Race Pace

Tomorrow evening I'm running in the Dayton Celtic Festival 5K Run in Dayton, Ohio. Jennifer and I take the girls to the Celtic Festival every year we have a blast. We basically walk around the streets of Dayton with a "pint of Guiness" and listen to Celtic music. They have all kinds of activities for the kids too. Lizzie and Jazzy always get their faces painted and play all the carnie-style games.

Well basically, the event always has a 5K and I decided to sign up for it this year since I'm a runner now. The goal is to finish under 25 minutes; it will be a tough one. I truly believe that I can because I know what I can dish out when I want to. Plus, all of my injuries are healed now and I'm ready to give my legs and feet a real good (and fast) pounding.

Lately I've been running a lot slower, but I've also been running a lot longer. It will be interesting to see if my longer runs have prepared me for the fast paced adrenaline rush of a 5K. CoolRunning.com has a cool graphing feature that lets you create all kinds of cool graphs based on the data that is entered each week. I decided to see my "race pace" for my last 4 races. I was surprised to see how fast I got in just a short period of time.

Luc's Average Race Pace
Week of	8:00 |	8:13 |	8:26 |	8:39 |	8:52 |	9:05 |
Mar 4, 2007	8:31
Mar 11, 2007	8:19
Apr 1, 2007	8:00
Apr 8, 2007	8:52

Of course the last race had a good excuse, so I don't get too down on myself about it; that race meant more to me than just the clock. Anyway, I'm fully healthy now and rather excited to see what I got. I'm sure I'll blog about my results.

Look Who's Blogging

Well, I just found out a couple of Data Dynamics employees are blogging now:

• Pilgrim - http://jon-pilgrim.blogspot.com
• T.K. - http://tommykelly.blogspot.com

Check them out!

Cool Mouse

Innovation at its best: Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000

This mouse has all the utilities you need to be AFK and still manage your power point presentations. The only thing it is missing is the laser pointer... wait it has that too. :)

Oklahoma Code Camp 2007 and More...

Data Dynamics is sponsoring the Oklahoma Code Camp 2007. James and I attended Tulsa TechFest last year and had a great time. We will be attending the Tulsa TechFest "2007" event as well. We have nothing but great things to say about the .NET Development community out there. Last years' event was a smash hit! It was also where I got interviewed by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell of .NET Rocks. I'm still elated about it...

This years event will be a tight squeeze for me, because I'm running my first half marathon that next morning. I hope to sleep on the plane on the way home and get ready for the big race. It should be an interesting weekend to say the least. :)

My fingers are cold right now.

Yes, I have blogger A.D.D.... Hey, it's my blog!

Class of 97 NHS Hottie

Jennifer is having her 10 year class reunion next month. The class put up a pretty cool webpage for the reunion and I checked it out. They put the hottest chick in the 97 class on their home page. See for yourself: www.nhs97reunion.com.

Hubba - hubba. :) It's funny that she is the one (of hundreds in her class) that has everybody guessing after all these years; a poster child for "where are they now". I'm sure she is going to have all kinds of questions at the reunion due to this picture. They should just update it with:

Mike Hinze - 2007: Teacher
Jen Goodin - 2007 : Mommy / Total Hottie

SubVersion and TortoiseSVN

James has posted a great article on how to setup and configure SubVersion and TortoiseSVN for file versioning. Check it out: 10 minute guide to starting with subversion and tortoisesvn « Mr. .NET

Fortunately, I had the luxury of a live chat window from the author himself. ;) Thanks James! It's working like a top...

Learn to Love Running

Ok, so I'm blogging away and I start following links to cool sites and I came across a whole bunch of cool running links. I read this one article and it just hit home for me: Learn to Love Running

"Hi, my name is Lucas Hardbarger and I'm addicted to running."

