Dave wrote a race report from last weekend, posted here:
http://www.kipley.com/team/terrafirma3.html
Thanks Dave! It was great fun racing with you and John :)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Eco Lonestar race
Last weekend John, Dave, and I did the Terra Firma Eco Lonestar race. This year the race venue was moved to the Lake Conroe/Stubblefield area. I like the area for the nav challenges, not so much for the prickly vines (there's a reason we don't do the Stubblefield O-meet anymore).
Shaun Bain and Bob Talamini designed the course, and they made it fun and interesting. All legs required navigation (yay!), no more "follow the ribbons" trail running or biking. We appreciate that.
We got to run on the Texas Lonestar Hiking Trail again - seems like a really nice trail, maybe we'll explore it more someday.
The paddle was really fun - figuring out the channels and the topography to plan our route, gliding around and sometimes over all these dead tree trunks standing in the middle of the lake, even the strong wind wasn't overly difficult. A special test of a "blind orienteering challenge" was right up our alley.
We then had the "wonderful" opportunity to bike on the dirtbike trails that criss-crossed the forest. The trail maps worked well. My ability to bike in the sand, not so much. I tried to figure it out, with a bit of coaching. Sometimes it felt like I actually knew what I was doing (I think Dirt Derby may have helped a bit), then I'd hit a deep sand pile and that was that. Once my Energy Output to Speed ratio went over a certain limit, it was off the bike for me!
Thankfully we weren't required to stay on any particular trails, just find the CP's, so a bit of dirt road riding and powerline riding made the second half of the bike section easier.
One last section - trekking through vines and crap to locate the final CP's. We didn't run this section cleanly, but luckily we had time to spare and still managed to finish the race in first place. Sweet!
Unfortunately, the only reason we could relax in the last section was because Leslie from Team MOAT fell off her bike and broke her collarbone. That SO sucks. Sorry Leslie!
Our team will get more of a race report out in the coming days, probably.
Shaun Bain and Bob Talamini designed the course, and they made it fun and interesting. All legs required navigation (yay!), no more "follow the ribbons" trail running or biking. We appreciate that.
We got to run on the Texas Lonestar Hiking Trail again - seems like a really nice trail, maybe we'll explore it more someday.
The paddle was really fun - figuring out the channels and the topography to plan our route, gliding around and sometimes over all these dead tree trunks standing in the middle of the lake, even the strong wind wasn't overly difficult. A special test of a "blind orienteering challenge" was right up our alley.
We then had the "wonderful" opportunity to bike on the dirtbike trails that criss-crossed the forest. The trail maps worked well. My ability to bike in the sand, not so much. I tried to figure it out, with a bit of coaching. Sometimes it felt like I actually knew what I was doing (I think Dirt Derby may have helped a bit), then I'd hit a deep sand pile and that was that. Once my Energy Output to Speed ratio went over a certain limit, it was off the bike for me!
Thankfully we weren't required to stay on any particular trails, just find the CP's, so a bit of dirt road riding and powerline riding made the second half of the bike section easier.
One last section - trekking through vines and crap to locate the final CP's. We didn't run this section cleanly, but luckily we had time to spare and still managed to finish the race in first place. Sweet!
Unfortunately, the only reason we could relax in the last section was because Leslie from Team MOAT fell off her bike and broke her collarbone. That SO sucks. Sorry Leslie!
Our team will get more of a race report out in the coming days, probably.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Houston observations
I spent several days wandering around Houston this week (yes, on purpose even!). Some things I noticed:
* You can see the effects of the hurricane, mostly in damaged signs (McDonald's arches seemed to have a particular problem holding up) and skewed street signs (making navigation occasionally interesting). But if you aren't looking closely, things seemed pretty normal.
* I met some very nice, helpful people. Just about every time I pulled out the map to inspect it, someone asked if they could help me find something.
* Wow, do a lot of people smoke.
* I saw a large number of homeless people, more than I've seen in other cities I've walked around in. I also saw a huge number of cops.
* There are a bunch of interconnecting tunnels under downtown, going from building to building and to the underground parking lots. It seems they are there mainly for business folks working during the weekday, and it occurs to me that there sort of a subculture (not that I really know what the term "subculture" means) in the tunnels. Smartly-dressed people hurrying to lunch and to meetings.
However, the smokers always ended up outside instead.
* Traffic is an absolute bear in Houston and I would really not enjoy that if I lived there.
The coolest thing to do:
Go into the JP Morgan Chase building and ride the elevator to the 60th floor for an awesome view.
The best deal:
$2 coffee and muffin in the morning at the public library cafe
* You can see the effects of the hurricane, mostly in damaged signs (McDonald's arches seemed to have a particular problem holding up) and skewed street signs (making navigation occasionally interesting). But if you aren't looking closely, things seemed pretty normal.
