weekend. So on Sunday after church, the kids and I went down to Cook Park and wheeled the 5 km course for the Spring Burst of our Reason to Run events. The kids rode their bikes and I walked/ran the sections to get the accurate distances. I must say it will be a great course! I used a Rolatape measuring wheel I borrowed from my friend Scott. The kids loved knowing exactly how far we had gone and I know the runners and walkers will appreciate it on race day.

Amazing weather for the inaugural Pier Park runs...I know everyone must have had a great time!
Also post race hats off to the guys who pounded the Jed Smith Ultra...1st to Todd Braje who gave me great advice for Surf City and then to my buddy Sean for his second place finish. These guys run two marathons at the speed I can run one...NICE and totally inspiring! Full results can be found here.
Also to our friend Steve running the Death Valley marathon...can't wait to here those stories....

Surf City Marathon 2009: Sub 3 hour!

2009-02-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

In April 2005 I ran the Boston Marathon and removed 7 minutes off of my PR and posted a 3:02:33. Shortly after finishing this race I set the goal of running a sub 3 hour marathon.

On Sunday February 1, 2009 I achieved this goal.

This was after running 6 other marathon between 2005 and 2009 where I failed to achieve my goal. Sunday was my fourteenth marathon and was my best time, my strongest showing and the race I enjoyed the most and had the most fun running.

On Dec 7th, 2008 I ran the California International marathon in 3:13. I had GI issues and really disliked running the race from pretty much mile 11 in. This really bugged me. Racing was supposed to be really hard but fun.

So I dug in and worked to train harder and with focus to ensure a great race day. I wrote most of this up in my previous post on bootcamp.

For the marathon we stayed with my brother and sister-in-law who live about 45 minutes from the start line of the race. Lets just state the obvious that it was amazing weather and really nice to visit in January.

Trisha and I got up at 4:15 (OUCH) on race day and were on the road by 5am.

I had my pre-race breakfast of 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 3 oz of blueberries, a teaspoon of peanut button, multivitamin and then a protein powder drink. Max strength Tums to top things off.

We got to where we planned to park at 5:50 to find the lot "full" and closed. ERG!! The marathon has ~2000 runners but apparently lots of the 1/2 marathoners (12000 total) decided to come early and take many parking spots.

Now I get grumpy and more nervous. With the traffic jam we finally park at 6:15ish. The race starts at 6:50. Out of the car and I head out for a 2 mile warmup. This race is really well set up with restrooms. Lots of porta-potties and beach restrooms. I was able to get in 3 pit stops before the start of the race. Some Margarita Clif Bloks, some berry Sharkies and Immodium with about 4 oz of water to top off the tank.

I easily moved right up to the start line with ~2000 runners. Nice wide road to start on and really made the race feel like a nice small event.

I think starting the race in 2 waves spaced by 2 minutes, 4hrs and under and 4hrs and over, really went a long way to easing any congestion. Trisha found me in my final thoughts near the start and we got in a final kiss.

The national anthem was sung and we were off. It is usually a good sign fr me if things feel off for the first 3-4 miles. This race I immediately had a tight right calf...OK gonna have to watch that.

Of course I ran the first mile too fast: 6:43. But not terrible.

Backed off for mile 2 to post 6:59. These first miles you are running on a small gradually downhill on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Nice stretch to find your initial groove and pace.

You then turn off the PCH into some side road and then trails within parks. There was even a really short "off road" section that made me smile. In these sections was the first time we hit mile markers that were grossly misplaced. One mile 6:17 the next 6:55 with all of us in our group agreeing we had ran the same pace. This type of problem would only get worse through the race.

At around mile 8 you are back out on the roads and then heading down a nice hill back towards the beach. This is when I remember saying a prayer of thanks and starting to smile like a fool: today was going to be the day I would break 3 hours!

This was also the time I started running with Dane Rauschenberg. This is the man who ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks in 2006. More importantly he was fun to run with, set a great pace and appears to be a genuinely nice guy.

We headed out north again on the PCH into a headwind. Noticeable but not terrible. We reached the turnaround on the out and back and turned for the tail wind...NICE. As well, as we turned the morning fog was just start to break.

Looking back on the PCH with around 15000 running through the thinning fog back lit by the rising sun...simply magical and inspiring.

Dane and I chatted and held a nice pace and went past the women running in first place (turns out she was a local and did end up winning the race).

Continued on the PCH feeling strong. You then turn back north off the PCH and on the beach bike path. The sun had broken through by this time and the temp started to rise.

I really had mentally prepped to stay hydrated this race and keep my carb/water ratio close to 7% (per Ronda and Sean). I was planning 5 gels so this meant at least 60 oz of water (each gel is 1 oz). The first 20 was from my hand held and in by mile 8. The rest came via a cup of water at most aid stations.

The aid stations were very frequent and well stocked with water and Vitalyte (sorry this stuff just does NOT work for me or Dane) but they really need to work on fuel. ClifBars are nice pre and post race, but I am not sure who can choke one of these down while racing. Gels or bloks people!!

In the section of bike trails the mile markers got to be a joke and just could not be counted on. I can only hope this was malicious mischief and not incompetence. Lots of outhouses along the way but I only briefly considered a pit stop. With some focused breathing and relaxation, the stomach and GI stopped grumbling just plain worked. I was pretty worried here as for the 3 days previous to the race I was having the same symptoms I had before CIM for a month and which shot down CIM. I think this was just nerves causing me grief as I had made no change in diet.

During the race, I was alternating GU Plain with ClifShot Double Espresso.

My right calf started to indicate it could cramp so I took 2 hammer caps at mile 18ish.

At mile 20 my brother and sister-in-law were waiting with Cole and Leah. Awesome!. And then Dave jumped in and ran with me for about 3 miles. This really helped me to focus and pick up the pace. Dane had dropped me after he had taken a short bathroom break. Running with Dave I worked to make him work. It also helped get me through completely missing or misplaced mile markers.

Mile 20 to mile 25 we are back running with the wind and heading to the Huntington beach pier. We could see this 5 mile off and was my queue to pick it up. I am not sure I really got any faster but I did not get slower and started to pass people again.

I was on my own again once Dave dropped off, fired up the tunes (FireFlight: Unbreakable "No one can touch me. Nothing can stop me") and worked to try to reel in Dane. Passed 2 more guys (after the race I see this moved me from 5th to 3rd in my age group...note to self never stop trying to latch on and suck in that next person).

Now the last 1.5 miles is evil. You go down a hill and right past the turn to the last 1/3 of mile of the race. I tried to push down the hill and NOT do the math on how slow I could run the last mile

and still make sub-3. I switched to running to catch people.

I think I passed one or two more people at this time and was gaining on Dane. Mile 26 and I could see the finish line. Pushed it through and crossed the line.

Crossing the finish line I think I was almost holding my breath: 14th marathon in PR time: 2:58:35 (6:48 per mile average). 3rd 35-39 male. 20 out of 1953 racers.

Full results are available here.

I stopped, closed my eyes, goofy grin on my face and said a prayer of thanks. I am sure the finish chute volunteers must have thought I was going to pass out. Standing there, eyes closed, grinning from ear to ear. Awesome feeling! I also fished out my Aleve to immediately fight the inflammation in my legs and feet. My right big toe again took a nasty beating (I think the racing flats are on their last legs) but had no impact on the actually running of the race.

Met up with Dane (he finished right in front of me) and shared a "man" hug. I have not read his book, but plan to buy it and help him towards his next goal of RUNNING ACROSS AMERICA in 60 days...woof!! Check it out and consider buying the book.

Now my focus switched to waiting, hoping and praying for Trisha. I had seen her several times out on the course. Up to the half she looked strong and happy. Not so much in the second half. Trisha had been lured into the siren song of the marathon: bankable time.

The plan had been to run with the 4 hour group and then pick it up if she was feeling strong at mile 16. For the first half, she ran at least 30 seconds per mile faster than 4 hour pace. A note to ALL the runners out there: there is absolutely no mechanism to bank time when running a marathon.

I am fully convinced that negative spilt (second half faster than first half) or equal split is the best and only way to run a fun and fast marathon. Dragging yourself through the last 6 miles watching your dream/goal time slip away is something I have done at least 10 times.

This race my first half time: 1:29:20. This is my second half: 1:29:15. This is why I was able to really enjoy the race.

Trisha dug in, pushed hard and ran an amazing 4:11:16. I even got to run about a mile with her around the evil mile 25. Next time I would love to run the whole thing with her and take her to a nice 3:58ish time. 4:11:16 is ~26 minutes faster than her previous best!! She still has such huge potential and we believe a possible shot at a Boston time (3:45 or 3:50 at age 40).

Surf City is a well organized race but does have some issues that need to be addressed: missing or misplaced mile markers, poor availability of fuel at aid stations. Having shirts in the right sizes and a shirt that actually will fit a toned female athlete should be looked at as well.

The organizers/volunteers did a great job of keeping the half marathoners from impacting the marathon race at all.

Post race food was good, drop bag pickup was efficient and volunteers where cheery and helpful. Maybe it is just me but a loud band playing right in the expo areas just makes it hard for people to talk and find each other and enjoy chatting during the post race glow.