It really is how I feel these days; every where I go and everything I do, I'm thinking about running. I remember drinking beer with my buddy Corey on New Years Eve of 2007 and we talked about starting a running regiment (full story). Well... I've stuck with it and I'm damn glad I did. It's to a point now that I can't stop running. I did 4 miles yesterday, only because I got back to my car (I could've kept going). I actually have the urge right now to go run... I'm a freak, I know.

The other day, I set out to run 4 miles and ended up running 6, for no good reason. It took me 1 hour and 6 minutes to do it, but I didn't stop running that entire hour. I just chugged along and got lost in my own thoughts. I've noticed that, as I've started running more and more miles, I'm getting slower. Every now and then I'll set out and do a couple of 9 minute miles, but for now the 10:30 miles are fine with me. My 6 mile run ended up being something like 11 minute miles, but I felt great afterwards and could have kept going if I wanted to.

When I started running, I weighed in at 220lbs, today I'm down to 205lbs and still going (down that is). I'm continuing to drop pounds each week. My injury had me laid up for a while and (wow), it was way too easy to put the weight back on. I'm back to running now and I feel great! Something else that is cool: The wife is noticing. :)

Ok, that's it! I'll be back, gotta go get my shoes on...

Sorting and Searching Algorithms

I found this link somehow and decided to post it for all to read:
Sorting and Searching Algorithms

The front page has a java applet on it that sorts a list of bars. If you click each one once real quick, you can sit back and see who wins everytime. It would be cool to show each algorithm like this to see how they perform. Anyway, it kept me busy reading and learning for over a half hour and I wanted to have a reference for later retrieval.

Enjoy... if you so choose to indulge. :P

More Kid Talk...

Jennifer and I took the whole family to Toys R Us last night so that Jazzy could register stuff for her burpday poppy. Toys R Us has this cool feature that allowed us to walk around the store and scan all the items that Jazzy wanted for her birthday. Everytime we got to something cool (usually Barbie Faritopia stuff), Jazzy would say "Mommy, scram this". Where Scram = Scan.

Another good one sticks out in my mind too. The other day Lizzie and Jazzy were running around the house yelling "Pour the grass and the dirt and the gravel on me!" I asked them what they were talking about and asked why they were yelling that. They said it was a song. After I put it all together, I realized what they were trying to say

Where the (aka: Pour the) grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet (aka: on me). -- Keith Urban (Where the Blacktop Ends).

This is very reminiscent of the "cheese and 4-wheel drive" song.

Some others include:

• B'guk - Eww, these fries are b'guk.
• Blowy - Daddy, these glasses are all blowy.
• Cryons - Lizzie won't share her cryons with me.
• Guh-guh-papaw - Lizzie used to call Grandpa Hardbarger guh-guh-papaw when she was just learning how to talk. We still use it. :)
• Hulip - I can't wait to wear my hulip skirt at my hulip party.
• Jah - Look, it's a "jah" for "Jazzy".
• Jumpolene - We just love our big jumpolene.
• Maskez - Look at these pony's wearing their pretty maskez.
• Memmems - Daddy, can you open this bag of memmems?
• Nummy - Mmm, these cookies are nummy.
• Pawn Trees - Mommy, can we get some pawn trees for my hulip party?
• Perfect for Mando - aka: Perfectamundo
• Queeze - Mommy, I can barely queeze into these pants.
  
• More...
  

The last thing I'm gonna say in this post is this (I keep updating it compulsively as funny things happen)... The other day Lizzie and Jazzy were playing in the basement near my desk and Jazzy came over to my desk and started studdering and catching her breath trying to tell me this huuuuge story. Finally she took a deep breath and said "...oh whatever it is I'm trying to say!" and ran away from the desk to go play with Lizzie some more. I lost it! Three year olds aren't supposed to get this flustered and give up that easily with slap-stick sarcasm. It could be a case where you had to be there, but it still cracks me up whenever I think about it. :)

NPR : Nigerian Artist is a One-Man Body Beating Band

I'm an avid NPR podcast listener. Today they had a story about a One-Man Body Beating Band (~4 minutes). It was about a Nigerian Artist named Jojo Bodybeats who just makes funky beats all day long with his hands, mouth, feet, chest, throat, etc... Here is his website: jojobodybeats.com

WoW!... and I thought I had rhythm.

