Marathon Mom!

My friend Kathy turned us on to the idea of walking a marathon, and we learned that my Mom had been wanting to try this.  We all signed up for the MDI Marathon in Bar Harbor, a super walker-friendly race with an 8.5 hour cutoff and an early start option.  Sadly Kathy couldn't make it (we missed you!), but then our friend Elaine got excited about it and signed up.  Along with several of Mom's "Hikers from Hell" lady friends, we gathered in Maine for a big weekend of firsts.

Before the race with our support crew/cameraman extraordinaire:

Our friend Sheila (Elaine's sister) flew up from Texas to support Elaine and help document the experience:

One of the Hikers from Hell wearing appropriate devil horns, with Elaine and Mom:

More Hikers from Hell with Headgear:

Pre-race fun at the starting line:

We are here...

One last pre-race photo:

And we're off!  And it wasn't raining (yet)!

John captured the start on video - thanks John!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su6gwbqjZLE

At the first crew access point, we were still being passed by runners from the regular start.  And it was raining by that point:

But we're still doing good!  Mom was ready for her walking poles but we were moving well and staying warm.

Drive-by shooting:

Here we are in one of the small towns we walked through, and the rain was about the worst through here.  Our shoes were quite soaked at this point, nearing the halfway mark.  The upside was that most of the runners had gone past, we were no longer in an area of high vehicle traffic, and we were approaching the most beautiful part of the course - along Somes Sound.  So lovely.  Crews weren't allowed to drive there so we have no photos and you'll just have to take my word for it.  Or go see for yourself.

Come back out to "civilization", still doing well at 18 miles in:

A short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGab-97gScw&feature=youtu.be

Heading up the road, having to deal with car traffic again.

The foliage was wet and lovely:

Sheila watching for us and staying dry:

Less than 6 miles to go!

The last section started getting tougher for Mom, but she hung in and persevered.  Our mile splits stayed pretty consistent even though it sometimes felt slower.  The long hill didn't seem to cause too many problems, but we were pretty psyched to get to the top.  The 24-mile aid station was still manned (thank you!), and Elaine entertained us with some funky dancing to the music they were playing.

Approaching the finish line!

A couple of the Hikers from Hell who rocked it (everyone finished strong)!

John spying on us as we're coming into town, all three of us moving well:

Mom looking great and Elaine walking with her daughter Leah:

Taking in the experience:

We made it!!  We started one hour early, so our official time was ~7:50 and change:

Wow, y'all!

So very proud of you both!!

Congratulations!

Mars Rover talk at RPI + Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon

We finally made it into EMPAC, the "new to me" performing arts center at RPI (my alma mater).  It was alumni weekend, and although the main groups there were from classes ending in '2 or '7, apparently they don't mind if other alumnae show up as well.  Which is great because John found out that some engineers and scientists that work on the Mars Rover program were giving a talk and slide show last Saturday.  Thanks for finding this, John!

So, to continue our "Autumn of Engineering"... and I haven't figure out a better term yet, sorry.  I was thinking "Physics Fall", which would be better than "The Fall of Physics"... but anyway.  I'm an engineer, not a linguist.

Waiting for the auditorium doors to open:

This building has some interesting design elements:

The pre-show slides were in 3-D (and yes, we have the glasses on backwards):

Digiscoping doesn't work so well in 3-D:

Discovery in 3-D (just put on your 3-D glasses - red goes on the left, apparently):

Always fun spending a few hours back at RPI:

The program started with an inspiring video of the rover's landing sequence (Seven Minutes of Terror), the people in the control center, and people watching from Times Square and in auditoriums around the country. I can't find that one of the web, but here's one with a good explanation of the landing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK5BUa45ehE

Showing all the analysis instruments on Curiosity - always great to be in a room of scientists and engineers to hear detailed explanations instead of more generic versions for a general audience.  The questions people asked were great too.

