Run Road Atlanta 2012
My plan for January 21 for the last 6 months or so has been to run the Hogpen Hill Climb. When I finally went to register for it at the end of December, looking around Active.com, we saw that my friends were timing a race that was not only closer, but the venue sounded unique, the Run Road Atlanta 5K, 10K and Fun Run.
Road Atlanta is a Petite La Mans race track that has all the classic elements that make for a great car race. Elevation changes, blind corners, and lots of personality. Of course, I didn't know this when I signed up, since the only experience I've had is hearing the noise when running nearby. (And the only other race course I'd been on before was Sebring, which from what I saw of it was flat as a pancake.) I thought this would be flat too, and would be a great course to do a speed check, since I've been trying to get faster since last summer. Being gung-ho, I signed up for both the 10K and 5K.
I had to laugh when I got the the track, since they had a poor security guard out there who had to sign every single person in. I'm not sure why we were signing in, maybe because we were going on the track, but there was a bit of backed up traffic at the gate.
There was a nice little expo set up. The beneficiary of the race is a the Hall County World Language Academy, and they had a number of kid's dentists, and a bike helmet fitting, and a special contest going on for all the schools in the area.
The course was a lot tougher than I expected. (Of course, I was expecting flat!) It started with a short, steep climb that thinned the pack out. The rest of the course was rolling hills, except for the straight-away that had a slight descent for it, which worked great to stretch out the legs after the climb at the beginning. For anyone who's been to the track, we went in the opposite direction as the car races.
The 10K went first, at 8:00. It was two laps. I did the first in 28 minutes, but lost a couple minutes on the second and finished in 59:15. I'm happy with a sub one hour, but would have liked to have been closer to 56 minutes. We had a bit of rain, thunder, and some lightning in the distance, which made it a exciting. (The guy next to me and I were pointing out that we were at the furthest location out, if that lightning got any closer, we'd be screwed.)
After a 1/2 hour rest, the 5K was run. It was a single lap, and knowing what was coming up, I started a bit slower and just enjoyed the run. I finished in 29:50, which I won't feel bad about. Looking at the preliminary results, I was 4th in my age group out of 10. The weather for this lap was a bit nicer, and we only got sprinkled on for a few minutes.
Road Atlanta - 5K by bigrahn at Garmin Connect - Details.
After the races, I partook in the the food. Yeah, they had a good spread...there was the usual bagels, cookies and banana's. But they had the bonus food. Hot chicken soup and breakfast burritos! Yeah, that hit the spot! A company was giving out sample drinks, FRS, so enjoyed some of that. (It was good, but nutritionally a little high in the sugar for me.)
From there, I hung out until the door prizes were given out, not really paying attention to the awards. I looked at the medals earlier, and the over winners were impressive...the things were the size of a salad plate. Since I thought I was fourth, I figured no reason to really pay attention, so I completely missed the fact that I actually won second in my AG! I only found out later when I went by Runners Fit to get some new shoes. So there it was, my second time in my life placing in a race, and just like the first, I missed all the glory and adoring fans.
I had a blast, and will definitely plan on coming back again.
I was inspired by three people at this race. At about the 2 mile mark of the 5K, I saw a couple guys ahead of me who were struggling a bit. I was wondering how they got up there so fast as I passed by, given that they were a bit on the bigger size and struggling a bit. After I finished, I realized that they were actually still out there from the 10K. Instead of giving up, or not even showing up at all, they spent two hours out there struggling around that course. (And as I implied above, it wasn't exactly a stroll around the mall.) I grabbed a couple bottles of water when I was done to bring down to them for when they finished, and then I saw that behind them was another lady who was also finishing it up a few minutes behind them.
Congrat to the three of you! And a shout out to the timers, who kept the clock running for them so they could have an official finish time. (I've been at the tail end of races before, when by the time we finish, everything is packed up and we're left wondering if we're even done or not.)
Happy 2012
Happy new year! So far, this year is off to a good start.