I beat-box all day, everyday so I could really relate to this guy. I'm not as crazy about it as he is (sneezing to a beat, coughing to a beat, etc...), but I'm always finding myself tapping on stuff and beat-boxing as I walk around the house. I have cooler beats come from my mouth than I do my hands and feet, but I can do some pretty cool things just from being a drummer for so many years. Jennifer has actually started to get some pretty funky rhythms herself, and I (honestly) take all the credit for them. :) She has to listen to me everyday and I can tell that, over the years, she has begun doing it as well. She'll be picking up the kids stuff and she'll break out some funky lisps with her mouth.

Lizzie and Jazzy are always asking me:

Daddy, how you do dat?

My response is usually:

Mirrors.

...they always buy it and just say:

Cool

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface
I'll let the link speak for itself...

Update: 13 July 2007
This was an old post that I never "published". Since the announcement of Microsoft Surface, there has been all kinds of talk and web gossip.

Corey sent me a the best link the other day:

Game On!

A while back I said I switched map applications. Well since then, all the map sites have been fighting for my business... I know, you're welcome. :)

Two days ago, Microsoft Virtual Earth came out of no where and included some next level graphics and interaction into their maps web page. Check it out for yourself: http://maps.live.com. Once you install the plug in you can pan, tilt, zoom, create paths, store locations, share locations, etc... anywhere in the world directly from your browser. The only downfall so far is that it takes a while to load, but once it's up and running it's pretty cool. I was able to zoom into my house and see the hill behind my house. I can't do that with Google Earth or Google Maps.

Soon after Microsoft released it's Virtual Earth plug in, Google introduces Google Street View. This is a cool new feature that let's you see pictures at various predefined locations in a 360 degree view. Again, directly inside your browser window. Here is a cool little video to show you what it's all about:

Needless to say, these are pretty fun times for the web! I can't wait to see what they come up with next...

My Stress Fracture

Well, I went to the foot doctor yesterday and he told me that my MRI came back indicating that I had a stress fracture on one of my ligaments that connects the inside of my foot to the outside of my shin. Apparently this is the best case scenario and my body will just heal itself over time. He told me to not run on it for 2 more weeks and then ease back into running on a soft track. As it turns out, he said that it usually happens when runners do too much "hill work". I didn't have the heart to tell him about my new sandals. I'm sure it was from me trying to stretch the 'toe' strap on my Chaco's all day long. I still wear my Chaco's, but I no longer stretch my toe strap all day...

So the bottom line is that it my injury should heal itself over time if I just take it easy for a little while longer. I totally expected to walk out in a boot, so I'm pretty happy with my visit.

Blake Lewis is Just Plain Funky

I can't wait until Blake to releases his first album. This dude's rendition of "You give love a bad name" is as good (if not better) than Bon Jovi's version. Blake added a whole new beat-box / laid back funk groove to it and made it into a totally new song. He has a very percussive approach to his music and (as a drummer) I like it a lot!

If you don't believe me, then just see for yourself (jump to 1:19):

Jennifer and I rewound American Idol so many times that night just to make sure we heard what we thought we heard. The drummer that played beside Blake was awesome too. If you have ever tried to play kick drum standing up, then you would have more appreciation for this drummer too. Blake did this song on the final show too and I thought he did it better on it, but it was just a few minor things. All in all, this version says enough...

We will be buying Blake Lewis' album when he releases one. I'm already a fan.

My Second Running Injury

Well, darn it!! I screwed up my foot again. This time it's more serious, I went to the doctor today and doc says it looks like a stress fracture.

Everything was going fine. My Achilles tendon healed up quite nicely (more info) and I was adding miles, subtracting the pounds, and shrinking my mile-pace like crazy. I had all summer to look forward to... or so I thought. Jennifer and I went on vacation last week to Myrtle Beach and I screwed up my foot real bad.