The finish medal is a cool surfboard as is the age group award though I was a little underwhelmed at the size of the age group award :-(.

The web page and course descriptions are really good. Lots of restrooms before and during the race. Lots of aid stations.

We would arrive at the race for parking no later than 5:30am next time.

I would do this race again and feel I can run it faster...I now have to find the new "red" line and try to ride it. 2:55 is up next.

I am looking forward to running a bunch of shorter races and setting PRs in fun, short, hard, oxygen debt runs :-)

I am signed up for Hagg Lake in 2 weeks but I am undecided whether I will race the 25k or the 50k. Legs feel good but will have to see how the foot heals.

I am also enjoying planning and looking forward to hosting our own races, Reason to Run: Spring Rush 10k and Burst 5k.

Trisha and I are using all we have learned in the events we have raced to make our events memorable for all the right reasons. Make sure you come join us.

PRs all around at Surf City Marathon

2009-02-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

Splits:	3 Mile	6 Mile	12.2 Mile	20 Mile	Finish	O'All	Sex	Div
2472 • Darin Swanson • M 35-39
Marathon Start: Gun 6:51:02 Chip 6:51:04
Times:	20:36	40:28	1:22:46	2:14:44	2:58:21	20	20	3
Pace:	6:52	6:45	6:48	6:45	6:49

I totally stoked for my result (above) and for Trisha's. She worked hard and learned some more lessons from the marathon and still removed another 25+ minutes from her PR!!

Splits:	3 Mile	6 Mile	12.2 Mile	20 Mile	Finish	O'All	Sex	Div
2473 • Trisha Swanson • F 35-39
Marathon Start: Gun 6:51:02 Chip 6:51:42
Times:	25:37	50:55	1:46:00	3:01:30	4:11:16	723	219	46
Pace:	8:33	8:30	8:42	9:05	9:35

More to come later in a full post/review but now it is time to hit the pool!

Time to Race: Boot camp towards the Surf City Marathon

2009-01-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

For the last 6 weeks I have been doing a bootcamp with Sledge Athletics.

So what is a bootcamp and how can it help a runner?

First some history.

Both my wife, Trisha and my friend Ronda had done the bootcamp with Mark at Sledge Athletics.

Both became what I call "leaner and meaner": increased lean muscle body composition, decreased body fat composition, increased muscle tone and

increased muscle strength. All of these were improvements that I could see had impact on their ability to push and stress their bodies beyond their previous limits during "tests" such as 10 kms, half marathons and ultra marathons. PRs dropped like flies. Without trying too hard Trisha removed 6 minutes from her half marathon best last weekend.

I was convinced this stuff worked so I was really eager to incorporate the training in my next attempt to get under 3 hours for the marathon. I had targeted Surf City as my next attempt after the California International marathon (where I ran a 3:13 with GI issues). Starting the bootcamp 1 week after the marathon ensured I could get in most of the 6 week program before February 1st and Surf City. My amazing wife gave me the bootcamp as an early Christmas present and I was all in.

Mark gave me a fueling plan that at first I was skeptical of how it would work for me. I LOVE to eat and I LOVE to eat A LOT.

A little bragging but I think there are few people who can out eat me :-)

So putting me on a regimented, some would say "strict", fueling plan seemed initially unnatural to me.

I was wrong.

First the unwritten "commandments" of the fueling plan:

no snacking

no diary (did I mention I LOVE cheese)

no wheat (I added this one myself to reduce/eliminate GI issues when running

no processed food

Like the ten commandments from the Bible, the point is not the listing what you cannot do. It is all about giving you the freedom to choose a lifestyle or diet that will be the most beneficial to you as a person or athelete and allow your training to have the greatest impact on your body.

I have easily adapted to a diet where I consume ~2200 calories a day.

I have been really happy living on 6 meals a day: breakfast, 10 am , noon, 3pm, 6pm, 8pm.

Each meal is ~350 calories with the correct balance of carbs, fat and protein as determined by Mark.

Lean turkey burgers and sausage, salmon, cod, tuna, flank steak, eggs and egg beaters have been providing my "meat".

Yams, Sweet Potatoes and oatmeal have provided the bulk of my carbs.

Peanut butter, peanuts, olive oil the additional fat.

Spinach and broccoli have been my "greens".

Blueberries and bananas are additional treats.

Multivitamins and calcium have supplimented the whole regime.

I look forward to each meal and have become quite the spice master to liven things up. Just because food is fuel does not mean it cannot taste good as well! Almost all of the stuff I bought I could get at good prices in bulk at Costco.

I would prepare enmass on the weekends and bring in LOTS of tupperware containers to the office to parcel out during the week. Pretty quickly I knew how much of this or that equalled the specified amount for the meal. And it became pretty easy to substitute on the fly with a special dinner such as sushi or dim sum.

Unlike Trisha, Ronda and others I have talked to who have worked with Mark, I have had zero issues on consuming all the meals. But on the other hand I have never been "starving". I will say that if I miss a meal or slip the schedule by anything over about 20 minutes, I do crash fast with a lack of energy/calories. But I have always had a tendancy to this even when I was on my old fueling of about 3000 calories per day.

I still use gels etc. during races but in self-supported longer runs I have turkey sliders (lean turkey wrapped around olives or avocado) and sweet potatoes/yams included in my fueling strategy.

On Mark's fueling plan and the workouts, after the first 4 weeks I dropped about 7 pounds while maintaining my lean muscle mass. Body fat from 8.5 to 7.4%. Mark does 2 week checkpoints to access how things are going and make any necessary adjustments based on your progress.

I did not start the bootcamp to lose weight...though I do strongly believe this can only improve your running if you are not sacrificing muscle mass.

My real goal was to improve my core strength and flexibility. I really feel this is a key to strong running.

Mark's program is great in that the majority of the exercises can be done at pretty much any

location with just your body weight or a small set of free weights.

So why would you pay to do a bootcamp then?

I can not tell you how much harder I have pushed with a coach there calling out the duration or reps. By myself I would do one or two reps after it became uncomfortable.

With Mark, half the reps are after you have forgotten the pain and you are just focused on the next breath to complete the motion. Pain is a feeling Mark likes to say...it will pass :-)

Note this is not injury pain but rather the pain your body experiences when it is breaking through its previous fatigue limitations. I lean towards the theory that fatigue is something your brain injects to proactively prevent overdoing it. How else can you explain the finish line sprints of athletes who half a mile previously were "completely" fatigued?

Then there is the accountability of showing up for 1 hour, 3 times a week for 6 weeks. This is beyond what I can or would do myself. Having friends there pushing themselves to new levels is inspiring as well.

There is also the addtional benefit of ensuring you are doing each exercise with the correct form. Let's just say I have real trouble not arching my back :-)

In terms of making me stronger athletically I think my $350 investment in bootcamp is the best

I have ever spent.

Mark partners with his girlfriend Gretchen to include yoga/pilates/stretching into the program as well. For the last 3 sessions I have been working mostly on improving the flexibility of my body. A slight increase in range in motion within a critical running component such as the hamstring or IT band can have great impact on a race of any distance but especially those half marathon or longer.

So consider throwing a bootcamp into your training calendar to push your body to cool new levels of fitness or leading up to a race. I plan to do 2 more 6 week programs throughout 2009 to peak at the appropriate times throughout the season. I feel "peaked" at the moment and I am excited/scared of the possibilities on Sunday.

And, isn't it about time that runners stop being known for their scrawny arms and tight hamstrings ;-)

Day around Mt Hood: Tubing at Summit Ski Area

2009-01-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I took a day off work and joined Cole, Brian Wiggs and his boys, Jon Knapp and Michael Miller from the Micah Project for a day of fun in the sun up on Mt Hood.

After spending a bit too much time driving around the mountain looking for the best tubing (most of the hills were unfortunately closed :-( ) we made it back to Summit Ski Area and some tubing.

The driving around was not a waste however. We got to spend time talking and experiencing some of the breath taking views around Mt Hood. The pictures hardly do it justice.

The tubing was fun and the temperature was unseasonably warm. Once the snow warmed up the tubing got pretty slow so we decided to hit the van again.

We took Michael up to see Timberline Lodge and more great views of the mountain. Reminded me of the PCT 50 run last July...there was almost more snow up on the mountain then.

Then we jumped back in the van and headed to Calamity Janes in Sandy for a early dinner. Now on my boot camp program pretty much nothing fit my fueling plan. And the item Cole picked, hot fudge and marshmallow hamburger, will likely never be part of my diet. Cole loved it, snarfed it all down with the only comment being the fudge and marshmallows did not go well with his fries!!

Family, friends, fun and food...good day!

Goals and Races: All part of Training

2009-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

We are into the exciting and nerve racking taper for the Surf City Marathon on February 1st.