Once again, for new years eve, we did the Flashlight 5K down in Lawrenceville. It started an hour earlier this year, so it wasn't really dark enough to warrant flashlights. We almost missed the race because we thought it started at 5:30, not 5, and we showed up about 4:50. We did spend a few minutes finding a parking spot wondering why everyone got here so early.
We were disappointed that they ran out of shirts in the correct size. Since we were pre-registered, the shirts should have been put aside. (Note to race directors: Yeah, its a hassle, but it sure is nice to have bags stuffed with all the swag at checkin. If shirts are pre-packaged like this, it ensures everyone gets theirs who should.)
On the first, we did a 5K outside of Athens, NEW YEARS AT NOON 5K. This was also the award ceremony for the 2011 Run and See Georgia series. I guess since we ran this first race of the 2012 series, we're participating now. It was a nice park, and I'd like to go explore it some time. They had the same shirt problem with running out of the right sizes.
Next up is the Run Road Atlanta, a race being run on the Road Atlanta race track. I was originally going to run the Hogpen Hill Climb, but decided this is a little different, so might as well give it a try.
2011 Braselton 8K report and a story
On December 10th, I ran the Braselton 8K and 2K Run for Reading, put on by my friends over at Runners Fit, and I had a blast doing the 8K.
It was great to see everyone. Helen, Mark S, Mark B, Duane and Keith were all helping out. Just about the whole Kyranakis clan was out, and it’s always good to see them. Zack and his team were running around doing the timing. I gotta say, I love that there’s now chip timing for small racing…way to go.
The boring details that I’m the only one that cares about: It was around 40 degrees and sunny. My chip time was 44:34, an 8:58 average, which is about 5 minutes ahead of where I realistically thought I’d do. My heart rate was in the 160’s for just about the entire race, so a little higher than I’d like.
The race itself was good. Even though the hills on this one suck the wind out of you, I like the course. For the most part, I felt pretty good during the whole race, even though I was pushing hard.
My plan was to do 8 minute run, 2 minute walk, to see how it worked out for me. I figured this would be a good strategy going forward if I can start pushing 8 minute miles. It will give me a good base for the Publix Marathon in March. However, I failed miserably to stick to it. Each time I finished a mile, and was ready to walk, there was a perfect gentle downhill just calling out to me to keep running, so I did. That’s probably why I finished faster than planned.
The second part of my run was supposed to be another loop around the course. The thing I hate about long distance training is this constant need to run. I can’t just run a race and be happy, I’m always thinking “well, I gotta get in X miles this weekend, so I better go run some more.” After cooling down and hanging out for a few minutes, instead I decided I’d head back out in the opposite direction, run to the last person and turn around behind them then finish with them.
Off I went…unfortunately, the last people were half way down the last big hill, so down I went. I passed them going down, went a little further and turned around. Coming back up, I caught up to them at the top of the hill. It was a father and son, trying to beat last year’s time. The boy was 9 years old, and the three of us started chatting a bit. He (the son) did his first triathlon this year and the father was very proud of him.
As we rounded a corner, I paused for a moment to say a few words to a friend, then caught back up with the pair.
As I caught up, he (the father) and I look at each other, and he says “I’ve met you before.” Yes, I concur, we have met. I can’t quite place it, but I know we have.
Then he says it was on the train to the Georgia marathon a couple years ago, and at that instant I remember that’s where it was. We talked on the train a little bit, than we had a conversation getting off the train and going up the stairs and escalators. He was doing the ½ marathon, and it was going to be a challenge since he had never done it before. But he figured he had 7 hours to walk it, so there he was.
And the next thing he says caught me off guard. “Man, you changed my life.” (Huh? I’m sure I had a good deer in the headlights look.) He continued “seriously. Our conversation on the train, I asked how someone our size could ever run a full marathon, and you told me how you do it. Before that, I never would have thought it was possible, but you made me re-think it.” Since then, he’s done a number of full marathons (3 this year), the Goofy Challenge down at Disney (“worth every penny”, he says), and is currently training for a half-ironman.
