June 6th, 2009
This year’s Outrun the Sun race was in a new location at Fort Benjamin Harrison. We enjoyed the chance to run in a new part of town and on the trail system. The course was hillier than most other races, and the older streets afforded the opportunity to push the jogging stroller over the bumpy parts, which was a great source of entertainment and giggles for its occupant. David finally took advantage of “his own race” and participated in the kids’ run afterward, as well.
View 2009-06-06 Outrun the Sun in a larger map
May 16th, 2009
This race was pretty good overall. The whole prior week I was expecting a rainy morning, so I did not get as mentally engaged as I should have been. The weather did turn out to be quite humid, but the temperature and wind were not bad. The t-shirts were upgraded to long-sleeved tech shirts at the last minute, which was an unexpected nicety. However, had I paid the extra $26 to participate in their Month of May Marathon Club, I would have been irritated, since one of the perks of the extra fee was supposed to be an upgraded tech shirt.
Last year, there was no additional charge for the Month of May Marathon Club, so that was another reason why I did not participate. I definitely do not think it would be worth the money for such a low-value benefit.
This race seems to be positioning itself as a “premium” race, what with the fancy shirt, running through all the rich neighborhoods, offering a low-value voluntary upcharge, etc. For a premium race, it seems like they should be giving out gel packets too. Why not?
I appreciate that the organizers of the Geist Half did not use the increasingly popular D-tag timing system. D-tags are flimsy and unreliable, in my opinion. While I admit that I do not have access to reliability statistics, they almost certainly cannot be as reliable as other systems. I’ve used them at least half a dozen times since October 2008 and witnessed more failures than I have seen in years of racing with other timing systems. My sister in law received no official time for her first marathon (what a drag!) because the D-tag broke while she was removing it from her bib, and I have seen D-tags lying in the street along the course because they fell off runners’ shoes.
There was some fun at the starting line, with SpongeBob SquarePants in a boat to see everyone off. The announcer called out for SpongeBob to wave at the crowd, and it took him a good 15 seconds to get himself into a standing position. I found that pretty funny. Also, there was a very nicely done missing man formation flyover.
View 2009-05-16 Geist Half Marathon in a larger map
May 3rd, 2009
After worrying about the weather all week, we turned out to have a beautiful morning for the Mini yesterday. It had rained overnight, but it cleared out in plenty of time for the streets to mostly dry out. It was humid and overcast all morning, but there was almost no wind. Later in the day, the sun did come out and it was an absolutely beautiful day, a great way to start the Month of May in Indianapolis.
The volunteers, all 7,000 of them, were enthusiastic, friendly, and encouraging. They did an incredible job, adding to the spirit of what truly is one of the highlights of this city.
Since I was expecting the weather to be a factor, I didn’t do a lot of mental preparation the prior week. Instead, I planned to just finish with a smile and not try to set any personal records. Since Emily wasn’t in town to tell me that I was crossing some kind of nerdiness quotient threshold, I brought my camera along with my GPS watch so I could take some fun geocoded pictures. I didn’t take as many pictures as I had hoped since the nice weather encouraged me to run a little harder.
View 2009-05-02 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in a larger map
April 27th, 2009
We really like being able to support Best Buddies Indiana. They held a race last weekend along the Canal Walk in downtown Indianapolis last weekend. Beautiful weather and nice people!
View 2009-04-26 Best Buddies in a larger map
April 19th, 2009
Thanks to Jon and Christine for inviting us to Purdue Spring Fest yesterday. All the departments turned out and had family activities to showcase what they’re all about. We got to see Christine’s fancy lab equipment, sample different kinds of honey, watch a sheep being sheared, ride an accessible tractor, and more. A 5k race kicked off the festivities, touring parts of the campus and a bit of the countryside. And somehow it all managed to be uphill!
View 2009-04-18 Purdue Cancer Center Challenge 5k in a larger map
April 19th, 2009
Monday afternoon during our visit with Grandma and Papa, we took a nice miniature train ride on the Zilker Zephyr with Grandma and Papa. The weather was beautiful in Texas. We rode past Barton Creek, Town Lake, and Zilker Park, whose soccer fields were under intensive rehabilitation. David pointed out the purple porta-potty, which was even more exciting than the huge digger next to it. There’s also an archaeology effort under way because a number of artifacts were found previously.
View 2009-04-06 Zilker Zephyr in a larger map
April 17th, 2009
Who would have thought that you can still take home a dozen shrubs from the nursery if you’re already towing a pair of jetskis? Proof!
March 28th, 2009
Here’s a bizarre example of Bluetooth data corruption that I came across when downloading a picture from my phone last week. It looks like a few packets must have been dropped or had undetected errors, causing misalignment of the rest of the data.
Here’s a close-up of the beginning of the corrupted area.
My second attempt to copy the picture from the phone was successful. I just found it surprising that the error was undetected, and that the JPEG still was decodable.
I found a couple of resources on Bluetooth data transport that might be interesting. I’d like to find some sort of characterization on the error rates in Bluetooth communication.
March 22nd, 2009
Congratulations to Aunt Sara for completing another half marathon this weekend, this time in just 1:50! She just keeps going — what happened to “one and done?”
via National Marathon - 2009 Official Results.
March 22nd, 2009
As we begin to plan our own garden, we’re pleased to see that the White House will have a garden of its own this season. All the lobbying by the likes of Michael Pollan and Alice Waters has paid off — we hope this is a sign of a growing trend in this country of increased awareness of the importance of real food.
Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Vegetable Garden - NYTimes.com
As for our own garden, we’re planning more of our usual suspects: a few varieties of tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash, okra, strawberries, beets, lettuce, spinach, chard, and a few kinds of chiles. If we get started soon enough, we’ll aim to get some broccoli in there, too. The sun makes gardens grow and families happy.
