Blogging Roller

I'll be resuming my Web Integration Patterns blog series this week, now that I have some "free" time again. It's been a busy Spring at work and at home, especially during April and May. My early mornings, evenings and weekends were consumed by half-marathon training, (and the Apache Roller 5.0 release, more about that later).

As for the half-marathon, it went very well. I really enjoyed training and running with my oldest son. The race was today and we're both pretty happy with our results, which you can see below.

13th Annual Inside-Out Sports Classic - Half-Marathon

Place Bib  Name                    S Ag City             St Chiptim Guntime Pace  
===== ==== ======================= = == ================ == ======= ======= ===== 
  247  308 ALEX JOHNSON            M 14 RALEIGH          NC 1:59:10 1:59:18  9:06
  154  309 DAVE JOHNSON            M 47 RALEIGH          NC 1:50:34 1:50:43  8:27 

The race course is wonderful and runs through Umstead park on the small-grain gravel bridle trails there. Here's the route map I made on dailymile.com (check out the Elevation Profile, it's a hilly one).

I ran the Old Reliable Run today and thanks to the cool weather, overcast skies and better training I did a little better than last year. Last year I had to stop to walk a couple of times and I ran the 10K in 55:36 minutes. This year I didn't stop, felt strong and I think my time was closer to 54 minutes.

Update: Here are the (soon to be) official times:

Place Bib  Name                    Chiptim Guntime Pace
===== ==== ======================= ======= ======= =====
489   1443 DAVID JOHNSON           54:31   55:18   8:54

It's Old Reliable Run time. I ran the course last week and I'm still alive. I'm hoping to repeat that result today, so wish me luck. Check out the route. It passes every important downtown Raleigh landmark including the capitol square, Krispy Kreme, the mold-infested governor's mansion, Sadlacks and the fabulous NCSU bell tower.

Update: Results are in. I did better than I'd expected.

Place Bib  Name           S City     St Chiptim Guntime Pace  
===== ==== ============== = ======== == ======= ======= ===== 
  601  395 DAVID JOHNSON  M Raleigh  NC   55:36   56:01  9:01 

I'm signed up for the 10K and I'm a little behind in my training, but I'm up to 5.8 miles now so I'm starting to believe that I'll be able to run it without stopping.

Yep. Low expectations... the key to success

I just signed up for the Old Reliable Run 10K, which takes place in downtown Raleigh on November 13, 2005. You can sign up too at active.com. It's been over 10 years since I've run a 10K and despite my daily 3-mile run I still feel pretty out-of-shape, so I'll be happy just to finish without walking. Now I need to figure out my training program and find some good 4, 5 and 6 mile routes. I can tell that BoulderRunning.com's Google maps based route planner is going to come in handy. It opens up in Boulder, but appears to work anywhere in the US.