I spent the rest of the morning pointing Jason out to everyone I knew. (We were hanging out at the park after the race.) I’d gesture his way and say something like “see that guy over there in the red hat? He’s done the Goofy Challenge.” Or “he’s in training for an ironman”. It was exciting. I was thrilled for him. I was thrilled for myself. I was thrilled for his son.
Best of luck Jason! Hope I see you around, I can’t wait to hear how the story continues.
One Unbeleafable Day race and festival
On Saturday, 9/24/2011, the Gwinnett Parks Foundation has a fundraiser for a new playground at Little Mulberry Park. Being as this is one of my favorite local stomping grounds, I’ve been wanting to do a race there for years, and it was a good cause, I signed up for the 10K race they had planned.
Originally, there was supposed to be a series, with a 10K, a 2.2 mile fun run/walk, and then another 10K at night. I was going to do all of them, figuring it would be fun to run the trails at night, but that was cancelled due to low registration numbers. It was also supposed to be a trail race, but due to rain the day before, there was a last minute change to stay on the paved path. Although not thrilled about it, at least I knew that would make it an easier and faster run.
The race itself was good. The course was essentially every paved path in the park. (There was a small connector that got missed, but we’ll let that slide. 
Unfortunately, this meant running up the Carriage Trail, or as I now call it, “Lung Death Hill”. Yeah, with about 300 feet of elevation in a ½ mile, it’s not so fun. I’m pretty sure except for the lead people; the entire field was reduced to a slow crawl up it. Happily, Helen was manning a water stop at the top, and helped keep me moving.
For running this, I had hopes of finishing in under an hour, a noble goal for someone who’s spent the last 10 years putting along at an 11-12 minute pace. Happily, I can report that I did do it! Three of the miles were in the 8 minute range…how’d that happen?
One fun moment was passing the tractor that was pulling the “Hay Ride” trailer. The Chik-Fil-A cow was in back, and after high-fiving him, I got to blow by the tractor like it was standing still! WoooHooo! Okay, maybe I barely passed it, and only kept ahead because I was worried about being ran over, but hey, I beat a moving vehicle.
Since there was a full festival going on, the wife and kids came with and wandered around while I was running. Once I finished, we met up with some friends and played around a bit more. We talked to a lady from the local birdwatchers club before the race, and afterwards, there was the local falconry association. Yeah, seeing really big hunting birds was cool, but I’m going to have a little work trying to talk the wife into getting one.
There was some good music playing, which we enjoyed. The little man saw a bagpiper for the first time. He was mesmerized, and stood staring with eyes like saucers for a few minutes.
A portrait photographer was there offering good deals, but since I had just finished running, we didn’t sit to have our pictures taken.
Now, I’m no event organizer, so I don’t know what’s involved, but I’ll give my criticisms to help future events. (And don’t get me wrong, we had a good time, and would happily go to another festival here.)
- The event wasn’t very well advertised. We just happened to notice a flyer on the park bulletin board one day, a place we very rarely look at. There was only 40 people preregistered for the race, which also tells me the hold didn’t get out. (But to be fair, there were races happening all over the place that day.)
- The different sections were spread out a bit too far. I didn’t mind walking the ¾ mile from the food to the bouncy rides, but that’s a long way for my 2 year old. Especially when you end up going back and forth a couple times.
- There was a ton of carts driving all the volunteers around. Some of them were driving pretty crazy…especially when you’re trying to jump out of their way with a double stroller. Plus, would have been nice had they offered a shuttle service. (There was a lady we helped carry stuff for who was having a real hard time walking up the path, and probably would have really appreciated a ride.)
- After the race, there was no water or anything! I planned ahead, and brought my own, but come-on, that’s an obvious thing to have. My understanding was they had some after the awards ceremony…but since I didn’t know when or where that was, I had left to find food already.