Last weekend we had a wrapup party for the 2008 Christmas

Camp. Ronda provided the coveted

"finisher" hoodies that were earned by pounding out the 100 miles and various other punishments over the week. We also threw out our "stretch" goals for the year. What did we hope to achieve that would be cool and fun but also force us to push our bodies just that little bit harder. My main one remains the sub 3 hour marathon. Trisha's is our "Rim to Rim to Rim" of the Grand Canyon in early June...a ~42 mile distance! All of the goals are inspiring and help get you out the door for a training run or push a little harder during a race. I highly recommend having a goals party with your athelete buddies and setting up for a great upcoming year.

Towards our goals, today was a checkpoint on our training with running the Vancouver Lake 1/2 marathon.

Trisha and I went out with the goal of approximating our marathon pace for the 1/2 marathon. One last good hard tempo run.

I stuck to my goal. I ran somewhat conservative for the first 8 miles and then picked up the pace to finish feeling really strong at 1:29:30 (6:49 pace). Fueled and hydrated well.

Trisha blew her goal out of the water...as I knew she would. She posted a 6 minute PR with a 1:51:30 (8:30 pace). Hmmmm...I smell a Boston qualifier attempt coming for this girl (3:45:00 for her age group)!! :-)

Ronda won her age group with a PR and was too close behind for me to run back and snap some pictures...nice!

My running buddy Ryan Altman is getting into training towards Boston and it was great to see him back in the groove.

Everyone was pretty chilled at the end with the surprise snow on the ground making for cold wet feet. But I will take snow over wind and rain on this course that has long straight stretches where a head wind would be brutal!

We hung around for some time "pressing flesh" and advertising our first events for Reason To Run in April. I usually dread talking to people I don't know but almost all runners like talking about the race they just finished (good or bad) and the planning towards the next one so I ended up really enjoying talking to a good chunk of the finishers.

Full results for the race will by available on Timing by Zornick shortly.

Yesterday was a recovery run for me so I had the fun opportunity to take my friend Jon Knapp out on the Forest Park t

rails for the very first time. We did a nice but not easy 7.5 miles from the Zoo to Pittock Mansion and back on the Wildwood trail. This is arguably the hilliest section of the trail and Jon did awesome. The trail is amazingly dry for this time of year. Also happy to report that the section threw the arboreteum is fully open with finished renovations. Make sure you get out and enjoy it...who knows when the rains will return!

Now we essentially rest and stretch with some shorter marathon pace tempo runs in the mix leading up to Surf City next Sunday. For both bootcamp sessions next week I am working with Gretchen to stretch out the always tight hamstring, IT and hip flexors. Eke out a little more range of motion to help on race day.

With good weather in Huntington Beach and smart planning I will be striving for that sub 3 once again. I can hardly wait!

Refreshing honesty

2009-01-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

I was playing around on Map My Run for our Reason To Run spring races maps (say that 10 times fast :-) ) and I was pleasantly surprised by this menu:

I just loved the refreshing honesty presented in this menu of choosing which version of the mapping tool to use.

Even though, imho, the mapping tool is still not fast, when presented with those options I felt like it was faster and I was getting the latest and greatest.

And as any UI designer will tell you perception, not reality, is what is important.

Announcing Reason To Run: What's yours?

2009-01-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Trisha and I have been runners for several years. We enjoy training, running for fun and adventure as well as racing.

We also really enjoy helping people to discover that they have a passion for running. And pointing out new areas to explore on foot.

Trisha and I are excited to announce Reason To Run.
With Reason to Run we are runners who organize several races in the Tigard, Tualatin and Beaverton communities to give you the opportunity to run close to home or to explore and experience some new running locations.

Our first event is in the spring, specifically April 11, 2009.

We are planning three distances:

All three will be in Cook Park, Tigard, Oregon where we took these pictures this past weekend. I am happy to report all of the trails are in great shape.

The Reason to Run web page is at http://reasontorun.com/

Reason To Run will be keeping a blog as well at http://blog.reasontorun.com/

Other ways to get to stay in touch with us can be found at http://reasontorun.com/contact.html

Races should not be the only reason that you run...but they do give you a target, a goal, a line in the sand. Or "just" an excuse to have fun with friends on a Saturday morning.

A race gives you another Reason to Run.
We look forward to you having fun, enjoying time with friends and, if you like, challenging yourself at one of our races.
Please don't hesitate to tell us what you would like to see at a race. Especially make sure to share your reason to run.

Eclipse Ant integration and Google Summer Of Code 2009

2009-01-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

We proposed an idea for Google Summer of Code in 2008 but did not get any interested students. I was late in putting up the proposal last year so I am being much more proactive this year.

I have put up an abstract to the Eclipsepedia page for a Google Summer of Code (GSOC) project proposing to work on improving the Eclipse Ant integration by facilitating Ant buildfile refactorings.

To see some ideas of the refactorings that could be supported have a look at bug 89938.

For information on Ant itself, check out the Apache Ant site.

The schedule and deadlines for 2009 GSOC applications has not been set yet but it is a good time to start preparing now:

The FAQ for GSOC can be found here.
A great page for prospective students can be found here.
Get on the GSOC discussion group and check out the pre-announcement with getting started advice

So please consider submitting to work on the Ant integration enhancement or any of the other Eclipse based ideas.

Learning about the inner workings of Eclipse and Ant are skills that will augment the skill set of any student.
Adding the refactoring support will also make you the friend of Build Meisters and Releng wizards everywhere. These are very good people to be friends with :-)

Powell Butte and Leif Erikson: great weekend of training

2009-01-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

For a Black Saturday workout I ran with Ronda, Steve, Micheal and Susan at Powell Butte Nature Park.
I had never been there before and it is a great place to run. A little bit of hills (we were doing about 1200 feet of climbing per 6 miles) interspersed with nice trail downhill and some good flats to stretch the legs out. The trails were only slightly muddy which was a good sign for this time of year. Apparently the park is about to be radically changed with an addition of another buried water reservoir but I do plan to go back. We parked at the main parking for the park but you can also easily access the trails off of the Springwater corridor.

I mapped out our run as shown in the picture. Actually I could not tell you if you paid me where or how we went to get my approximately 16 miles with ~2000 ft of climbing. Steve led most of the way but it really is impossible to get lost long term in this park as eventually you will either hit the butte summit or return to the parking lot / restroom area. This map has a pretty good representation of the park trails.

Continuing the build week of training it was off for 20 miles of fun on Leif Erikson before church.
Just a little note...it is still dark at 7am! The first 2 miles were a little tentative with the lack of light but after that I am really happy with how this tempo run went. The trail is muddy but in quite good shape.
I fueled and hydrated well with only a little bit of issue with my gut.
I have been introducing PowerBar chews that I picked up at the Y2K9 race. I can say I like 'em! I do need to try the Cola flavor but the lemon is not bad.
The legs felt great and I was even about to really pick it up for the last 3-4 miles. Now in fairness these are more downhill than not but I will take it :-) I had been worried about the legs after the bootcamp workout with lots of wall sits taking the quads to fatigue. I did have trouble biking in to work on Friday! But the legs were back and happy today.
10 miles heading out: 1:16:01
10 miles heading in: 1:08:35 Wahoo...negative split!!

Next week is very similar: total of around 70 miles with some good tempo thrown in to keep things honest.
Then it is taper week towards the Surf City marathon and another go for a PR. Trisha is also training hard for Surf City and I know she will blow her PR out of the water.

EclipseCon 2009: So Much in so Little Time

2009-01-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

If the tacky title didn't grab you maybe a Wordle picture will. The graphic is a great representation of the diverse and interesting topics within the sessions that will be presented at EclipseCon 2009.

I would like to highlight the Committer and Contributor category presentations that we have put together.

This year, our category gets credited with a KEYNOTE: The Social Mind: Designing Like Groups Matter!!
Wahoo...Here Comes Everybody to use the StackOverflow :-)
I can hardly wait to hear what Clay Shirky and Jeff Atwood will say.

Outside of the keynote, we have 2 short and 2 long talks and an amazing tutorial.

We have organized a UFC like-event in the form of a long talk panel. Some real heavy hitters from the Eclipse Architecture Council will be sitting up on the stage ready to take on your most intriguing questions. Bring your best moves. Will your question cause a verbal tap out? :-)

Our other long session is with Janet from the Eclipse Organization. Just go...everyone always can use an overview or refresher on IP policy.

The two short talks are grouped into a 50 minute session that will make you a better person!(Results atypical, your mileage may vary, guarantee not valid in most countries). Seriously, pencil in this session to beef up your skill set dealing with WikiText and Mylyn Connectors.

Our Mylyn tutorial will make you a better person as well. Again, OK, maybe just a more efficient and productive programmer.
And remember, all tutorials are FREE with your all All Access Pass.

Some other new developments for EclipseCon 2009 is we have bravely waded into the whole social networking scene. We are on Upcoming, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and we have a blog.

Stalk the progress towards EclipseCon 2009 via your favorite portal. Ensure to go beyond passive watching and instigate some discussion, propose ideas and help make things happen. This is the open source way.

Another great social opportunity when actually at EclipseCon will be the proposed EclipseCon Exercise. It was a great success in 2008 and there are few other events were you get to sweat quite so much and have it socially acceptable.

The EclipseCon program committee has done an amazing job of pulling together a top notch program. I am proud to be part of it.

