Still Running Ubuntu in 2012

Winter time is road race season in Austin, Texas.  The weather is cool and sunny, and it's actually quite a nice time to venture out for some long runs.  I've run three races in Austin so far this year.

Austin Gorilla Run 5k

Former Gazzanger Unji Udeshi was one of the organizers and race chairs for the Austin Gorilla Run, which was truly one of the most unique races I've ever experienced.

Proceeds from the race directly benefit Ugandans, Rwandans, and citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo in veterinary educational training, with the end goal of protecting the highly endangered Mountain Gorillas in Africa. In 1987 there were only 248 mountain gorillas alive in the world, but through the veterinary and conservation efforts of the MGCF, the population has nearly tripled to 720.

Over 1200 of us dressed up in full Gorilla suits to "run" a 5K (for a very loose definition of "run").  Mostly we just goofed off and had a really good time.

Here's a quick pose in the Gazzang parking lot before the race....

Being the good gorillas were were, Larry (Gazzang CEO) and I took a break from the race to a little climbing.

I brought my dogs, Tiger and Aggie, who were a little skittish of all the goofball gorillas at first!  They're really well trained dogs, and are running up to 15 miles with me at a time now.  Kim took a ton of awesome pictures.

And our crew, unmasked and post race enjoying the Silverback Pale Ale from Austin's own Thirsty Planet Brewery...  Unji, Larry Warnock, Liz Britain, Catelin Warnock, Dustin, Tiger, and Aggie!

Austin 3M Half Marathon

A few weeks later, I shucked the gorilla suit and ran Austin's 3M Half Marathon.  This is quite simply my favorite race!  This was my 4th running of the race.  I think I actually first fell in love with running at the finish line of this race in 2004, which I finished in a blazing (for me, anyway) time of 1:48:14!

Well, I was a little shy of my personal best time, but I did finish in 1:59:07, which beat my goal of 2 hours.

I was proud of my time, but I was far more proud of my splits, actually.  Almost perfectly negative splits!  Negative splits mean that you accelerate your pace throughout the race.  It takes quite a bit of discipline to perfect, and this is about as close as I've ever come:

Mile 1     9:56 Min/Mi
Mile 2     9:30 Min/Mi
Mile 3     9:38 Min/Mi
Mile 4     9:29 Min/Mi
Mile 5     9:21 Min/Mi
Mile 6     9:07 Min/Mi
Mile 7     8:58 Min/Mi
Mile 8     8:46 Min/Mi
Mile 9     8:37 Min/Mi
Mile 10    8:44 Min/Mi
Mile 11    8:35 Min/Mi
Mile 12    8:27 Min/Mi
Mile 13    8:18 Min/Mi
Mile 13.1  7:53 Min/Mi

Austin Livestrong Half Marathon

This past Sunday, I ran the Half Marathon portion of Austin's Livestrong race, benefiting Austin native Lance Armstrong's awesome cancer foundation.  Another beautiful, perfect morning for a run!

Now, originally, I registered for the full marathon, and had every intention on running it (would have been my 5th full marathon).  I trained myself up to 15 miles, but I had a minor surgery in November and missed 8 weeks of training, and couldn't quite get myself up over the 20+ mile barrier in time.  No matter, I'm planning on running the Marine Corps Marathon (again) in Washington DC in October as my penance.

As usual, I wore my I'm Running Ubuntu shirt.  As usual, it evokes a response, Austin having such a healthy tech community.  Interestingly, though, this time I heard a lot more "Ubuntu...Linux...yeah!" catcalls than ever before.  I liked that a lot, as it really showed how many actually recognized Ubuntu as a Linux distribution, rather than just a fun word to yell at someone running past them :-)

I beat my 3M time by 28 seconds, finishing in 1:58:39.  Interestingly, though, this time I did not run negative splits.  My splits were actually pretty flat, with my fastest mile (8:47) less than 30 seconds different from my slowest mile (9:16), which is fairly tight, compared to the 1m40s difference between my fastest and slowest mile in the 3M.  It's a different style of running, trying to bang out the same pace mile after mile, than the negative split approach.

