EclipseCon Exercise 2008

This morning I received my last update of the runners who have indicated that they would like to be part of the inaugural EclipseCon Exercise. We have an astounding 114 people who will be doing some running at EclipseCon this year. Awesome!

My plan is to run on each day of the conference: Monday through Thursday.
I would like to invite you to join me on any of the runs that work for your schedule. I am not even sure I will make them all :-)

On Monday - 6 am Early run since tutorials start earlier and lunch is too short.
On Tuesday - 7am and Noon
On Wednesday - 7am and Noon
On Thursday - 7am and Noon

The course (which I have run in past years) is an out and back on a nearby paved trail that follows a river channel. The route map is here. As shown in the picture above, the course is flat.

This makes it easy for all different paces to share the same course while varying the distances to match the amount of time you wish to spend running.

I would encourage us to start together gathering in the front lobby of the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara.
I have some running goodies to distribute as door prizes for each day.
We will be leaving promptly at the stated time so please be 5 minutes early.
Out on the run we can naturally settle into pace groups to enjoy the fresh air, training and conversation.

If you are signed up or still want to join and have any questions don't hesitate to send me an email or post a comment here.

We have people from many different countries and companies and I have no idea how many different Eclipse projects are represented. Things we will have to find out on the run.
Talk about diversity!

Champoeg State Park 10km

Part of my plan towards Boston, I raced the ORRC Champoeg 10km today.
The first mile was too fast but man did it feel good to be racing and to be limited aerobically instead of from some sore nagging ache or pain in my legs!
I tried to hang with the fast 30km women runners Penny McDermott and Wendy Terris. I have ran with both of these great runners in previous races: Penny at Waldo and Wendy at Hagg Lake. There are very strong and are planning to be running in the US Olympic Marathon Trials the day before Boston. Looking forward to yelling really loud when all the Oregon runners loop around at the trials! Today I couldn't quite keep up today but I was happy with my times.

Splits:

6:06
6:22
6:22    Finish in 39:39 for average split of 6:23.
6:32    First in my age group (35-39) and
6:32    seventh overall.
6:28
1:24
Full results are here.

I drove out with our friend Ronda who was also racing today and she pounded out to be first women's master and very close to first overall. All these fast ultra-runners...cool!
Trisha and the kids cheered me up to the finish line which was great!
Other running friends were out there as well: Scotland was fast as always, marathon freak Steve Walters, Beast in his Hagg Lake shirt, and ever present Jeff W from ORRC. I am sure others I am forgetting.

So I am happy that my legs seem to finally be getting stronger and I am on the road to health and most importantly on the road to Boston! Next weekend: Trisha's first ultra race at Chuckanut 50km!

Getting to 0.5%...Eclipse has lots of friends

As of today, 111 people have payed money to indicate that they are a Friend of Eclipse. The list is here.

Does anyone else find this number surprisingly low? I think I could even scrounge up that many friends :-)

Lets be really conservative and say we have 100, 000 happy users. Only 0.1% have given Eclipse the nod with some cash?

Am I just in a mood since my running has not been going all that great this spring? :-)
Is it just that people don't know about this opportunity to contribute to the Eclipse community?

For me the items called out to be purchased with the donations are real:

• Providing more bandwidth for users and committers
• Purchasing additional servers to host Eclipse projects
• Sending students to EclipseCon
• Sponsoring Eclipse community events

There are lots of other ways to give back that are very important:

• logging bug reports
• answering a question in the newsgroup
• contributing a patch
• working as a committer

If you have not logged a bug, answered a question or worked some code, or even if you have like most of the existing 111, consider indicating a vote of confidence with your pocket book. A small gesture to ensure the continued vitality of Eclipse. Read up here and consider.

Now to get really crazy! I would like to challenge us to get to at least 0.5% or about 500 friends before the end of EclipseCon.
With over 1500 people gathering at EclipseCon...the math is simple.
Please let me know if I am missing something.

Also don't forget to vote in the Eclipse elections which are open till 3pm EST March 7.

Relaxing and Rumble Running

Since we were up in Sisters, Oregon for skiing and hanging out with friends, I made sure to look up Sean Meissner. I have had the opportunity to run with Sean once before during a Purge and Splurge and it was great fun. We set up to meet Saturday morning so Sean could give me a taste of the Peterson Ridge Rumble race course. One word: delicious :-) I can't run this one this year as it is the week before Boston but in non-Boston years I will really have to give it a spin. We made two mistakes on the run: me not eating enough and forgetting to wear our Black Saturday shirts!

By the time we started running the snow had stopped and there was about 2 inches on the ground. Most of the run we had bright and warm sunshine. I was a little sluggish with my leg and not fueling properly. I really enjoyed the run and the possibility that I saw my first set of cougar prints in the wild!! Glad Sasha was along to protect us.

The rest of the time at Black Butte Ranch was spent swimming, talking or eating...all good times that we will need to repeat. Working the kids hard in the pool with lots of swimming always helps ensure a speedy bed time even when feeding them fresh snow covered in syrup!. We are considering heading back up for Sean's Peterson Ridge Rumble as I think Trisha would really like the course after completing her first ultra at Chuckanut.

I am still fighting some type of bug as I slept most of the ride home and 10 hours last night. Need to get over this general feeling of just being wiped. Planning to race a 10km this weekend out at Champoeg so I need to get the rust out!