Two days before Myrtle Beach, I went out and bought me a new pair of Chaco's and decided to wear them around for a bit before going on vacation. This would allow me to get used to them and "break 'em in". The weird thing about the sandal is that it has a section that covers the big toe and I wasn't used to this. I kept stretching my big toe up to loosen the straps and it was causing the muscles in the top of my foot to get sore. I decided to stop stretching the toe loop with my big toe so compulsively and see if the pain would go away. It did, kinda... but I had already made it sore, so it was a matter of "healing" it at this point.

Well when we got to Myrtle Beach, I decided to find a cool running path and I did. I found a 3 mile path that was right along the ocean. The first night I ran the 3 miles in 27:42 and I felt good; my foot didn't hurt and I felt rejuvenated afterwards. The second night I ran the same path only I cut 30 seconds off of each mile; finishing the path in 26:16. I felt this run a little more than I did the night before, but my foot was still fine. I decided to take Tuesday off and rest a day from running altogether. Of course Jen and I went shopping all day and I wore my Chaco's like a dumb ass. Half way into the day, I felt the top of my foot hurting a little bit from that damn strap. By the end of the day, my left foot was hurting. :(

I decided to try running on my foot Wednesday evening after a full day at the beach... in my Chaco's. I got about 100 yards into my run and had to stop. I limped all the way back to the Condo and put ice on it. It hurt bad!

Well I've been limping ever since that night. I actually had a doctor's appointment today and the doctor stated that I could have broken a bone in my ankle (at the front of my foot). He also proceeded to tell me that this is the worse kind of break because it takes so long to heal... great. I'm supposed to go in for another x-ray next week and they might do an MRI on it.

Until then, no running for me.

Kid Talk

It's amazing how kids learn the English language off of one another. Lizzie and Jazzy have a bunch of words that they both say the exact same way. I know that they feed off of each other too because they talk to each other all day everyday and neither one of them correct one another... therefore the words never get corrected.

Here are some of the words that they use that crack me and Jennifer up:

• Baff - Daizi needs a baff.
  
• Baxet - Put your dirty clothes in the laundry baxet.
• Beebing Soup - Jazzy, that's a purdy beebing soup.
• Bizzy - I like to spin around and get bizzy.
  
• Bruss - I have to bruss my hair.
  
• Checkup - Lizzie likes checkup on her fries and her eggs.
• Chicken - The wefwidgewaitew is in the chicken.
• Curly Flower - Mmm, I just love curly flower (aka: cauliflower).
• Dejert - Mmm, this is delichez dejert.
  
• Doze - Mommy, w'are doze?
  
• Gustusting - Eww daddy, beer is gustusting.
• Hot Tacos - Hot pockets.
  
• Kittar - Daddy, you play drums and I'll play the kittar.
• Parkly - I like your parkly shirt and parkly pants Jazz.
• Parrot Shoot - Look at that guy in that parrot shoot.
  
• Penses - She is such a purdy penses.
  
• Punge Bob - Eww gross, punge bob.
• Pupcakes - These are yummy pupcakes.
  
• Pydurman - Eww gross, pydurman.
• Rolletta - We have a lamb named Loretta Lynn and the girls call her Rolletta Lynn
  
• Sauchez - Lizzie doesn't like sauchez on her pizza.
  
• Sheme - Popcorn comes from a popcorn sheme.
  
• Smaquito - Daddy, Wizzie just got bit by a smaquito.
• Thayah - When are we going to be thayah?
• V'cation - We are having so much fun on our v'cation.
  
• Wefweshing - Mmm, this lemondade is wefweshing.
• Wiji - Daddy look, Jazzy has a wiji.
  
• Wizzie - Daddy, Wizzie just got bit by another smaquito. :)

There are so many more (like 20 or so) that I can't think of right now. Some of them were so funny that they had me in stitches for days afterwards... I'll be sure to update this blog post as they pop in my head...