Have you done your part and register ed?

ORRC Y2K9 race: Guaranteed PR

2009-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

ORRC has been running a race out in Forest Grove on the first weekend in the new year for quite some time. This year it was the Y2K9. From what I can figure, since Y2K, the race has been getting 10 meters longer each year . For example, last year to this year: 20.08 km --> 20.09 km. This works out great as each year you get to try a new distance and are guaranteed a PR for that distance :-)

This year was the first year that I have made it out to the race. It was tough, fun and a good checkpoint for how my training has been going. I really like how strong my legs felt just 3 days past a 100 mile week. The bootcamp training is definitely making me stronger...likely both mentally and physically. Still need to work on the tempo towards Surf City to reach that 3 hr goal. I see some good hard tempo runs in the next 2.5 weeks to get the lead out!

I started out fast on the downhill but it was fun and didn't feel too taxing. The first few miles were quite slippery with ice on the road and sidewalks. After about mile 4, the ice became much less of an issue. It was still cold: I think we were at about 25-28 F. I was very happy to have my gloves and embedded hot shots. By about mile 9 my face was pretty much numb. Man, I am really getting wimpy living on the west coast! The course is well marked and there are 3 aid stations spaced out appropriately. Portions of the 20 k are shared with the 10k. Made for a nice boost to have people to try to pass.

The course is rolling with some nice ups and downs to make you mix up the muscle groups. I think I did really well on the uphills but I need to work on the downhill turnover and speed. I was able to get in a nice groove on the flats.
Yet again I went short on fuel. My pace and path up the last grunt hill around 12.1 miles is something we all would laugh at if it made it to You Tube...I am sure I looked drunk :-)

20.09 km (12.48 miles) - 1:24:02
Splits:
Mile 1 - 6:20 Mile 7 - 7:07 Last little bit - 3:29 (my drunken hill!!)
Mile 2 - 6:34 Mile 8 - 6:26
Mile 3 - 6:50 Mile 9 - 6:47
Mile 4 - 6:38 Mile 10 - 6:49
Mile 5 - 6:42 Mile 11 - 6:52
Mile 6 - 6:45 Mile 12 - 6:38

Full results are up at the Timing by Zornick site.

Good fun for the first race of the year with a first place in my age group and seventh overall.
Ronda kicked butt taking second overall and first master woman.

I will plan to do this race again next year and get another PR!

Christmas Camp Day Seven: The Big One

2008-12-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

The final challenge for Christmas Camp 2008 was to run the longest mileage on the last day after accumulating 70 miles of fatigue in the body over the previous 6 days. Oh yeah...sign me up! :-)

6 Christmas campers opted to run loops at the Glendoveer Fitness trail loop: 2 miles of nice chip trails passing around a golf course with large Douglas fir trees. The trail was in great shape...really only mushy in one or two sections. The other campers did an out and back on the Wildwood trail to handle the remaining snow.

For the "loopers" to get 30 miles we needed to do 15 loops. Youch!
But it went by surprising fast especially with almost no rain. It was great having the car as an aid station every 2 miles with food, water, change of clothes, porta-potties and the every present squirrels. Note that it appears the water fountains are turned off for winter but this would be a great place to do tempo runs in the spring or summer. As well, watch those squirrels: close to the biggest, most aggressive Sciuridae I ever care to meet. Carried off all our empty GU packets and I think were trying with the hand-helds! They could easily beat up our dog Hagen!

After warm-up for the first 6-8 miles making good use of the portable toilets (Imodium to the rescue :-) ), I was able to pick up the pace and hit 20 miles in 2:57.

I then caught up to Trisha and with a strange guy giving her pause I did the next two loops with her. Once the weirdo hit the road, I picked up the pace again and hit the marathon in 3:57 (a little cheating as these are running time with limited aid station time included).
2 loops to go. I started working again and finished out in 4:32 pushing down the nice downhill to the 30 mile finish.

Then I did some "extra" with Ronda and also back out to take some pictures of Trisha finishing strong. This was Trisha's first 100 mile week and only THIRTY miles further than her previous long week...awesome! She is going to rock the Surf City Marathon in a month!

For fueling, outside of 4 gels, I went with about 1-2 oz of yams or sweet potatoes and a turkey slider (turkey breast slices wrapped around either avocado or olives) per loop. Seemed to really keep my stomach good and provided the needed power. Thanks Mark!

We all spent some time running with friends (thanks to Mary, James and Sarah for coming out...future Christmas Campers I think!), with fellow campers and by ourselves either in quite reflection or rockin' out with the tunes. Great way to end the year.

Christmas Camp 2008
Thursday Dec 25 - 7.1 miles (11.4 km)
Friday Dec 26 - 13.2 miles (11.4 km)
Saturday Dec 27 - 15 miles (24.2 km)
Sunday Dec 28- 22 miles (35.4 km)
Monday Dec 29 - 5.1 miles (24.2 km)
Tuesday Dec 30 - 8 miles (12 km)
Wednesday Dec 31 - 32 miles (51.5 km)
================================
Total of 18 hours for 102 miles (164 km)

Great way to spend vacation :-)

Happy New Year all and see you on the road and trails in 2009!

Christmas Camp Day Six: Getting Ready

2008-12-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Day six is the 8 little miles of calm before the "storm".

It is the Christmas camp day that when you are out running your mind drifts back to the hard work you have done already: the miles, the sit ups, the push ups.

Then you allow yourself to take a brief glimpse at Day Seven: 30 miles to round out the challenge.
Little doubts float into your brain:
It will be tough.
It will be long.
It will be cold.
You will feel the accumulated fatigue within your body.

But Christmas camp is not about taking it easy.
It is about having a great time with a bunch of friends who share a similar passion.
It is about laying the groundwork for the upcoming running season.
It is about enjoying life.

Tomorrow, on the last day of the year, we are challenging ourselves to run 30 miles.
Some are doing the traditional Purge and Splurge. For all the relevant information on this event check out here.

Another group of us is doing our own version...30 miles on a 2 mile loop trail at Glendoveer Fitness trail. The park location is here.
If you want to log any miles tomorrow, please come on out and join us.
We will be there for a while :-) starting at 7:30am

Make sure you do something outside of your comfort zone tomorrow.
It is a great way to kick start 2009.

Photo credit to David Webb

Christmas Camp: Day Four and Five

2008-12-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

After finishing Day 3 of Christmas Camp I was truly wondering if I would be able to finish this beast: I was tired, sore and not enthused. Turns out it was most likely I was just plain done with all the snow running. It is amazing how much the slipping and sliding adds weird aches and pains to the body.

Sunday we planned to run 21 miles.
In the morning before church we were going to do the loop around the waterfront as in Day 3 and then do neighborhood loops to make the other 9 miles.

We started out from the Old Spaghetti Factory at 7:30 with a smaller group than Day 3 but just as enthusiastic. It was surprisingly warm and not too windy or rainy. And the best part: all the snow was GONE! Wahoo! It was amazing how much faster and easier the same loop was from the day before. I even had the urge to pick it up and drop some marathon pace miles as we went through Oaks Bottom on the Springwater corridor. I could hardly believe it when we reached the Selwood Bridge. And then the crowning glory was all the water was gone from Willamette Park. Now if only they would open the outhouses in the off season! With a little time to spare after the loop Trisha and I did a little out and back to end with 12 miles in the bank. The rest of the group finished up with a reverse loop.

After a great church service with awesome Christmas music from the worship team (thanks guys!), and some quiet time with visiting brother, sister-in-law and Grandma it was time to hit the road again.

Trisha and I did 2 loops of the neighborhood at a nice pace. Both of us were again surprised at how good we were feeling. Trisha then peeled off to do a walk loop with Grandma. I figured I had nothing to lose so I dropped the hammer for the last ~5km loop...around 21 minutes. Felt great to finally do some faster running after all the sloggin' in the snow.

After taking the family to Five Guys (were I resisted the temptation and only had some peanuts to stay on the fueling plan for bootcamp) we headed to the zoo. I seriously considered logging the miles we did walking around the Zoo Lights...I think they need to work on their traffic flow :-) Saw the new baby elephant, the light display and rode the train. I was getting tired, cold and hungry but we still had lots of fun and it is always great to see things through the eyes of the kids.

Today was pretty much a rest day. I did bootcamp in the morning (no rest there for the arms...ouch!) and then burned up some of my "extra" miles to only log 5.1 miles. Trisha was trying to wimp out and do 7 treadmill miles since it was raining hard this morning. But she stepped up and headed out into the elements when all the treadmills were full at 24 hr Fitness.

The great part is it appears that winter is over for Portland...none too soon for my liking! We even got mail today (after about a week) and I heard garbage trucks in the neighborhood (after no pickup for almost 2 weeks).

Christmas Camp total for the 5 days: 62 miles (100 km).
Hope every is enjoying there own end of year challenge?!

Christmas Camp Day 3

2008-12-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today was set for a 15 miler and the first full group run. The group formed at the Spaghetti Factory around 7:30 to head out for what we hoped was the most snow/ice free miles in the area.