They haven't actually done this yet but it's fun to think about (part of taking material samples, if I remember right):

A photo of the incredible system for lowering the Rover onto the planet by cables - who thought of this and who actually decided "yes, we could make that work"??  Boggles my mind.

Heading by the bookstore on the way through campus - I've been wanting a picture of this shirt since seeing it at one of the Big Red Freakouts:

The rest of the day on Saturday was dedicated to food - Troy Farmers Market, Trader Joe's, and a pre-marathon Italian dinner  :)

On Sunday we ran the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon from Schenectady to Albany.  It was the most beautiful day to run 26.2 miles - nice and chilly, overcast but no rain even though we expected to get wet by the end.  Plenty of water stops and a bunch of cheering sections.  The course runs slightly uphill to reach the bike trail along the Mohawk, then many miles of bike path under beautiful foliage and along the pretty river.  Mostly downhill with a couple of long, gentle uphill grades that were hardly noticeable.

Miles 18 to ~22 were on the streets of Watervliet and the only time we had to deal with traffic, at least it was short.  And we finished with 4 miles on the bike path along the Hudson River, a trail we know well from winter training runs back and forth between Albany and Troy.

John ran a very smart race.  He knew exactly what pace he needed for a 3:25 finish which would give him a Boston qualifying time.  He started out just slightly slower, then monitored the pace group and ran with a couple of Canadians who were also shooting for similar finish times.  He said it felt easy for many miles, then his legs hurt a bit and it was work to maintain the pace.  No issues though, and he still ran strong to the end to finish in 3:23:54!  Congratulations John!

I had a marvelous day, basically "running for training" and looking for consistent mile splits.  The weather helped a lot, no sweating or heat management yesterday.  My legs did great and I was never breathing hard.  I've been reading Scott Jurek's book called "Eat and Run" and it has given me a few tips to work on.  At the end I was still feeling good, mostly trying to find John to see how he did.

Big hugs!!  Then he told me that he heard the Chicago Marathon was also yesterday, so we hustled home to try to get his Boston entry in as soon as we could since the entry process is still open but there is no telling when it will hit the max limit.  There is still a chance he might get in the 2013 race... we shall see.

It was an excellent marathon course, by the way - I highly recommend it.

NYC Maker Faire

We spent our anniversary Sunday on a special day trip to NYC to see the Maker Faire.  What an interesting and entertaining event!  So much going on for kids of all ages and anyone who likes to engineer and build things.  I'm more of a "watch John and make suggestions" kind of an engineer, so naturally I was the one taking pictures  :)

We would love to set up a bicycle-powered something to turn an indoor workout into something useful.  Maybe generate enough electricity to charge our iPods?  If we had to pedal in order to keep the TV on, now that would be some incentive.

Or we could grind up some wood chips...

Giant thumb war:

My first look at 3-D printers, pretty cool:

Metro Card Man and his robot sidekick:

Little car race - it lasted 75 minutes and actually kept me entertained the whole time.

Team FUBAR - they were not fast but after an hour they were not last!  Other cars had mechanical issues and some were taken out by a major rainstorm toward the end of the race, but these guys kept on truckin'

Remote-controlled quadcopters seen up close - these things are cool:

Hi there!

Not sure what this guy was doing, but here it looks like he's interviewing the quadcopter:

A short video I shot (notice the GoPro on the front which provides a video link back to a monitor screen so they can fly it out of visual contact):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXL7QNPFo60

Toothpick city:

The exciting Coke Zero and Mentos demonstration - waiting for it to start:

This video is longer but I had fun in my first foray at capturing a show on film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsu7l5N9qgY

Thank you guys, that was great!

Afterwards we wandered down Roosevelt Avenue debating which Hispanic restaurant to try, and we ended up in a Peruvian place in honor of our friends who are currently in South America paddling the Amazon River.  It was an interesting menu, and an even more interesting seafood stew.  Lots of fish (or meat, in the case of my beef stew) and rice, not a lot of vegetables.  But the food was flavorful:

Always an adventure in New York City!