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January 2, 2010
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1.1.Run Austin 2010

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in the somewhat informal 1.1.Run in Austin. There’s no better way to start out the new year then heading out for a nice run to fight a hangover or post new year’s blues. Especially when it involves people running in their skivvies.

The route was interesting in that no one really knew what it was until the start of the race. The race started from Jack and Adams Bicycles and involved finding the shortest route to Rogue Equipment and back.

In the end, I believe I managed to finish in the top three. Thank you to Jack and Adams and Red Licorice for hosting the event. I recommend you do the same thing next year.

Here’s to a successful year of running in 2010!

November 12, 2009
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Born to Run Author in Austin

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear Chris McDougall speak about his book, Born to Run at Rogue Running.

Born to Run

If you’re into running or thinking about starting to run, I highly recommend giving the book a read. The attitude of the Tarahumara people are interesting… they enjoy running and they don’t have cushy shoes like most people where. I mean, how can you resist this introduction…

In the hills of Mexico, a tribe of Indians carries an ancient secret: a diet and fitness regimen that has allowed them to outrun death and disease. We set out to discover how the rest of us can catch up…

While you’re reading, go pickup a pair of Vibram Five Fingers.

November 8, 2009
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Run for the Water 2009

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This morning, I participated in the Run for the Water 10 miler. I’m a fan of any race that has copious amounts of coffee available before I even get to the start line.

run4w1

It was a bit foggy this morning, but it didn’t discourage the Austin running community from coming out and cramming into position at the start line. As a bonus to the American national anthem… we were presented with a rendition of the Burundi national anthem which was a nice touch.

run4w2

I struggled up the hills and managed to finish in 1:09:47 which put me 10th in my age group. I’m not completely happy with my finish, I expected to at least run sub 7 miles, but hey, practice makes perfect. The course was difficult for your usual Austin race and I commend the organizers for making it challenging. You know, given that we were running down Pecos St and Scenic Dr, the organizers might as well offered an extension that went up Mount Bonnell given the amount of hills we ran.

run4w3

On the whole, it was a great and challenging race. It also proved to me that I need to start doing more hill work. Next up is the very flat Rock n’ Roll San Antonio race.

October 24, 2009
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LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K 2009

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Today, I participated in the LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K.

It was a beautiful Austin morning with the temperature floating around 60 degrees.

LIVESTRONG Challenge 1

The start line was packed with roughly 3500 supporters and runners.

LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K Start Line

I ran the 5K in 18:02 which seemed like an awesome time but the course shorter than expected. It turned out the course was about 2.8 miles which is a tad short of a full 5K distance. Oh well, PRs for everyone!

In the end, it was great to see the city of Austin come together and support cancer research and cancer survivors. One can only hope that science and humanity’s persistence will prevail in the end.

LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K Survivor

For an obligatory Lance Armstrong quote to go along with the picture above…

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell.

October 18, 2009
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IBM Uptown Classic 2009

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I participated in the IBM Uptown Classic this morning.

It was a slow morning but I managed to inhale a Snickers Marathon Energy bar to solve that problem. Race packet food is the breakfast of champions!

Snickers Marathon Energy Bar

The race started on time and I tried to sneak up front to get a better starting position.

IBM Uptown Classic

The race went well, I was chasing a sub 40 but finished in 40:24 :/

IBM Uptown Classic

My splits weren’t too bad either, I was feeling great after the first 5K 🙂

Total: 40:24 – 6:30/M
1st 5K Split: 19:04 – 6:21/M
2nd 5K Split: 21:19 – 6:38/M

To help celebrate, the race organizers even provided a bouncy castle!

IBM Uptown Classic

As a bonus, I got to see my old office at IBM Austin which I left about 16 months ago.

IBM Uptown Classic

Overall, great race, highly recommend it to anyone looking to do a 10K in Austin.

October 11, 2009
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Run Austin Run Half Marathon 2009

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I managed to crawl out of bed today and participate in the Run Austin Run Half Marathon 2009.

Run Austin Run Half Marathon

The course turned out to be very difficult compared to what I’m used to running for half marathons. A lot of the terrain involved hills that I usually go out on the weekends to enjoy… on my bicycle. The race was significantly more challenging than the San Francisco Half Marathon I did a couple months ago. The temperature this morning was sitting at about 50 degrees fahrenheit which equates to perfect running temperature for me. Even though the course was difficult and there was some overcast skies… I managed to come out with a PR of 1:33:03 (6th in my age group)!

raraustin1

I do have some feedback for the race organizers though. I managed to finish the race in a respectable time only to come to witness the travesty of NO BREAKFAST TACOS and some of the booths being torn down…

raraustin2

No tacos? No precious sweet leaf tea? How could this happen?