And what a group!! 13 Christmas Campers and 1 Slipper Camper (Scott joining in for the fun today).

We started out going with the wind which was a real blessing to warm up and get used to what was generally slightly slippery but runnable footing.

We moved along pretty much the complete waterfront of Portland using the East Esplanade, Springwater corridor and Willamette Greenway.
The route was nice today even in the strong wind with rain and is definitely something all runners in the area should try. The bridges, the parks (Tom McCall, Vera Katz esplanade, Oaks Bottom and Willamette) and the constant views of the city and river on paved trail make for a great outing whether running or biking.

I mapped the waterfront loop here (about 10.6 miles).

The Willamette park "river" was the low point for most today I believe. The flooding from the rapid snow melt made for cold wet feet that just is not that much fun on a December day.

After the waterfront loop we added an out and back to make the 15 miles. It was really great to have my friends car with the seat warmers :-)

We are planning to use the same route tomorrow for our 21 miles. I think the footing tomorrow will be much improved and we can hope that the wind and rain is slightly less. Trisha and I both plan to fuel better tomorrow as I think we both ran a little low on sugar.

Today definitely stretched me and tomorrow will be more of the same. I am pushing my body to its limit...but then that is the whole point of Christmas Camp :-)

As Cheri would say...ensure you get out and get moving now that the snow is all disappearing.

Christmas Camp: Day One and Two

2008-12-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas Camp 2008 has begun!! Last years posts are here.

Christmas camp is a series of training adventures that is "...meant to be a challenge where like minds come together to run and celebrate". About 20 brave souls have signed up for the challenge.

Running Schedule:
Thursday 12/25 – 12 miles! Ouch that’s on Christmas day…get up early, sneak out for a run, maybe break it into 2 runs. Don’t get behind……

Friday 12/26 – 7 miles! Group Run

Saturday 12/27 – 15 miles! Group Run

Sunday 12/28 – 21 miles! Group Run

Monday 12/29 – 7 miles!

Tuesday 12/30 – 8 miles!

Wednesday 12/31! – 30 miles! Last day of camp! Group Run

Other:

1. 150 pushups! You can break them out however you wish so you total 150! These on one your toes baby!!!! Make it happen, learn to do real push-ups not the sissy kind….there are no sissy’s here, right????

2. 25 sit-ups a day. These are full sit-ups not crunches. See the video below on how to do them and do them properly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygmgGqzsSiU

So as you can see the bar is set pretty high: 100 miles of running and the "other" is no piece of cake either :-)

The inches of snow on the ground in Portland this year provided Trisha and I with a less than stellar start.

Day One: Trisha got in 6 miles on the crazy Bull Mountain roads.

I got in about 7 miles but I believe I should get extra credit for helping 3 cars get unstuck and make it to their Christmas destination :-)

Day Two: Starting out we were 6 miles behind :-(. Trisha and I met up with Lisa, Micheal, Ronda, Lynn and Dave at the start of the Leif Erikson trail. Driving there was almost half the fun as Thurman gets pretty interesting near the top. We trudged out to mile 2.5 on the trail and decided we likely going faster if we started to walk. So Trisha and I headed back to the start. The others made it out to about mile 3. We did some out and backs to total the 7 miles for today.

Treadmill time was spent to erase the deficit from day one...another 6 miles that seem to fly by after the snow/ice running.

So what are you going to challenge yourself with as we head into 2009?

Christmas Eve Church Service 2008

2008-12-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

With the history setting winter weather we have had in Portland this past week most, if not all, Christmas Eve church services were canceled.

Not to be deterred, Cole planned a Swanson family service complete with home made program.

He designated himself as the "priest" and piano player with Leah as the special music and assistant. Trisha and Grandma provided the catering. Apparently I was the silent benefactor :-)

We opened with Christmas carols with Cole and Leah doing the piano accompaniment.

Cole then read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.

This was followed by candle lighting and prayer time to remember those in need and to thank God for all the wonderful things in our lives.

The service wrapped up with chocolates and cookies provided for all the parishioners and service participants.

Merry Christmas to all from the Swansons!

UltraRunning magazine: subscribe already

2008-12-16T21:58:00.000-08:00

Hanging out with my buddy Sean last weekend before the California International marathon, I was reading some issues of UltraRunning magazine.

Half way through the second issue, I thought, "Hey, this is a great magazine, I should subscribe". Then I dredged up the memory that I actually had subscribed back in July and totally forgotten about it!

So I went to the magazines website and placed a call to its office.

I left a message pretty much expecting nothing to happen and to have to follow up numerous times to get to a satisfactory resolution. Boy, was I wrong.

We received a call at home saying the mistake was entirely theirs and that they would start my subscription, give me the full 2 years and include some back issues. When I arrived home today, the two back issues had been mailed out with a personal note.

UltraRunning may have made a mistake, but who doesn't. The more important point is that they were more than willing to admit it, fix it and go the extra mile (get it...extra mile --> ultra running :-) ) to resolve the problem.

UltraRunning has retained a subscriber for as long as they are in business.

You should check them out as well. I am willing to lend out some old issues :-)

Gymnastics 2008

2008-12-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Leah took part in a four event gymnastics exhibition today: uneven bars, trampoline, floor and balance beam. She did a great job and her hard work really showed in her focus and execution.

California International Marathon 2008

2008-12-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

I posted the short and sweet story right after the race: I missed my goal of sub 3 hours.
This is the long version telling all about the race and lessons I learned as well as some new questions to solve in future races. The picture is of Mount Shasta on the drive back home.

The place we stayed at, the Holiday Inn at Capital Plaza, was good. Nice price, close to the packet picket up and finish line and the staff were all very helpful. Next time we will not stay on the 15th floor as there was some very early noise from the party wrapping up on the 16th floor which has all the gathering rooms.

The bus ride from the Holiday Inn worked out well: leaving around 5:25 with about 45 minutes to the start to arrive around 6:10.
I would not want to get to the start any later. We arrived before the main crowds but when we got back from our warm-up things were pretty crazy. Even with 1 porty potty for every 24 people (250 total) there were some good lineups. Everyone is over-hydrated :-)

It was really hard to move up to the correct place in the start as well. I had to keep pushing forward during the playing of the national anthem...something I usually try to avoid. Sean Meissner had real trouble and likely cost him about 2 minutes. Possibly need a staggered start with the skinny road we start on? Or maybe corrals like Boston? If I did do this race again I would head to the line at least 10 minutes earlier around 6:45.

The crowd support was good with music and cheering squads along the course. The relay exchanges (every 6miles) always had very large crowds with loud cheering.

The aid stations were frequent and seemed well stocked. Gels were available out on the course in good supply. And not just some nasty flavors no one likes. I even remembered to grab one but I don't remember where.
But why, oh why, did they use hard plastic cups for water!!
No way to squeeze the cup in to a funnel to shoot the water in and after discard you have sharp, slippery plastic bits all over the road.
Please, all race directors, do not use hard plastic cups. Really made me appreciate packing my water in my Ultimate Direction hand held. I could steer clear of the crowds and the mass of plastic on the road.
Talking with the other (faster) runners I still need to drink more. I got through about 20 ounces and should probably have done 40.

One weird kinda note to all race directors out there...if you have porta potties en route it would be great to help runners who are really trying to get in and get out fast to "prime" the toilet paper. I was lucky enough to get an outhouse that no one had used on the course but had to fumble around for what seemed like forever try to rip off the roll's wrapping...erg!

I ran with the 3 hour pace group for the first 16 miles. It was good but after my first bathroom break I think I should have taken a few more miles to catch back up...3 miles at 6:40 was too fast. Easy to look back now. I really was hoping that the one pit stop was all it was going to take to "rotate the tires". Nope...not today.
I think I would also run the first 4 miles slower next time and catch up to the pace group around mile 7 or 8. The first miles just felt too fast. Others in the group seemed to share the same sentiments. Also more conducive to the holy grail of running: the negative split (which Sean achieved...stud!). But again the 3 hour pace group crossed the line right before 3 hours...awesome job by the leader, Kevin Sawchuk.

After the first 4 miles I settled into a nice pace with the group and was feeling awesome. Fueling with my gels (alternating GU Strawberry Banana with Clif Shot Double Expresso) about every 30 mins. Sipping from my hand held. 10 km in 43 minutes. As shown below, made it to the half in 1:29.

This was about when I knew my stomach was going to have more impact on the race. With the minute in the bank, I dialed back the pace to around 7 minutes. Still no love. Dialed back to 7:30. More pit stops. At this point I lost a bit of mental focus.
I knew I was not going to make sub 3 nor a PR. 3:15:59 was my next real line as it is the Boston qualifier for my age group.
I also thought I could likely break 3:10. Nope, not in the cards. Not entirely sure when the 3:10 pace group passed me but I just could not pick it back up as they went by. Erg.
I did like the last 2 miles more than I thought I would. You are running along a straight stretch on L street for the last 3 or 4 miles. I think from like 56th street down to 8th street. I actually liked ticking off the blocks. Not sure this would always be the case but it did work on this day. Slight increase in pace at the end to make it into the 3:13s

No real damage to the body as the legs did not get the chance to work hard enough, long enough. This is a good thing. Might lose my right big toenail. Not sure what the story is there. I did run in my marathon racing flats (Saucony Fast Twitch) but I have never had anything like this before in any race. Maybe it was all the pit stop squatting...ewww :-(

The CIM course is fast but not flat. Rather rolling in a general down hill....which I liked. There are uphills. But all of the hills you can see the top from the bottom and with a little bit of a change in stride and a push you are at the top. And each hill you are immediately rewarded with a nice downhill usually both before and after. Last miles are the flattest. The course most closely reminds me of Boston.