Mile 1     8:59 Min/Mi
Mile 2     8:56 Min/Mi
Mile 3     9:10 Min/Mi
Mile 4     9:07 Min/Mi
Mile 5     9:02 Min/Mi
Mile 6     9:08 Min/Mi
Mile 7     8:54 Min/Mi
Mile 8     8:39 Min/Mi
Mile 9     8:48 Min/Mi
Mile 10    8:50 Min/Mi
Mile 11    9:04 Min/Mi
Mile 12    8:47 Min/Mi
Mile 13    9:16 Min/Mi
Mile 13.1  7:40 Min/Mi

So what's the point of this post?  Get out there and get some exercise!  Support a charity and run a race or two!  Support your own cause (Ubuntu/Linux for me) by wearing a shirt and showing some pride for something you believe in!

:-Dustin

2010 Austin Marathon - I'm Running Ubuntu!

So yesterday was Valentine's Day, of course. Let's hope you treated your sweetheart extra sweet. Kim bought me a bottle of 14 year old Oban single malt Scotch whisky. Mmm, peaty.

But February 14, 2010 has been marked on my calendar for the last 6 months as the date of the the Austin Marathon! A couple of brilliant billboards advertised the race in Austin over the last few weeks. One said Love Austin, Run Austin. Another one said Love Hurts. :-)

I've trained with Steve Sisson's Rogue Training Systems (and Runtex University) in the past. These guys have excellent programs for new runners. They can absolutely get anyone who can run/walk 3 miles to completing a marathon with about 6 months of hard work.

My brother-in-law Josh and I trained for and ran the 2006 Freescale Austin Marathon with Rogue. We decided back in September to do the 2010 Austin Marathon, training ourselves and our friends with the techniques we learned in the past. Here's our team, at 6am morning of the race, looking sleepy, but fresh...

My personal best marathon time was 4:08 in the 2006 Austin Marathon. I was hoping to beat that time, but simply enjoying the race was the real goal.

For the first time, I actually ran the race with my camera/phone (Palm Pre). This was pretty cool, as I was able to communicate with my wife, and help coordinate the places where she'd meet us along the way. I was also able to snap some pictures along the way.

The race started at 7am, with a temperature of about 40F (4C), a bit chilly for Austin, but still pleasant running conditions. Clear, clear, clear, without a cloud anywhere to be seen.



Some people ran in costume, such as Batman...



Of course, I ran in my I'm Running Ubuntu t-shirt. Let me just say that Ubuntu is live in strong in Austin! I must have gotten 30+ Ubuntu catcalls over the course of the run!

Josh and I first saw our support crew (Kim and Gerri) having run uphill for about 2 miles, but still feeling great!


After another mile or so uphill, we hooked around, and headed back downhill toward downtown Austin.
We were supposed to see Kim again around mile 7-8, but with the roads blocked, she couldn't make it. About an hour into the race, the temperature had increased a bit, and it was time to peel off a layer. Miles 1-3 were uphill, but 4-8 were nice and downhill.

Miles 8-13 were the toughest of the race from a topography perspective, with lots of rolling hills, up and down. It was getting a bit warmer, and the first hints of exhaustion started setting in, usually on the uphills ;-)

Moreover, the density of runners split in half between miles 10 and 11, as the Half Marathoners motored on toward the finish line, leaving us Marathoners to a few more hours of fun.

Up until the 13 mile mark, three of us (Josh, Steph, and myself) ran together, chatting it up. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the rest of the race. Josh had some severe leg cramps, dropping behind right around the 13 mile mark. Steph and I picked up the pace a bit (per our race plan) for the next 3 miles or so, but I could tell that I wouldn't be able to hold that for the rest of the race, unfortunately. So I wished her luck, and we each slipped into our own pace, just trying to make the finish line.

Just after mile 16, I had to smile when I saw a gal with an Easy button :-)


I think miles 16 and 17 were the hardest two of the race for me. These were along Great Northern Drive, a 2 mile, perfectly straight, perfectly flat, perfectly boring stretch that any technical runner in Austin probably knows. It eats your psyche.