Update: I remembered what it was that had Jennifer and I laughing so hard about the other night. Jazzy was trying to get us to play her favorite song in the van when we were on v'cation. And the only thing she could think of was a song about "cheese" and a "4 wheel drive". Jennifer and I could not think of what in the world she was talking about. Then about an hour or so later, the song came on:

I dug my keys (aka: cheese) into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive. - Carrie Underwood (Before He Cheats)

Also, I think it is only fitting that I also mention something that I overheard tonight while watching Discovery's Planet Earth with the girls. They were trying to tell each other just how big Earth was and Lizzie said: "Huh-uh Jazz, the Earth is even bigger than our house." :)

MyrtleBeach 2007 - Hardbarger Vacation

Hardbarger Vacation 2007 - Myrtle Beach

"Hardbarger Family Vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina '07. We spent 8 days in a condo, 1 block from the ocean. We had a blast and here are the pictures to prove it. Many lifetime memories were made..."

Devscovery Denver 2007

James and I just got back from Devscovery last night. This was the first of four Devsovery conferences that we will be exhibiting at this year and this one was held in Denver, Colorado. It was the first time that either of us had been to Colorado and we were pretty excited about it.

Our trip started off pretty tough again. It was no where near our last trip, but it wasn't looking good at our gate. We were scheduled to leave Columbus to Chicago at 9:30AM. Of course, the flight got cancelled due to "maintenance problems" and we had to reschedule our flight. I called Expedia.com and talked with a guy for 30 - 40 minutes before our call got dropped. Finally I heard an announcement over the loud speakers about a direct flight to Denver. I rushed over to the gate where this flight was scheduled to leave and I was able to get James and I on the flight at the last minute. YES!! Finally something is working in our favor. We will actually get to Denver earlier than if we would have gone through Chicago.

We arrived in Denver around 2:30 on Monday afternoon and got settled into the Hyatt Regency Tech Center. James checked into his room and I checked into my room. James' room had a plasma TV and an iHome theatre system for his iPod. My room had a better desk, but that is about all it had going for it compared to James' room. I had an old radio alarm clock and a 27" TV. I guess I had a little better view, but... whatever. The first thing that we did was catch up on some shut-eye. Neither one of us got much sleep the night before and we didn't have anything to do until tomorrow morning Tuesday, so I went to my room and slept from about 6PM Monday until 7AM Tuesday. I felt rejuvinated that next morning.

Tuesday morning, we got our breakfast and walked over to the Microsoft building (which was about 100 yards from the Hyatt) and got our booth setup. We attended the keynote which was hosted by Jeff Prosise. It was very motivating to see what Microsoft plans to do with SilverLite. After the keynote, James and I basically sat at our booth most of the day and worked on our presentation for Wednesday's lunch session. Once the sessions were all over, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the Colorado Rockies game against San Francisco Giants (thanks Wintellect!). The game was pretty uneventful other than the fact that Jeff Prosise got to be on the big screen and the "chicken guy" got kicked out right next to our group. :) "Free the Chicken Guy!!". It turned out to be a great game because the Rockies came back and won, 5-3! :) When we got back to the room, we tried to work on our presentation a bit more. James and I worked on it until about 2AM then I went back to my room and crashed.

Wednesday morning came way to quick and we actually both slept in a bit. James called me about 7:30 and I had some major cotton chops from drinking at the game the night before. We ate our breakfast, headed over to the Microsoft building and started finishing up our presentation material. We worked most of the morning and afternoon on our presentation and eventually rescheduled for the Thursday since we had broken the functionality a bit. Once we rescheduled and didn't have anything else to do, James and I headed out for the mountains. This is where our "Colorado Experience" really started. I'll definitely have to post the details of this trip in a separate post (trust me, it deserves a separate post). When we got back from our AWESOME trip, we tried to finish up the presentation yet again. :) We worked in James office until 2AM again and actually had some really cool stuff working, but we'll finish the fine-grain details of it tomorrow... I went back to my room and crashed hard.