Being supportive at Bike Sebring 12/24 hr race 2011
Back in January, my brother (Dana, from BentUpCycles) asked if I wanted to join him down in Florida for a bike race as a crew member. After checking the calendar, I happy decided to go, since crewing is usually a pretty good time. I figured crewing bikers couldn't be that much different than for runners, and seeing the different bikes would be cool. If you want to see the pictures, they're here.
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| Bike Sebring 2011 |
So instead of giving a play-by-play, heres some of the highlights of the weekend:
- Friday night Bachetta had the grill going. It was great to meet everyone and hang out. They also provided support thoughout the whole weekend, which many people are very appreciative of. They were freely giving out food and supplies to us, and it was great. However, Rich was jealous that we had pizza during the day. (You should have seen his look when Sandy rolled in at the end of the first century and said she wanted a slice as she headed out on the next lap. The waffles also had a similar reaction. Hey, it's all about the food!)
- Getting ready for a bike race in the morning is much easier than running. There isn't (that I saw) a whole lot of taping and lubing going one. Fill the water bottles, and you're ready to go. Well, there is one thing that we never see...
- Catheters! I think I heard more talk of catheters over the weekend then I have over the last 10 years combined. Yes, I'm talking about the attachable tubes to pee in. (AKA the "external" variety. There was also talk about internal appliances, but those are generally for longer events.) I guess getting off a bike is more hassle than we have to deal with. And no one seemed shy about talking about them either. Everyone had opinions.
- Carbent bags are a big hit. I'm not sure if that makes Dana a rock star or not, since he designed them, but it was pretty cool seeing them and how people use them. The over the shoulder accesibility for the waterbottles was sweet.
- The night miles were run on the Sebring speedway. Having our pitstop actually in a "real" race pitstop was way cool. However, jumping over the barriers got real old. We got in the groove once we had one of us on each side of the gear, so we handed stuff across all night, without the constant jumping that some people were doing.
- Meeting and supporting others was cool. In the course of the night, we helped Tim (the guy in the big yellow banana) and George, and probably some others who I can't remember. There was also Lou, a 76 year old guy who was great on the bike. Now, everytime he got off the bike we feared for his safety because he could barely walk, but on wheels, he was flying.
- We got a kick out of Sandy yelling out her "order" for her next stop way ahead of time. She'd yell "I'm stopping in 5 laps, I want this, that and the other thing." Phil and I would look at each other and say "uh, hope your counting, cause I lost track." In reality, we really didn't need to worry about it because she'd stop when she stopped, and we had everything ready. If you look at the pictures Dana posted as part of Sandy's report, you'll see her with a slice of pizza. Classic!
- Two Redbull's got me through the night with no problems. (Well, all the jumping up and down probably helped to.) It always surprises me, since during the week, I'm always ready for bed by 9:30. Now, for those of you who think crewing is easy, I got to do something I've been wanting to for a while; see my calorie expenditure. Using my Bodymedia armband, it showed I burned about 9100 calories from the time I woke up on Saturday until I went to sleep on Sunday morning! Overnight, since everything was convenient and organized, I felt like I was eating non-stop. I guessed I easily ate 4500 calories. Seeing what I burned, I now don't feel so bad about all the Oreo's.
- At some point while waiting around, Phillip and I talked to a report. The newspaper article is here.
- A big thanks to Kent, Judy and Katie. (Kent rode 24hrs, Katie 12hrs and Judy supported.) Judy helped us out a bit, and they let us crash in their spare space on Sunday night. We took a walk about their neighborhood on Sunday night and saw two alligators. Not having my camera, I went along on Monday morning when they walked the dog, and managed to get a picture of one of them.
There it is...out for an early morning swim.
The Great Valentines Race 5K
Saturday, we did the Great Valentines Race in Cumming. It was a low key affair, with around a 140 participants. The starting temperature was hovering just below freezing, and there was a bit of wind. Bundled up, we walked 99% of the race and we didn’t place, nor did we win any awards for costumes, but we did take a couple minutes off our time from the last race we ran, and had a good time.