Now to plan for the next marathon: Surf City near L.A.
I may dive into the boot camp world that has done such great things for Trisha and Ronda.
I would like to be about 5 pounds lighter for the February race. And stronger.
I may run with Trisha at Surf City and pick another race to go for the gold.

Either way I really don't know what to do with this stomach. Maybe the strict fueling plans of boot camp will fix me? Wish I could just fuel intravenously :-) So much more direct and would skip the weak link in my system Possibly being stronger will allow my backup pace to be faster so when the stomach does go sour it will not have as much effect on the end result. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Much respect and congratulations go out to Jeff Caba (2:36), Sean (2:39) and Ryan Altman (3:04)...the Bend boys who all set awesome PRs. I want to grow up to be like you guys :-) Glenn Miller ran a great race after some time away from the marathon. It was great hanging with all of you. Also great was hitting Johnny Rockets for hamburgers, cheese fries and malts after the race. My stomach seemed fine after crossing the finish line.

Splits
Mile 1 : 6:47	Mile 7: 6:48	Mile 14: 7:00	Mile 21: 7:51
Mile 2: 6:37	Mile 8: 7:28	Mile 15: 7:06	Mile 22: 813
Mile 3: 6:45	Mile 9: 6:38	Mile 16: 6:59	Mile 23: 8:47
Mile 4: 6:34	Mile 10: 6:40	Mile 17: 7:11	Mile 24: 8:45
Mile 5: 6:55	Mile 11: 6:39	Mile 18: 7:32	Mile 25: 8:58
Mile 6: 6:53	Mile 12: 6:54	Mile 19: 7:37	Mile 26: 8:47
	Mile 13: 6:54	Mile 20: 8:47	1:42 3:13:56
	(half in 1:29)	(2:21 total time)	3:13:56

3:13 for my 13th Marathon

2008-12-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

Almost two hours ago I finished my 13th marathon, the California International, in an unofficial time of 3:13:56.

The bad things:

CIM was a PR course
My stomach had its issues to prevent me from running the last 9 miles fast enough
I fertilized some bushes on the course so they will grow really well next spring...ewww :-(
I get to try again for sub-3 hours

The good things:

CIM is a PR course
Till about mile 17 I was on pace for 3 hours
My fueling worked well even with an off stomach
My legs feel really good after running the race and I am ready for next race.
Some bushes on the course will grow really well next spring.
I achieved a Boston qualifying time for my age.
I have the largest finishing medal to add to my collection...it must weigh a full pound!
I get to try again for sub-3 hours

I will write up a full report with all the gory details on the drive home tonight (back to Bend).

Already thinking of the work to do for lucky 14: the Surf City marathon in February.
Beaten again on this one but the war is not over yet!

Final Preparation for CIM

2008-12-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

I am in taper week for the California International Marathon running Dec 7th in Sacramento.

I do not particularly like tapering. Body complains about the inactivity, every little creak and groan of the muscles seems amplified, and my mind reels that I should being doing more to get ready.

I think tapering is like flossing your teeth: everyone knows it is a necessary evil but how many of us really do it correctly and for the right amount of time? And what is the definition of correct or right amount?

I have real trouble not overeating and keeping a good attitude during the taper.
Once I finish my last peak week I really have to fight the "nothing more I can do, so do nothing" attitude. Then the very next second, BOOM, I flip to "ARGH..WE MUST DO MORE TRAINING it is our only hope for success!" :-)

I had planned to do more miles in the last week but my stomach has been giving me issues...hard to do any distance without hitting the bathroom :-(

I also had great plans to stretch and do yoga every day this week...yah right :-) I did get a sports massage last night to dig out those pesky balls of tightness in my quads and calf muscles.

I am happy with the final 5 weeks of training I did leading up to marathon week (this week). I would have liked to do the final big push peak week one week further back and had higher mileage in the weeks leading up to the 70 mile week. I find the best success with consistent 60 mile weeks peaking in the 70s. Higher mileage than that and I tend to break.

Oct 27 - Nov 2 : 55 miles
Nov 3 - Nov 9: 57 miles
Nov 10- Nov 16: 55 miles with a 5 km race thrown in
Nov 17 - Nov 23: 70 miles
Nov 24 - Nov 30: 40 miles with a 5km race thrown in
Dec 1 - 6 - now planning about 15 - 20 miles

When I taper I try to maintain the intensity but reduce the mileage. I really find this hard to do. Any indication of minor discomfort and I back off the pace. In normal training I would push through and it would work itself out. I need to work on this.

I am really looking forward to this race...excited and nervous at the same time. Only bummer is that Trisha and the kids will not be there.

How I plan to have a great race:

I have the mental edge of knowing I will be in an experienced pace group. The leader is an accomplished ultra-marathoner who brought his group across the line last year at 2:59:43. Sounds good to me!
I have lots of friends and family wishing me well and holding me accountable. For me it really does help during a race.
For the first time I will be running a race with someone who is shooting for the same goal time. This works great in training to get past the low points so I think it will be awesome in a race situation.
The weather is looking good: little wind, low of 39, high of 61. Might feel a bit warm near the end but Ronda correctly warned me about that.
It is supposed to be a fast course..duh!

Thank you to all the friends who have provided advice and wished me well!
Off to pack my racing flats...Wahoo!

2008 Christmas Tree

2008-11-29T20:36:00.000-08:00

We had a break in the weather today where it was warm and almost sunny. Since I am away next weekend racing down in Sacramento for the CIM, we headed to the tree farm to harvest the family tree for 2008.

We have gone to the same place for the last 3 years: Vandermost Christmas Tree farm on SW Vandermost Road off of Scholls Ferry. You can cut down any tree on the acreage for $25. Small or large.

We tend to go large and have been happy with the 2 past years trees.

This year I made sure to pick a handsaw that was sharp. So once we had hiked through the "forest" and found our tree, the work of cutting it down was vastly easier than last year.

So with little incident, the beautiful tree was loaded on the car, driven home and is now waiting to be decorated in the front room.

Thanksgiving Running: Give 'n Gobble 5 km

2008-11-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

We generally try to do a race Thanksgiving morning ever since moving to the United States in 1999. The weather in Portland has generally been warmer than Minneapolis for running on turkey day.

This year we ran the Give 'n Gobble 5km in Sherwood, Or. A map of the course can be found here.

I raced the 5km as my last speed work leading up the California International marathon on December 7th.
I ran OK posting a 19:05 (6:08 minutes per mile).
1st in my age group and 7th overall.
The legs felt good. I just could not quite find a groove with the course. A little climbing and such in the first 2 miles and then about 1 mile of paved trail running. The trail is fun but not conducive to really fast times with some really tight corners that I ran tentative with the moss and frost. I know, excuses, excuses :-)

I then back-tracked to find Trisha and the kids and ran in with them for about the last mile. Cole's ears where cold as it was about 33 F but the sun was out. Leah was dragging when I met them but boy did she pick it up on the downhills. They did great keeping moving by alternating running and walking. Pushing to the finish, they finished their first 5 km race in 41 minutes (13:11 minutes per mile).

It was great to see our friends from church out doing the 10 km: Jon Lindsey, Jason and Jennifer. I went back again for more cool down to run in with Jon for the last 3/4 mile. Maybe next year we will move up to the big race as well :-)

The race was well organized with the route marked extremely well. Russ Zornick was doing the timing so I would expect the results to be up here soon (possibly as early as tonight). (UPDATE: results are up here and WOW...the race had 702 people running the 5 km!)

Happy Thanksgiving. Boy are we blessed!
Now off to EAT!

An Important Day for EclipseCon 2009

2008-11-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Which of the following are true about November 24th?

The start of the week that holds American Thanksgiving?
The day the lead singer of Queen died?
The day that the Brady Bill passed the United States Congress?
The last day to submit a proposal for EclipseCon 2009?

Answer: All are true.

This post is about participation in EclipseCon 2009.
We have 5 Domains with 19 categories designated for the conference. We even have an Other category to not miss anything cool and interesting.

So what is your passion: Emerging technologies? UI? C/C++? E4? Web tools?
Submit a proposal for what you love to talk about.

Maybe you would like to share within the Committer and Contributor category?

In the Committer and Contributor category:

You can tell us about your peer and community interactions or your successes and failures with ecosystem building.
Do you have insights and experiences on how to work in the open, or how to foster or be a successful contributor or committer? Please don't limit yourself to just Eclipse experiences. Other communities experiences can be very relevant.
If you are an expert on the Eclipse foundation and its governance model, licensing or the Eclipse IP process, share with the rest of us.
The Eclipse development process...a whole world unto itself ready for you to help us explore.
How did you start your Eclipse project, foster its growth and sustain its maintenance?

