Yesterday, I had fun running The Rogue Trail Series: The Loop race. I managed to walk away with a time of 49:13 and placed 12th overall (6th in my age group). I could have ran a bit faster, the problem I faced was that I ran alone for the most of the race. That’s the downside of not blasting out of the gates… you sometimes end up in a position where you don’t have people to pace you to keep you up front.
Also, in my opinion, the terrain was a lot more technical than the first race in the series. The only thing missing was a little water… we had some in the last race and it was fun sliding around!
The final race in the series is on June 21st… my goal is to place in the top 10 somewhere. Wish me luck!
I’m thrilled to finish running in the Rogue Trail Series this year. I finished the last race this morning, called ‘The Bluff’ in about 54 minutes. Its probably the hardest trail race I’ve run so far, the course was very technical and I even managed to slip and get some cactus needles in my right hand. Fun!
On the bright side, I’ve managed to get 3rd place in the male division and won some hardware!
I only hope to improve my trail running skills in the future. For now, some rest is in order… to help with that, next week I’ll be cycling and drinking beer during the Austin Urban Assault race 
!
I’m doing the Urban Assault race in Austin tomorrow.
The race involves cycling to various checkpoints and completing obstacle courses! It’s very fun because when you’re done, you get to drink a bunch of beer provided by the New Belgium Brewing company (famous for their Fat Tire beer). What’s awesome about this race is that it’s pretty much a real world version of the famous Traveling Salesman Problem covered in most Computer Science programs. The problem can be summed up as given a list of cities and their distances away from each other, find the optimal path to visit each city exactly once.
So what did I end up doing with my Computer Science background? I entered the various Urban Assault checkpoints into a online TSP solver:
Now I have a good idea of what the best route would be given the constraints!
Who says Computer Science doesn’t have its uses in fitness related activities 
Follow your folly!
I had the pleasure of running the Chupa 10k trail race last weekend in San Antonio.
I finished incredibly happy and in record time, 33:55!
The only problem was that instead of running 10K, we got lost and ran an 8.5K! This was surprising given that the course was well marked with glow sticks everywhere. Oh well, to celebrate our good fortune, we drank Alamo Beer since we were able to get to the party early.
Last weekend, along with 21,000 other people, I participated in the San Francisco Marathon.
It was a scenic race, albeit a cold one for me since I’m used to running in 100 degree weather in Austin, Texas. I don’t know why people are crazy about SF weather… it’s cold and foggy almost all the time
I ran the half marathon distance because I wanted to be useful next week and I had a bunch of friends running that distance also. I was suppose to start in the first wave, however, I decided to start in the last wave as that’s what I was peer pressured into. It was the first time I started a race all the way in the back so the view was interesting.
When the wave started, we were moving at a very slow pace since things were congested. After about 5 minutes, things opened up a bit near the marina district in San Francisco so I decided to take off. I then hit the Golden Gate bridge which turned out to be a gigantic traffic jam.
It was like running a single-track trail race… very difficult to pass people but kind of fun in a strange way as you invent ways to pass people without running into someone else.
In the end with all the people dodging, I ran the half marathon in 1:36:
This weekend I have a 60k trail race coming up, Capt’n Karl’s 2nd Annual All Nighter! All I know is that it starts Friday at 7pm… and that they start the 30k racers at 7:30am on Saturday. I guess that means we have at least 12 hours to finish the race
Last weekend, I particpated in Pure Austin’s XTERRA Emma’s Revenge 18K trail run.
It was fun race out in Emma Long Park involving two 9K loops. I have doubts that the actual race was a full 18K, but I managed to finish in 1:12:08 which landed me 11th overall and 4th in my age group. I just missed getting an award… it looked like a gigantic alka seltzer tablet!
This upcoming weekend, I’ll be in Portland to run the Hood to Coast relay with Team Smart!
197 miles and sleep deprivation here we come! Wish me luck!
Last weekend, I participated in the Hood to Coast 2009 Relay race. It starts at the top of Mount Hood, stretches 197 miles, has 36 legs and finishes in Seaside, Oregon.
My team finished 197 injury-free miles in 26:58:54!
I had the honor of doing the following legs:
I ran an average of about a 6:30 mile for each of the legs with no injuries so I’m happy!
I highly recommend the race to anyone who hasn’t done it before… it’s beautiful!
This weekend it’s the Zilker Relays!
Yesterday, I participated in the Keep Austin Weird 5K. Let’s just say I woke up… started to walk to the start line from my flat and it looked pretty dreary:
I finally made it to the start line and it started to pour:
The race was delayed about 15 minutes for some unknown reason… at least the announcer was entertaining… I learned that the record for a 5K in a two-man horse costume is about 37 minutes. The race eventually started and I got off to a good start… I hit the 1st mile marker at about 6:15 and then my soaked shoes started to feel like dead weight. I slowed down quite a bit and made it to the finish line at a disappointing 20:18… at least I got to see the AGLCC finish with their skirts and rainbows:
To help with my speed, I’m going to focus on speed work the next couple of months as my normal 5K time usually floats just about 19 minutes. The next race on the agenda is the Austin Marathon Relay hosted by SI.
Are you registered for Eclipse Summit Europe 2009 yet? I am!
Besides presenting about OSGi Versioning and Testing… I plan on hosting a 5K run every morning:
If you’re interested in running, make sure to check off the proper box while you register for ESE.
Hope to see everyone out there!
A few weeks ago, I ran the Zilker Relays with a few friends. It’s a great 4×2.mi relay race at Zilker Park in Austin. One of my favorite events due to the copious amount of beer available after the race.
I usually wait for pictures to show up before I blog about race results, but it seems the pictures are never showing up (I’m looking at you Kreutz Photography). Here are the results:
Lap 1 15:27.13 6:20/M 2.440
Lap 2 16:55.39 6:56/M 4.880
Lap 3 17:09.67 7:02/M 7.320
Lap 4 15:34.66 6:23/M 9.760
I had the honor of running Lap 1 which I ran at a decent clip. I was shooting for sub 6 miles but I’m not there yet at a consistent level. I need to concentrate on more speed work in my running workouts. I hoping to improve my time a bit at the Austin Marathon Relay this weekend albeit I’m running a 12K leg distance instead of the nice 2.5mi distance
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