Surprisingly, we were the only people there with a stroller. The little man was bundled up, having fun pointing at all the people and breaking out in random noises, making everyone around smile. However, there was a big Subway sandwich running behind us, which was a first. (They were a sponsor.)
Kirkland's was at the finish line, and they had opened early in case anyone needed some home goods. Sounds silly, but it actually worked out well. Between the sale they were having, and the coupons he was giving out, we got a good deal on some picture frames that we had been thinking about. It looked like there were a number of other people in there buying things too. We talked to one lady for a while, whose son won the overall first place, about running with kids and how fast they grow up.
On the way home, we stopped at the Diner at Sugar Hill for brunch. The food was good and the service was fast. The waiters played with the little man, and he loved the extra attention, and looking at all the people. The cakes in the display looked really good, but we didn’t try any. The Belgium waffle and French toast were cooked just right, and hit the spot.
What I really enjoyed about the whole morning was spending time with my wife (and son, of course). Last summer, she started walking with some friends, and really gotten into it. Heck, at one point, she was getting more miles per week than I was! In doing so, she’s lost a lot of weight, and has become more motivated to do some racing. I’m really proud of her.
We were talking on the way home, and couldn’t believe it when we realized the combined weight loss between the two of us since the beginning of 2010 is nearly 100 pounds! Wow. One of these days, I’ll have to start writing about that experience…
A code duel
Yesterday, I was looking around Channel 9 for something, and as usually, started following links that sounded interesting. Before I knew it, I found myself at Pex4Fun.
This site is showing off a tool from Microsoft research, called Pex. I downloaded it a few weeks ago with the intention of seeing what it does, but hadn't gotten to it yet. I know it's used for unit testing, which I've been working on a bit lately.
This site has "code duals", where they give you a little snippet of code, and your task is to make your function return the same value as their "secret" function. After modifying the code, you click the "Ask Pex" button, and it uses Pex to run your function and compare your results to that of the secret.
Let me tell you, this is fun! The first few I saw were real easy, and I won the duals in no time. However, looking at their dual-of-the-week on Facebook, I've been stumped on one, and made it about 3/4 of the way through another.
And guess what? I'm learning things too. One of them has led me to look into code contracts, so I did a little reading on it. On the off chance I get some free time, I'll probably continue to investigate this. (That is, I will as I built out more unit tests, but that's a long process.)
If you're looking for a little diversion, and Soduko just isn't doing it for you, go take a look.
Happy new year, 2011
Last Sunday, I got a bug in my lung somewhere, so I spent a couple days coughing and hacking. It wasn't pleasant for anyone, and of course, I was bummed out because I was hoping to get some good mileage to help prepare for some upcoming races.
The same day, my wife says "hey, there's a 5K on the 31st. That would be pretty cool to end the year with.". Yes, it would, if only I could breath. Looking at it further, the early registration ends on the 30th, so we're good to wait a couple days. The race was the Flashlight 5K, put on by the First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville.
We wait, and on Thursday, I'm feeling pretty good, so we sign up. Of course, Friday starts with a bunch of coughing, but after some Mucinex, I'm good for the day. The race starts at 6, so we head over at 5. The weather is a comfortable 50+ degrees, which is good since the last two years it's been miserable. Little man is happy in his stroller, and my wife has some eager and nervous anticipation while we wait.
We line up, and take a position near the back, which is appropriate for a stroller. The crowd surged, and we're off. (I assume someone yelled "Go!", but I didn't hear it.) The course starts off with a nice little climb, enough to make you breath hard and ponder what's going to come. Other than this, the course is real nice and relatively flat.
There are friendly volunteers are spaced out here along the course with flashlights (to help light the way). There were also a number of police out for the intersections, and the little man loved the lights. Every time a police car came into view, he started laughing and pointing. The boy just loves lights.