The answer is simple… when organizing a race with a 5K, 10K and Half Marathon distances… stagger the start times appropriately so most people finish around the same time. Instead the race organizers thought that a 5 minute stagger time between each event was enough. No it’s not enough. What happened was the 5K and 10K’s pillaged all the breakfast tacos and sweat leaf tea.

On the bright side, since Austin is the live music capital of the world… there was fantastic live music at the finish line:

raraustin3

Overall… great race, tragic absence of breakfast tacos, coffee and tea at the finish line.

Great live music.

I hope to see the race put on again next year!

Next week is the IBM Uptown Classic 10K for me where I’ll be chasing sub 40s…

September 27, 2009
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Austin Marathon Relay 2009

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Today, a few friends and I participated in the 2009 Austin Marathon Relay.

Austin Marathon Relay 2009

It was an early morning… the race started at 7am and was delayed slightly since the sun wasn’t up yet! On the bright side, there was a nice view of the Long Center in Austin while the sun was coming up.

SI Relay 2009

Once the sun came out, things picked up and people started running!

SI Relay 2009

I had the honor of running the first leg of the race which was a 12K that weaved around downtown Austin. It started out great, I crossed the first mile marker at about a 6:30 pace and then things went bad as I came around the Texas Capitol building. My stomach wasn’t cooperating and was on its way to give me the runner’s version of Montezuma’s Revenge. I had to make a quick pit stop and picked things up to finish just under a weak 52 minutes. Overall, the team did well, no injuries and lots of fun!

Lap   1      51:58.8     6:58/M    7.456
Lap   2      50:57.7     8:12/M   13.670
Lap   3      56:50.4     9:09/M   19.884
Lap   4      25:51.5     8:19/M   22.991
Lap   5      23:20.2     7:31/M   26.098

To numb the pain of what I viewed as a terrible time for my 12K, I headed for the beer tent!

SI Relay 2009

The only downside of the beer tent was like in hell, it only served Heineken Light.

But hey, it’s free beer!

Next up on the schedule is the Run Austin Run half marathon!

October 7, 2008
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Eclipse Austin DemoCamp

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It’s that time again, for the Austin Eclipse DemoCamp!

This time, it’s being kindly hosted by Freescale.

For food, we’re going to chow down on some Homeslice pizza.

Also, we’re going to have a special guest in town, Donald Smith from the Eclipse Foundation. Let me tell you something about Donald, the guy is amazing. You just walk around with him, and he attracts celebrities. Last time I was out with Donald, bam, Rachel Ray showed up out of nowhere:

Maybe this time around, Donald can attract Austin celebrities like Willie Nelson, Matthew McConaughey or Sandra Bullock.

If you’re interested, please signup on the wiki.

June 13, 2008
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BBQ, Ganymede, DemoCamp

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I am proud to announce that Austin will be hosting a DemoCamp for Ganymede. Why should you come? Well, first, Nokia will graciously be hosting the DemoCamp in their downtown offices (thank you!):

Why is this awesome? Because about two blocks from their offices is Stubbs BBQ:

This is where we will have lunch and drink (after the demos) in honor of the Ganymede release.

So please come and join us Austinites for BBQ, demos, beer and good times! Note, we have a limit of about 20-25 people for this event so put your name down early!

April 1, 2008
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Eclipse Regional Communities, Austin Edition

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I finally got around to starting an Austin Eclipse Regional Community. Forgive me for taking so long. If you’re in Austin, please sign up on the mailing list!

In the small group of Eclipse Platform committers based Austin, we tend to go for an “Eclipse lunch” on Wednesday or every other Wednesday. We are opening up this fine tradition of Eclipse luncheons to the public in Austin. We will be doing these Eclipse luncheons every other Wednesday, with the first one starting tomorrow at Mandola’s Market @ noon. It’s a fairly central location to try to accommodate everyone… it should even be close enough for those cool Nokia people who have a nice office downtown.

Since I’m a big fan of beer and talk to Germans frequently, I plan on doing a monthly “Eclipse Stammtisch” in Austin. I still have yet to plan that one… but expect it to be towards the end of the month at a place with a lot of beer on tap.

So if you have time tomorrow, come to the Eclipse luncheon to chat and eat some food! If you’re not in Austin, how about starting your own Eclipse regional community?

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