* I met some very nice, helpful people. Just about every time I pulled out the map to inspect it, someone asked if they could help me find something.
* Wow, do a lot of people smoke.
* I saw a large number of homeless people, more than I've seen in other cities I've walked around in. I also saw a huge number of cops.
* There are a bunch of interconnecting tunnels under downtown, going from building to building and to the underground parking lots. It seems they are there mainly for business folks working during the weekday, and it occurs to me that there sort of a subculture (not that I really know what the term "subculture" means) in the tunnels. Smartly-dressed people hurrying to lunch and to meetings.
However, the smokers always ended up outside instead.
* Traffic is an absolute bear in Houston and I would really not enjoy that if I lived there.
The coolest thing to do:
Go into the JP Morgan Chase building and ride the elevator to the 60th floor for an awesome view.
The best deal:
$2 coffee and muffin in the morning at the public library cafe
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
More web page stuff
I figured out how to add a Google calendar to my web page:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/calendar.html
My plan is to keep it updated with our race and travel schedule. I'll get more of the summer travel details on there once we get some things finalized. For now... assume Arizona, Vermont, and Colorado - it's shaping up to be a fun summer.
I also started another web page development class, complete with classwork that we are supposed to post online for practice. For those who are insanely bored, you can follow along because I should have an additional lesson posted approximately every Wednesday and Friday for the next six weeks:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/wp2_class/index.html
Many thanks again to Kip for allowing me some space on his site for silly stuff like this :)
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/calendar.html
My plan is to keep it updated with our race and travel schedule. I'll get more of the summer travel details on there once we get some things finalized. For now... assume Arizona, Vermont, and Colorado - it's shaping up to be a fun summer.
I also started another web page development class, complete with classwork that we are supposed to post online for practice. For those who are insanely bored, you can follow along because I should have an additional lesson posted approximately every Wednesday and Friday for the next six weeks:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/wp2_class/index.html
Many thanks again to Kip for allowing me some space on his site for silly stuff like this :)
Monday, February 16, 2009
A good weekend
I've had a fun couple of days.
Friday I went to work with John in San Antonio. Working once in a while is really more like entertainment than actual work. I helped hang vinyl signs on the back wall of the store, learning about measuring and placement, and most of all, learning that it would have been better if the paint were completely dry instead of only mostly-but-not-quite-completely dry. I also realized that it has been a long time since I've been on my feet for 10 hours straight. Well, unless I'm running.
Saturday was a deck party and orienteering treat! Thank you to our awesome friends Robyn and Cathy for hosting it, and to their son Garrett for letting me play along in the Rock Band game. Very cool.
Sunday John and I rode alongside the Austin Marathon course to take pictures, cheer people, and run support for our brother-in-law Loren and his friend Dirk. I'm a big fan of biking a marathon course instead of running it :)
Loren (in the hat) doing well, approaching mile 7:
Joyce crossing Mopac on 35th Street:
Deanna looking great:
Brenton approaching mile 15:
Raul (in yellow) just before mile 17:
Elizabeth running in the sun:
Loren finishing!
Dirk also completed 26.2 miles - congratulations!
Dirk and Loren at the Nightwing sculpture:
John shot a short video clip of Loren running on Cesar Chavez:
Friday I went to work with John in San Antonio. Working once in a while is really more like entertainment than actual work. I helped hang vinyl signs on the back wall of the store, learning about measuring and placement, and most of all, learning that it would have been better if the paint were completely dry instead of only mostly-but-not-quite-completely dry. I also realized that it has been a long time since I've been on my feet for 10 hours straight. Well, unless I'm running.
Saturday was a deck party and orienteering treat! Thank you to our awesome friends Robyn and Cathy for hosting it, and to their son Garrett for letting me play along in the Rock Band game. Very cool.
Sunday John and I rode alongside the Austin Marathon course to take pictures, cheer people, and run support for our brother-in-law Loren and his friend Dirk. I'm a big fan of biking a marathon course instead of running it :)
Loren (in the hat) doing well, approaching mile 7:
Joyce crossing Mopac on 35th Street:
Deanna looking great:
Brenton approaching mile 15:
Raul (in yellow) just before mile 17:
Elizabeth running in the sun:
Loren finishing!
Dirk also completed 26.2 miles - congratulations!
Dirk and Loren at the Nightwing sculpture:
John shot a short video clip of Loren running on Cesar Chavez:
Monday, February 9, 2009
Web page fun
I recently took an introductory class about building web pages using html code. Kip is letting me use a portion of his website to practice with, thanks Kip!
Just for kicks, I created some pages I call "Evolution of a Web Page".
I also compiled and posted a bunch of photos from our trip to Yellowstone National Park last summer.
Enjoy!
Just for kicks, I created some pages I call "Evolution of a Web Page".
I also compiled and posted a bunch of photos from our trip to Yellowstone National Park last summer.
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)