A brief personal boast
10 May 2004

My regular readers know that I usually confine my postings to the business of software and the occasional remark about the packaged cookie industry.  Many weblogs are personal diaries of daily life.  This one usually is not.  But today I make an exception so that I can tell "the world" about a personal accomplishment.

This weekend I walked a half-marathon (13.1 miles).  My time was 3 hours, 26 minutes, 15 seconds, for an average pace of 15:45 per mile.

I enjoyed the race a lot more than I thought I would.  There were over 30,000 participants.  We started in downtown Indianapolis and went out to the speedway, walked one lap around the track, and then back downtown.  I've never been a fan of auto racing, but this year I plan to watch the Indy 500 simply because I walked the same track where they'll be driving.

The results are online, but unfortunately you won't see my name there.  Approximately three hours after I started, the race was "red-flagged" due to the heat.  If the weather gets too hot, they turn off the official clock in the hope that the remaining participants will not push themselves too hard.  (Their concern was apparently quite valid -- I found out this morning that one man collapsed and died during the race.  My condolences to his family.)  Everyone who comes in after the red flag still gets a finisher's medal, but we didn't get an official time.  Search on my last name and you will see that my wife (Lisa) and my Dad (Gary) both finished before the red flag.  In addition, my Mom (Karolyn) finished the 5K.

I considered burying this announcement in an essay about the importance of finishing to the end of a long software development project.  However, that particular veil would have been very thin indeed, so I'll just let this post be what it is.