So Thursday came and we slept in... again... at least I did. I woke up around 7:30ish and called James. I got all my stuff ready to check out and we met for breakfast around 8:30AM. We got to the Microsoft building around 9:15ish and really worked on finalizing our presentation. We had hyped ourselves up too much, I'm sure. The presentation went "OK". There were lots of things I would have done differently, but at least we now know. James and I are going to work on the presentation of the topics so that we can do better for Day of .NET and Devscovery - New York.

Wintellect has some great speakers and their speakers are very knowledgable. The Devscovery conference is a great conference for anybody that wants to learn about up and coming technologies. James and I sat through Jeffrey Richter's session on C# 3.0 features and learned a lot. That dude, knows his stuff. :) I must admit that it's quite humbling to sit through a session about some of the "next-level" .NET topics, and then turn around and drink beer and talk with the speakers in a social setting. This is especially true for me, because I'm a huge book junky and I've see their names on so many books that I just kind of put each of them up on a virtual pedistal (right or wrong, it's true). It was very cool to actually talk with them in a casual setting. For example, I actually got the opportunity to "shoot the shit" with Jeff Prosise at the Rockies game and he is a very personable guy. The whole time I was talking with him I knew that this guy was a "coding god" to many people all over the world. I (personally) have a couple of Richter's books and James actually claimed that he learned MFC from Prosise's book. When I told this to Jeff he stated that he didn't know whether to stand tall and proud or duck. :) Oh yeah, I had a moment of realization that Jeff Prosise looks like Mark Miller (mainly their profile). When I told Jeff this, he indicated that he had never heard that before. This was suprising to me, because they could almost pass as twins... Am I crazy? Keep in mind that the two pictures I've linked to give the similarities no justice. You would almost have to see them together in person to find the similarities.

On the last day of the event, Wintellect had a raffle. James and I threw in a t-shirt for each attendee and John Robbins had everybody put on our t-shirt for a group photo (pictured above). How cool is that? What would be really cool is if they use this photo on their site, because everybody in the picture is wearing a Data Dynamics t-shirt. I'm no marketting guru, but I think that would be a "good thing". :)

In conclusion, we made it back to Columbus late last night, ON TIME and unscathed. The trip will be one to remember for sure. Be sure to look for the next post that describes our drive through the mountains...

Update: John Robbins posted the same picture and gives his rendition of the event: Excellent Devscovery Denver

Columbus Distance Classic 5K - My Fourth Race

As race day approached, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to race in this race or not. I pulled my Achilles Tendon the day after my last race. :( I wasn't able to run for almost a full week and had to resort to biking only. I had lost a lot of momentum from not running everyday. It sucked too, because my race times were getting faster and faster and I really wanted to do better this race since it was my birthday and all. Up until the injury running was getting easier every day and I could go faster and longer than the day before. However, I think ultimately this is why I hurt myself; I thought I was invincible and pushed myself too hard. My ankle spoke up and said "WTF!? Chill out!!" It put me out of commission for almost two full weeks and gave me a nice little reality check. :)

Since I didn't want to go out on race day and completely rupture my AT, I decided to do a couple of training jogs last week before the race. I did a 2 miler one day and a 3 miler another day, both at a snails pace, just to prove to myself (and my ankle) that I could. I did a lot of research on my injury and got all kinds of mixed advice. Most people said "STOP RUNNING!", but I decided to ignore that advice and "run it off". I was actually quite surprised at quickly my Achilles Tendon healed. Of course, it still is not 100%, but it's good enough to run on. Here is my story...

