Jan 20

Thoughts from a first-time marathon runner

Arizona, Sport & Health 2 Comments »

Okay, half marathon, but it makes a better title ;-) I completed the PF Chang’s Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon two days ago and wanted to post some random thoughts. Having participated in this event from two angles now (twice as a band playing on the sidelines and once as a runner) I have a few observations:

  • Holy clockwork! The level of coordination to pull this event off is nothing short of miraculous.

    Holding any event involving more than fifty people is difficult enough – they had something like 30k participants. And that’s not to mention the volunteers who staffed it, the bands that played along the route, the fire and police coordination, the road closure crews, the medics in the celebration area, the snacks and drink servers, the t-shirts and medals and schwag hander-out’ers… the list goes on. For all that took place there were only a few traffic jams and no significant mistakes that I saw. I’m blown away by the Elite Racing folks and everyone that collaborated to make this happen. Thank you thank you to the volunteers that donated their time.

  • Pace is key I now wholeheartedly grok that “slow and steady wins the race” adage. Only a few weeks ago I was sucking wind after a 6mi run with a partner and ended up walking a good portion wondering how I was going to somehow double that distance. On Sunday I was able to complete the 13.1 mi race in 2h19m without being winded (sore but not winded). I’m convinced the key to that breakthrough was in consciously slowing my pace. My goal was to finish without walking any part of it and I was fortunate to make it the whole way with the only slowdown being the trot for the occasional handoff with a water cup volunteer. It’s amazing to me what a difference in endurance it made to back off the pace slightly. If you’re struggling with endurance on a run, try reducing speed by 10% and I bet you’ll see a 2x return in both time and distance.
  • A good use of RFID When I think RFID I typically think of chipping passports and animals and big brotherish-type stuff. This was an awesome use of that technology though- the packets they distributed to runners beforehand included this orange plastic band that you attached to your laces. When you passed over the start and finish lines it clocked your times and sent the results to a central system. By the time we got back home (and probably earlier) our results were already online – that my friends is at least Web 5.0.
  • Ahem, sunscreen You can and will get burned by direct sun in the wintertime in AZ. For some reason I was thinking the sun would be low enough that I wouldn’t need sunscreen. Bad assumption.
  • Gu is good I had purchased some of those gel instant energy packs in advance and then promptly forgot them in the car in the early morning scramble to the starting line. Luckily the volunteers at mile eight were handing them out (and even the good flavor, vanilla). While this is probably frowned upon by race purists and akin to using supplemental oxygen when climbing a big mountain, I have to say it gives you a noticeable boost of energy replenishment when you need it. And to me the vanilla flavored one tastes completely fine and a lot like cake frosting.
  • Rolling storage lockers UPS provided a clever and useful service for runners. They had tons of trucks backed up at the starting line and made it so any runner could check a barcoded bag with them to store belongings. The trucks then drove to the finish line and reassembled in the parking lot like a strand of storage lockers on wheels. What a great idea and a simple yet memorable sponsorship service.
  • GPS fail I’ve been using the RunKeeper Free iPhone app to track my runs. It’s 90% awesome and 100% free so I can’t complain. But on raceday perhaps the cell network in that area was overloaded or something because it never got the GPS lock. I would recommend to anyone who plans to track a run on a raceday to acquire the GPS lock well in advance and then simply reset the clock when crossing the starting line. Trying in vain to fire it up once the race begins is a bummer and a distraction.
  • The rah-rah’s do make a difference The cheers of a complete stranger yelling “you can do it” have a surprisingly real effect. This is something that’s puzzled me about sports- I’ve gotten the camaraderie aspect amongst fans but I’ve never truly understood the adrenaline/supportive aspect from the perspective of the athlete until this race. It’s very real and I will appreciate that relationship in sporting events from now on.
  • Run like an amoeba Not quite sure how to verbalize this one but being in this river of bodies with the same goal all running with similar pace but in constant flux as people slowed or sped up- it just felt being an appendage of a larger organism. I was just one set of legs on this distributed human caterpillar that snaked through the streets of Phoenix. I can’t help but think if there were a way to organize one of these races with warring cultures somehow it would resolve a lot. Or maybe it’s the endorphins from the exertion and the high-fives with random strangers that’s the magic secret sauce. Either way, we need to bottle and share this stuff. I recommend participating in a marathon if you ever get the chance – it was an awesome experience I will remember for a long time.