We did great, and passed quite a few people in our first lap. (The course is basically two laps around the justice center. See the map below.) At one point, a lady did comment about how she hated being passed by a stroller...we continued neck and neck for a while. Eventually, she took off. I guess we helped motivate her.
The second lap was good. We were even paced with a couple ladies who were walking and running, and we felt good about the decision to just walk, since if we were doing that, we'd probably end up being slower.
Finishing was good in a 44:03, a bit under a 15 minute pace, and none of us are complaining about it.
They had a pizza, salad and cookie dinner afterwards, before the award ceremony. The little man almost ate more than I did.
This was special because it was my wife's first race, and our first race together as a whole family. To paraphrase her:
I started the year 50 pounds heavier, and it was struggle to go a mile. It feels great to end the year like this. My regular walks now are 5+ miles, and knowing I can push myself for a good time in a 5K feels great.
I'm very proud of her...and she was honest and says there are no marathon plans in the future.
We hope everyone out there has a good year, and my all your goals be met.
Here's a course map, in case anyone is wondering:
Windows 7 – what version?
There are dozens of places out on the web to help you decide what version of Windows 7 to install. They all list the features of Pro and Ultimate, so you can compare them. And most people have probably already upgraded, so this won't be important.
However, I found there is one small feature that had I known it, would have made the choice for me. In Windows Ultimate and Enterprise, the remote desktop program (mstsc.exe) allows you to use multiple monitors.
For most people, this probably doesn't mean anything. But since I work from home two days a week, and RDP to my work computer, this is huge!
Currently, I have Office and Communicator installed on my home machine, and so when I RDP on a single monitor, there is a bunch of playing around to turn things on and off on the different machines to get the configuration I like. And it keeps me from using Outlook for my regular mail, since it has to point to my work exchange servers. (And naturally, only works if I'm connected to our VPN.)
I can't wait to upgrade my home machine to Ultimate and give this a try. Heck, I'll be loggin on to work while I'm on vacation the rest of this week just to try it. (I should mention, it's a good day to have an MSDN subscription.
UPDATE: I updated, but it looks like it the multi-monitor RDP doesn't work if you have two different monitors. I know there are some other tweaks out there to do it, so I'll keep playing with it.
And it's pretty obvious, but I'll put it out in case anyone is wondering. If you're upgrading Windows, go to the Anytime Update, and just enter your new license key. No need to download the whole DVD and re-install/upgrade with it. A couple reboots, and 15 minutes later, you're upgraded.
I’m slowing learning that testing is good.
Monday, I had to whip out a quick-fix for something. No problem, I spent all day putting it together, and had it ready to go. That afternoon, I deployed, and stepped though a bunch of data making sure it all ran good, which it seemed to. Because I was in a hurry, I didn't write any tests, I just did all my testing with data I had queued up, and sent through our test environment.
On the drive home, I was thinking "Rahn, you should go write some tests for all that stuff you did today, just to see what happens."
Tuesday morning, I came in and first thing I saw was an email about a situation that should should have been fixed with yesterday's update. No problem, it's early enough in the day that I could shut down production again for an hour, and get a fix in.
Instead of trying to figure out what the problem was by stepping through it with data, I wrote a few unit tests instead.
I tracked down the bad data from production, made that into a specific test case, and let it go.
And what do you know? I found the bug about 1 second after the test started. Wow, that was cool. 30 seconds later, bug was fixed, test passed, and deployment happening and production is good again. Tracking this bug manually would have taken a good 1/2 hour to step through the program with different data multiple times.
The best part: I know have a test framework for this particular program that I can continue. I'll admit, my timing above wasn't completely accurate, since I spent an hour or so building up a couple functions I'll use in the future.
Oh, if you're wondering, I'm using Visual Studio 2010 and it's built in test projects. If anyone cares about more details, don't be scared to ask...I need to figure out how to post code blocks on this blog one of these days.