The Columbus Distance Classic is was a huge event for Columbus. There were 3,107 racers running in the half marathon, and 739 people running in the 5K. The half marathon brought an elite class of athletes from all over the world. For example, one of the winners (yes, it was a dead-even tie) was from Kenya, Africa!! Cool. Needless to say, I was surprised at how many people I had to run with. This was the first time I had to strap on an electronic device to my shoe for recording my time. I had always wondered how they kept track of times for the people in the back of the pack. I know for the Boston Marathon (which is tomorrow), it takes hours for everybody to get started. Well, I learned how... for these big races, everybody is assigned individual monitoring devices. The devices are called ChampionChips, and each runner has to tie them onto their shoes. When you cross the start line, it records your time and then when you cross the finish line, it records your time again. This gives you your time down to the milliseconds. This device allows each runner the luxury of having a floating start/end time. So this means that for all the people that were in the back of the pack, there time didn't start until the crossed the start line. For the Half Marathon, some of the people in the back didn't even cross the start line until 10 minutes into the race.

There were lots of big time people at this race. I started right behind Mayor Coleman at the start line. I mean I was directly behind him. Before the race, I actually tapped him on the shoulder and shook his hand. Chris Spielman gave a little speech before the race too; he was about 10 yards away from me. I'm still waiting to see my picture in the paper because there were all kinds of reporters and camera men taking pictures of Mayor Coleman before the race, as we were standing at the start line. If you see any pictures of Mayor Coleman at the starting line of the race, let me know!! I'll be that guy in the shades and green tobogin right behind him. :) Not that it matters, but I finished almost 5 minutes before him. :)

Before the race, I decided that I wasn't going to try and beat my last time because that would only put strain on my ankle and could have possibly put me out of commission even longer. I didn't want that because 2 weeks of no running was already bumming me out. I was starting to get stir crazy and couldn't wait to get back on the black top. The first mile was a breeze, I basically jogged it just to make sure I didn't strain anything right away; my first mile was 9:07. I knew that I could go a little bit faster than that because my ankle didn't show the slightest bit of strain. I bumped it up a little bit and increased my stride. At one point I gave a huge power burst for almost 100 yards during a kick ass Tool song on my iPod. I just got in tune with the music and passed about 12 people or so. Once I got pretty winded, I set back into a nice pace and kept up with my new neighbors. I know my second mile was much better than my first mile. Unfortunately there was no 2 mile marker and I wasn't able to accurately record it. If I had to guess, I would guess it was about a 8:30 mile. The third mile was a little longer because I was getting winded and there a slight uphill slant for most of the last part of the race.

As I got closer to the finish line, the crowd got louder and louder and the finish line itself was pretty impressive looking. They had the big sign above the finish line showing the time for all the spectators. I crossed the finish line at 27:28!! (this calculates to a 8:51 pace). I came in 117th place. :) Here is the results page: Columbus Distance Classic 5k Results Page (bib #10242)

My time is very respectable given my ankle injury and my "weight class"... if there is such a thing in running. Of course my time was much longer than I had originally wanted it to be, but I am (by no means) disappointed with it. Honestly, I was just happy to finish the race without limping or crawling. Believe it or not, I had no pain at all. The cool thing was that once I crossed the finish line I saw that there was a HUGE FEAST for all of the runners!! There were apples, bananas, all kinds of pizza, bagels, pretzels, water, gatorade, etc... To be honest, the last thing I wanted to put in my stomach after an exhausting run was a greasy piece of pizza. I grabbed an apple and a water; both of which were very refreshing.

To wrap it up, the one thing that I liked most about this race was the crowd. The Columbus fans were awesome!! At one point, there was a group of people sticking out their hands to give the runners high fives as we passed, almost as if we were celebrities or something. I thought that it was very cool and (of course), I obliged. :) Seriously though, every step of the way, people were cheering the runners on and it really did help give an extra "umph" when I ran by someone and they clapped for me and said "good job", "keep it up", "almost there", etc...

I will be running this race again next year. However, I plan to do the half marathon instead...

Holographic Advertising

I found a cool link today of a car company advertising their car using holographic designs. Vizoo appears to be the company behind the creation:


The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

It's cool to see this as a reality today; it used to be a 'futuristic' concept. Now I'm just waiting on the software and hardware that is used in The Minority Report.