Thankfully, Kim and Gerri were cheering me on at mile 17, and boy did I need it!
I was already a bit off my goal time, so I decided to just enjoy the race. I stopped for a good 60 seconds or so to wish my wife a happy Valentines Day, thank her for being there, and find out how my friends ahead of me were doing.

It was nice to get a bit of a recharge, and I was able to ride that for a mile or two. But around mile 20, I started to feel fatigued. For each of my previous 3 marathons, I ran at least one 22 mile long run before the race. I missed my team's 22 miler (while I was trekking through New Zealand).

Fortunately, I made a random friend. It's a great thing to do during a race. Find someone else to chat with. I met a guy named Ed. This was Ed's 53rd marathon, and 3rd in the last two months! Holy smokes. Ed was also a class of '82 Aggie (myself being a class of '01 Aggie). We Howdy'd and Gig'Em'd and Whooped our way through the next few miles. And I tried to learn as much as I could from a guy who had run 52 previous marathons.

I lost Ed during one water stop, and started struggling a bit, until I made it to mile 24, where Kim, Gerri, Steph, Josh who had to drop out of the race due to leg cramps :-( and my newest nephew Jackson!

Again, I was well out of contention for breaking my best time, so I stopped running, and spent a minute thanking everyone for their support. They encouraged me to hit the road, which I did for the best miles 25 and 26 of any marathon I've ever run.

The last two miles were downhill, through the University of Texas. Here, there was a radar speed sign, which correctly identified me as running 6 miles per hour ;-)


A few blocks later, then past National Museum of Texas, the Texas History Museum (great exhibits, if you're ever in Austin looking for something interesting to do)!


And just past the Texas History museum stands the enormous Texas State Capitol in its gleaming pink granite. The finish is near!


After a half lap around the capitol building, the finish line stood two blocks down, at Congress and 10th Avenue. A huge crowd awaited on the south side of the capitol, cheering all the way to the finish. Four hours and thirty minutes later, I had covered twenty six point two miles on foot. I had just completed my fourth marathon. Not my fastest time, but not my slowest time either. But I was proud, happy, and healthy.



And finally, back to Josh's house where we started oh so long ago that morning for the post race banquet and beers!



What's next? New Orleans in two weeks, maybe ;-)

:-Dustin

I'm Running Ubuntu (2009-11-24)

Howdy!

My dad and I ran the Baton Rouge Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving Day, benefiting the March of Dimes. I'm very proud of my dad, as it was his first race ever, and he beat his goal time.

Of course, we ran it in our I'm Running Ubuntu t-shirts, which was a lot of fun. We had a few conversations after the race with other curious Ubuntu users/runners. Ubuntu seems live and well in Louisiana!

I actually ran my personal-best in the 5K distance, finishing in 22:15, which is a 7:17 minutes/mi pace (4:27 minutes/km for my non-American readers), so I was quite excited, considering my Marathon Goal Pace is 9:00 minutes/mile (5:38 minutes/km).

A big thanks to my wife, Kim, and my Mom, Donna for being out there in the crowd on a chilly morning, cheering us on, and cooking that fine Thanksgiving feast we had right after the race ;-)

:-Dustin

I'm Running Ubuntu (2009-11-08)

I'm training for next year's Austin Marathon, on February 14, 2010. This will be my fourth marathon, having previously completed Motorola Austin/2004 (4:12:15), Freescale Austin/2006 (4:08:27), Marine Corps WashingtonDC/2007 (4:49:26 -- with ankle sprain). Since I didn't have a blog at the time, I never posted a race report. I did write one for each of those races. I'll post a retrospective on each of those races here. If you're interested, you might subscribe to my running tag, as I probably won't post those to Planet Ubuntu.

In preparation for that race, I ran Austin's Race for the Water 10 miler. I thought some of you might enjoy the custom tailored technical t-shirt, which proudly states:

i'm running ubuntu

The back of the shirt asks:

ARE YOU RUNNING UBUNTU?

If you're interested in the results, I completed the 10 miles in 01:28:40 (that's an 8:52/mi average). I was shooting for a 9:00/mi average, so clearly I was pleased with the result!

:-Dustin