    • marathon.png

    Jan 15

    Proposal for Phoenix bloggers

    Arizona, Nerd No Comments »

    Submit your blog to Erica Lucci’s “Read Phoenix” site if you haven’t already. And then add this badge to the side bar of your blog:

    ReadPhxBadge.png

    Simply copy that image and host it yourself or paste this code on your site:

    <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/readphx"><img id="ReadPhx" src="https://scrollinondubs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ReadPhxBadge.png" alt="Read stories from other Phoenix bloggers" /></a>

    It links to a single feed that aggregates the posts of all the authors listed on Read Phoenix. Adding the badge exposes your readers to current posts from other authors in AZ. We’re always doing things to help knit the tech community better. This is a way to boost the visibility of other Phoenix authors and create a “web ring” that introduces your readers to them, and theirs to you. Here’s a post that explains how that feed is generated dynamically.

    And if you’re in the Phoenix area and have no lunch plans tomorrow (Friday), come out to TempeNerds and talk shop with other local nerds.

    Jan 11

    Twitter stole my mojo

    Nerd 8 Comments »

    Curious if anyone else has experienced this effect:

    Twitter has almost completely supplanted my drive to make thoughtful, in-depth blog posts. Its low-friction, sound bite, instant gratification-ness style for interaction satisfies enough of what the lengthier public writing used to provide to where it’s now become the path of least resistance for meeting that need.

    Let me first say I’m not hating on Twitter. It definitely has value as a communication tool and can be used in various beneficial ways (I just wrote about last month). And I understand a device like Twitter can’t be blamed for behavior anymore than a handgun can be blamed for violence. But at least in my situation it has undeniably sapped mental cycles in the way that a mindless primetime TV show being on in the background can suck me in and shut my brain off. I’ve got a theory on the dynamics of what’s happening here but before we examine the heist, let’s rewind and look at what the blog used to satisfy.

    Pre-Twitter

    For me in the past keeping a blog has served as:

    1. a reference for remembering links, random thoughts and non-intuitive things I had figured out
    2. an outlet for airing out observations and wacky ideas and getting input from others
    3. a shaming instrument to call companies out on injustices or crappy customer service experiences
    4. a self-promo tool for our company
    5. a way to give anyone who wants to connect with me more “surface area” to work with
    6. an exercise in persuasive writing
    7. a personal space to encourage deep or thoughtful exchange on complex topics that I find interesting

    Those are the main reasons I have written and continue to write posts (albeit now at an anemic pace).

    Post-Twitter

    So what has changed with the introduction of Twitter as a communication medium? Very simply, Twitter solves every one of those above except for the last two. And it does so with less friction. We naturally gravitate to the solutions that require the minimal amount of effort while adequately satisfying our needs. Whereas before keeping the blog was the path of least resistance, Twitter has become that. The only problem is that #6 & #7 aren’t a part of this new path. Or well okay, let me restate that: it’s really difficult to say anything compelling or thoughtful in a 140-char message.

    But if it’s “really difficult,” that’s a good thing right? A challenge. A hard path. Constraints breed creativity!

    Wrong. In an increasingly-ADHD environment of rapid volleys of thousands of disparate and abrupt communication snippets, I would say the real constraint challenge now is focus and attention, not message length. There’s an addictive, caffeine-like quality to Twitter too where once you’re out there, you feel compelled to stay abreast of this distributed conversation that’s occurring. You begin to feel obligated to keep up with people with whom you didn’t before. While you’re surface area is now quadrupled, your depth in connection is reduced to paper-thin.

    So what

    Well this is all fine and obvious Sean. What do you propose?

    Acknowledging that #6 & #7 are missing (or at best diluted) seems like the first step. You can get lulled into a routine and not realize the mechanics of what’s causing the behavior. Becoming conscious of the deficiency lets you recognize the issue so you can actively hunt for the source of it and make a correction. Personally I’ve discovered I don’t respond well to “push” tactics (ie. telling myself “Sean, you should really write more on the blog”). What I do respond well to is the “pull” of a vacuum when there’s something missing.

    I don’t foresee my Twitter account going away but I now recognize that it’s displaced #1-5 from this blog. The upside of this discovery is that hopefully the posts that do appear here will now be skewed towards #6 & #7. For #1-5 if you are so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter.

    What do you think? Have you experienced this same effect and if so, how do you compensate?

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