No matter what category your presentation would fall under, write up your proposal and prepare to share your expertise with a submission.

Florida Sandcastles

2008-11-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

Our family spends a lot of time on the beach when we go to Indian Rocks, Florida. We keep busy building creations in the sand. Everything from plain piles of sand to snapping turtles to standard castles.

Some of us are the designers and the diggers, some the sculptors and others the supervisors, critics and admirers.

These are our creations for Florida 2008.

We imagined.
Then we enjoyed building and playing with the sand.

We also made sure to run around laughing as the sea reclaimed the sand we had borrowed.

Racing in Florida: Richard's Run for Life 5km

2008-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

We are on vacation near Tampa, Florida and independently both of us thought it would be fun to do a race while we were here.

We lucked out in with a 5km race tonight in Ybor City, a historic neighborhood northeast of downtown Tampa. The race is called Richard's Run for Life and is a cancer fundraiser.
We almost missed the race with the traffic/rush hour of Tampa. Parked and did our "warm-up" run to pick up our numbers with 15 minutes to spare for the 7 pm start.

In 2006 thi s race had 660 runners. 2007 there was 6 7 3. This year there was around 1200! But they handled it really well.
The course is not really scenic: several out and backs on city streets starting and finishing at the historic Cuban Club built in 1917.

The race was really well organized with lots of volunteers for packet picket and for the post race party. The post race food was really tasty tacos and paella with free wine, beer and soda.

Trisha nailed her fastest time in a couple of years with 25:15 (8:07).
I ran 18:38 (5:59), 15th overall and my fastest time this year. I grabbed a 1st place paella plate in one of the old man age groups.

It took a long time to get to the awards ceremony. The reason: 1200 people and they were doing the results BY HAND!. It was like a time warp back to the '70s. I have no idea how this race managed to get these results organized. As you crossed the finish line you were passed a card with your overall finish position. It was then up to you to enter your name, address and finish time on the card.
These cards were then placed into little plastic troughs for each age group in random order. Then one guy sorted these cards and stapled the top three from each age group on a larger result card. Trisha and I stood and watched to really see how this worked. Even more amazing the race organizers announced that the full results will be up online by Sunday night! Someone actually has to type in all these results...youch!! The old school way did work, but man, someone get these guys some computerized results! :-)
Full 2008 results can be found at Cool Running.

Fun race, great food (and lots of it) and organization with cool and unique age group awards. Hopefully we can do it again.

Halloween 2008: Candy!

2008-10-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

We are back from the annual candy grab.

The weather cooperated with it being warm and dry with no wind.

Cole dressed up as a "50s" guy and Leah was Princess Leia...easy, simple and mobile.

Tomorrow we are off for our annual migration south to Florida...reading, running and sleeping on the beach...wahoo!

Trisha and I are even planning to squeeze in a 5 km race: Richards Run For Life 5km :-)

Doing the CIM

2008-10-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

The bad news...with a change in plans I am not going to run the Autumn Leaves 50km.

The good news...I just finished signing up for the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento on December 7th.

This will be another attempt for me to break 3 hours for the marathon. Rolling hills with a net downhill sounds good to me. The race seems to have very well established management and pacing teams. I will hitch my wagon to the 3 hr group. As well, looking at the results there are lots of fast times.

I have come close twice: 3:02:33 at Boston in 2006 and then 3:03:05 at Eugene in 2007 (race report here).

This will be my first try this year. I knew going into Boston 2008 that I just had not done the required training. Race day bore that out (report here).

My other goal for this race is to finish before the boys from Eastern Oregon are showered, shaved and on a 2nd round of lunch. In other words, they are blazin' FAST and I would like to be within 20-30 minutes of their finishing times :-)

Please chime in with any and all suggestions for switching from training for a 50km to training for a marathon and how to best focus my 4 weeks of dedicated marathon training.

Five Guys Burgers in Portland

2008-10-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

I was driving to work today (which I rarely do since usually bike commute) but I am glad I did.
Taking a completely different route from normal I spied a Five Guys Burger location! In Beaverton, Oregon! Close to where I work! w00t!!

We first hit this place on our Florida trip last year as we detailed here.

Youch...now that it is local I am going to have to do more running to match the calories :-)

Heavenly Weekend of Running

2008-10-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

Great weekend of running: long run out on the trails on Saturday followed by helping a friend race to a PR on Sunday.

Saturday I headed out with Scott and Rick on the trails of Forest Park.
The weather was great: cool with the sun peeking out every once and while.
The park is taking on its fall colors and yet the trails still have their summer hardness before turning into the sloppy mud of the late fall and spring.
We started at the Zoo a little after 8 am and ran out on the Wildwood trail to mile 10.
Note that they are doing some pretty major construction on the trail at the Redwood forest section of the Arboretum. On Saturday you could get around the work but you had to be creative
After the Wildwood section we headed back and then down the Alder trail to Lief. Once we were spit out on Lief it was time to pick up the pace and push it on the downhill and road. Played around the 7 min per mile mark. Then it was time to head up the Aspen trail back to Wildwood.
I got a nice second wind at this stage and was able to do some nice work back in for the 6.5 of Wildwood back to the Zoo.

This is a great 20 mile loop that I would recommend: lots of change-up in pace and terrain. You get all the climbing on Wildwood (Pittock Mansion *2) and then the climb up from Balch Creek (Stone Building) at mile 5.25 out to around mile 7. The speed work section of Lief is tough but fun and you can look forward to the "rest" pushing up Aspen.

Sunday morning the crew headed down for the Run Like Hell 5 km race. I was running with James as he tried for a personal record (PR) in the distance. For the last month and a bit James has been working hard with a training plan I drew up for hill towards the 5 km race today. I have been using Google Calendar for drafting up the training plans for a couple friends and it is working out quite nicely. Michele was also out to race the course.

We saw Mike Rosling before the start of the race as he finished the 10km event in a personal best time. His cool racing flats were still smoking!! Um...Mike and Sean, I am not sure ultra runners are supposed to be using such light shoes and running such sweet fast times at road races??!!
I think I might have to get me a pair of those Nike LunarRacers!

We also saw Kelly from Run Oregon and I picked up the Garmin 405 from her that I am going to test drive for the next week and write up my experiences.

Now to the race. It was a little nerve wracking at the start as things were pretty crowed: 700 plus people crowding into the start that is also the finish for the 10 km and half marathon participants streaming in. But amazingly it all worked out. Just before we started the 5km, the race organizers subtlety shifted over the finishing chute and we had the room we needed for the start.

The air horn went off and we were running. Nice 4-5 blocks of down hill running to spread out the field and get the legs fired up. You do have to make sure not to go out too fast. We hit the end of the downhill and turned out onto Naito. James found his stride and hit the first mile in 6:46. I had predicted James would run 6:53s so I thought this might be a little fast but the footfall and breathing sounded good so lets see what happens. Through the turnaround and to mile two with no major changes: striding out on the flat (most of it) and using the little ups and downs as mental pushes to keep the pace up.
Mile two in 6:41. Now I knew James had his PR. Out along the Portland waterfront park which was flat and fast. Then push to the turn for the return up the hill to the start/finish. James dug deep, pushed hard and crossed the line in 20:54 (6:44 avg). I was one second back at 20:55 as we took first and second in our 35-39 age group, 30 out of 750. NICE!
Full race results for the Run Like Hell 5km are here.
Now I get to revisit James' training plan and tweak it up a notch using this new race baseline :-)

Run Like Hell is a great race with smoking fast 5km and 10 km courses. I think I will race the 5km next year to try for my own PR. I also recommend hitting Elephants for a post race feast/celebration.

I got to end the day with a nice 6 mile leg stretcher with the tunes on to add some more quality miles to my training towards my next race.

Stone Building photo credit to Dar's Foto Faze

2008 Race for the Cure at Coffee Creek Correctional Center

2008-10-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

For the past year Trisha has been volunteering and mentoring at Coffee Creek Correctional Center. This is her story of getting involved and how it lead to a new tradition of a 5km Race for the Cure event at the prison.

Prison for me all began with a dog named Chewy.

In September 2006, both my kids headed off to school and I was asking God what I should do with my newly discovered free time. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the idea of teaching a computer or business class in prison surfaced. I don’t know why God placed prison on my heart. My only previous experience with Department of Corrections had been when I took a wrong turn while going to Ibach Park. I accidentally ended up at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville thinking the lights and expansive parking lot must indicate that the kids and I had arrived at the park. NOT!

I shared to my friends a desire to get involved in some way with the prison and the female inmates. All too soon it was May and I still hadn’t made any effort to move forward. Marnie, a friend of mine kept prompting me to take action and contact the prison, but I brushed her off: I was too busy, not prepared, I’ll do it next month.

Turns out God was getting tired of my excuses too. In June, Darin was running a race on Father's Day in Tigard. While we were at the finish line waiting for him, the kids spotted a puppy, Chewy, and couldn’t resist petting and playing with him. I exchanged smiles with Chewy’s owner, a petite Korean woman, named Christina. We shared that usually we were both at church on Sunday mornings. Christina then began to tell me about her ministry with Oregon Women’s Prison Ministry (OWPM) and her calling to "love on" female inmates. I mentioned that during the past year I had been thinking about getting involved somehow at the prison.

This was more than enough of an opening for both God and Christina. Christina immediately told me I needed to come to prison with her, in fact she could arrange for me to go that very week. I was somewhat taken aback – I mean things aren’t supposed to happen this fast and of course I felt I still had to ponder and pray. Really it was just continued inaction on my part, but thankfully God is patient and persistent.

I met with Christina over the summer. When the kids were back in school again, I joined OWPM, volunteering with the female inmates every week during the Tuesday chapel services in the medium/maximum security facility at Coffee Creek.

This past spring, at the request of some of the inmates I met, I started a jogging group. We call it a jogging group since the term ‘running’ has other connotations in the prison environment :-) .

This group is not connected with OWPM. My dream for the jogging group was for us to meet and jog together out on the prison yard, but due to safety concerns about having a volunteer on yard with the general prison population, this was not an option.

So I meet with 12 inmates twice a month in a classroom setting. We’ve covered topics such as nutrition, speed work, hydration, and the Olympics. The women ask me questions about topics such as injuries, protein drinks, running shoes, that I then research for them.

The inmates record their mileage in jogging journals and I must say they are an inspiring group of ladies. They jog on the prison yard, which basically consists of a concrete ‘sidewalk’ around a patch of sand and some picnic tables – I so want to take them out on the trails, since their scenery consists of rows of chain link fences and razor wire. Ten laps around the yard equals a mile. And if an inmate is in lock down and can’t get out to jog, some of them do their jogging on the spot in their cells. The inmates have aptly named our group the Concrete Gazelles.

In August we were discussing upcoming races and the group mentioned Race for the Cure. I asked if they wanted to participate in the race and all of them were enthusiastic about it. Of course we would have to do the race on the prison exercise yard. I talked to the Coffee Creek program administration staff and they were extremely positive (big thank-you to Liz and Amanda) – we were even able to offer the inmates ice water (something that isn’t normally available). And since the yard would be only open to race participants, I would be allowed to jog with and support the women. Once again I was amazed at how fast everything came together – we only had approximately a month lead time to coordinate the event and everything went incredibly smoothly.

Next I talked to the Susan Komen Foundation (Race for the Cure organizers). They were extremely positive (a big thank-you to Caity McKean). Since the inmates have very limited funds, the Komen Foundation offered a reduced registration rate. I really didn’t want this to be a free event. The goal was for the inmates to take it seriously and have pride in giving back to the community.

We put the word out in the inmates’ newsletter and over 75 women signed up and they raised close to $400. It was a blast for me to go down to the Race for the Cure expo and pick up all those race numbers. Due to prison regulations the women weren’t permitted to have the race t-shirts or commemorative pins, but they were allowed to keep their bib numbers and the signs on which they could write who they were jogging in memory of/celebration of.

We were able to do the race the same day as the outside world, on Sunday September 21 at 1pm. Decked out in an orange safety vest and wielding a ‘Go Girls’ sign, I was honored to be out on the J/K yard to jog with and cheer on the women. I taped their numbers (no safety pins allowed) on their shirts and poured out cup after cup of ice water. The inmates did 31 laps to make the 3.1 mile race distance and it was very cool to see many of them work hard. And even more exciting, one of the inmates participating was a breast cancer survivor. It was a treat for me to jog with the inmates from the jogging group and talk to them about their running experiences. In the end we made a high five cheering line for the last of the women completing the race and some of the inmates asked even me to sign their bib numbers.
The positive attitudes and excitement demonstrated how such an event can bring people together, whether inside or outside prison walls.

Thank-you to all who were praying and supporting us and the event.
Please let me know if you have any ideas for running related topics that I can discuss with the group or good running related movies (Darin's note: running related movies link here).

Looking to ensure you are IP clean?

2008-10-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Working on the Eclipse Architecture council and just plain being a long time Eclipse committer I know a good sampling of the questions that arise about the ins and outs of open source licenses and the best practices for making sure you, as a committer maintain the high standard of intellectual property cleanliness that is the standard for Eclipse.

So, I plan to sit in on the upcoming webinar from the Eclipse Foundation's Janet Campbell. Janet has always presented in a manner that is easy for non-lawyer developers to understand.
She has also always been willing to field the tough questions.

Here are the details on the webinar:

The Eclipse Foundation is hosting a webinar to discuss the different styles of open source licenses and their implications on use within an enterprise or a vendor. The webinar will also discuss the best practices used by the Eclipse Foundation to ensure the Eclipse open source projects address many of the IP issues. Attendees of this session will gain a better appreciation for how to deal with the risk and benefits of open source IP.

Ensuring Clean Intellectual Property
October 22, 2008 at 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 4:00 pm GMT
Presented by Janet Campbell
To register email webinar-ip at eclipse dot org

For more information on this and other Eclipse webinars, visit http://live.eclipse.org/. Special thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host the webinar.

Be there and be clean.

Picture from Eclipse IP Process in Cartoon...but you knew that :-)

Body Building and Biking

2008-10-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Lots of firsts this past weekend: Trisha and I went and watched our first body building competition and did our first 75 mile bike ride.

The bodybuilding competition was the Seven Feathers Classic at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, Oregon. Our friend Ronda was competing so we went down to give moral and verbal support. It was inspiring to see all the athletes dedication and commitment. I was also glad I had done my push-ups earlier in the day so I could at least pretend I had some muscle definition :-) . Ronda did great finishing 3rd in her height class. If you are interested in more details read her blog here.

After a short sleep, we hit the road again for the relatively short drive to Champoeg state p ark and the start of the Harvest Century rides. With James and Mary, we had signed up for the 75 mile route option. Trisha and I road on the tandem bike (thanks Scott!) with James and Mary riding solo.

The ride started kinda cold with even a few raindrops. Then just as the legs were loosening up and getting into the riding groove we hit a traffic jam: hundreds of bikes waiting in line to catch the Canby ferry across the Willamette River. Luckily the sun came out to warm us up as we ended up waiting almost one hour. The hill on the other side of the river really got the blood pumping and made everyone quickly look forward to the next aid station.

The route does a large loop around Chehalem mountain and pretty much goes right by Bull mountain and our house. Then on out to Forest Grove. We missed one turn on the way (none of us saw any marking) but I don't think it added or subtracted from the ride.

The next section was pretty grueling for us: lots of rolling hills and I suspect we rode a fair bit of the stage with a tire on the verge of going flat. Trisha noticed the tire was low at the aid station so we filled it back up. About 5 miles later it was flat. Checked the tire, changed the tube and set out again. 2 miles. Low again. Pump, ride, repeat. We got within one mile of the finish and were totally flat when Trisha jumped off the bike and ran in the last mile to fetch the car and end our day. She is a such awesome shape right now a little 1 mile run after 75 miles of biking hardly phases her :-)

The ride is at a nice time of the year with a reasonable price ($45), with weather that will generally cooperate. It is a scenic but challenging, rolling course. The lunch was tasty: chili, salad and baked potatoes washed down with apple cider...really quite good. Chocolate milk at the last aid station brought me back from the dead.
The route could be marked a little better, the aid stations were a bit sparse (there are only so many bagels and peanut butter you can consume to stay fueled), the refreshments were all gone at the finish when we arrived and something needs to be done about the bottleneck at the ferry.

Would we do the ride again? Yes. We are not sure how to beat the ferry problem but likely starting earlier would help. It would be interesting to hear how many people had to wait versus those who just basically pulled up and crossed.
Not sure I would do the ride in the rain. Staying warm would be quite a battle.

Now I can focus back on running and the next four weeks of hard training before I head back to Champoeg for my next race: the Autumn Leaves 50km on November 15th.

Rebuilding Together

2008-10-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

This morning a group of 14 guys from Grace Point Community church got together and helped rehabilitate a yard in our neighborhood.

The group brought the rakes, clippers, and other tools and provided the volunteer labor for a Rebuilding Together project. Rebuilding Together is a non-profit which partners...

"with the community, repairs and rehabilitates the houses of low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly, those with disabilities and families with dependent children, so that they may continue to live in warmth, safety and independence. We have been performing these free repairs in Washington County since 1994."

For more details on other projects and how to volunteer click on the Rebuilding Together logo.

For our day, the cold and clear weather was perfect. We trudged in and tackled the blackberries, rose bushes, figs, clematis and fruit trees that had taken over the yard.

With three hours of good, hard work the team cleared out the vegetation, pruned the trees, weed whacked the shrubs and mowed the lawn. The garden path was cleared, the deck was swept and the gutters were emptied of the accumulated dirt and leaves.
We even helped a few snakes move to new locations within the yard :-)

It was a great opportunity to give back and exercise our "servant" hearts. Does anyone know a better way to bring guys together than firing up a chain saw on a Saturday morning?