Yesterday I ran in my first (in my mind) 10k. Why do I add the qualifier of “in my mind”, you ask? I’ll tell you. In mid-April, I participated in the Kansas Marathon 10k race. That was technically my first 10k. However, after I finished, I found out that the actual route was more than 2/3 mi. short of actually being a true 10k! Needless to say I was a bit disappointed.
However, as I said, yesterday I ran another one. I am considering this my first “real” 10k, and I picked a tough one! I ran in the Hospital Hill race in Kansas City, MO. The “Hill” in the name isn’t just for show… and there’s more than just one. The hills in that race were brutal! But that didn’t stop me; I ran, in my humble opinion, an awesome race and finished with an official time of 1:20:36. Not bad for someone who hasn’t been running long!
It was a tough day, but it’s only going to get tougher over the coming weeks. Yesterday’s race was actually just another training day on my way to my first half-marathon on July 4th in Brownville, NE. More to come on that later!
For now, I need to get to bed. Tomorrow is my first day back at work after a couple weeks off… ew.
I meant to write this sooner, but that’s life. Last week, I knocked two items off my 30 by 30 list. I went to eat at a little hole-in-the-wall cafe called the Little Saigon Cafe on the recommendation of my friend Brian.
I ordered the Chicken Pho, which is basically a rice noodle soup. It wasn’t too bad, but there was a very strong onion flavor. I also ordered their egg rolls, which I thought were quite tasty.
That’s it. I think I’ll go back to the cafe and try some of their other dishes. They had some stuff that looked pretty good, though I will probably not have the Pho again.
Sorry, no pictures… maybe with my next “look what I ate” post.
Inspired by this post, I have decided to create a “30 by 30″ list of things that I want to do before I turn 30 in a little under a year. I’ll keep this post updated as the year progresses, and we’ll see how I fared next March.
Disclaimer: Many of these (especially the categories) are taken straight from (or inspired by) the list above.
Cooking
- Make something from scratch
- Make a completely new (to me) dish
- Try a new dish Done!
- Try a new restaurant Done!
Creating
- Average 2+ blog posts per week
- Write at least two new songs
- Try out vlogging (at least once)
- Finish migrating World of Pannotia to its own domain
- Create a new theme for this domain (ChimericDream.com) Done!
- Write a short story
- Get the notes out of my head and onto (digital) paper for the World of Pannotia setting
Friends, Family, Home, & Social
- Have my nieces and nephews over for a night/weekend sleepover
- Make it up at least once a month to see my parents (it’s not that far… should be more, but let’s start small)
- Host a BBQ/cookout/dinner/food night at my apartment
- Visit my grandparents in Colorado
- Finally get my apartment clean
- Have someone I don’t know comment on my blog. Bonus: Have an “industry expert” (any “industry”) comment on my blog.
- Post photo albums on my Picasa page Done!
- Write an article for someone else’s website
- Visit a museum/art exhibit
- See a play/musical/concert
Physical Challenges
- Run a half-marathon
- Lose 4 inches off my waist (i.e. be at or below a 38″ waist)
- Run 2 miles without stopping Done!
- Run 20 miles
Programming
- Learn Symfony (to at least a basic level)
- Contribute to an open source project
- Start an open source project
Wedding Planning
- Book a venue for my wedding.
- Save $4000 (before expenditures)
So I’ve slacked off quite a bit lately. I haven’t posted to the blog since before my first 5k in January. Since then, I have run in two 5k’s and a 10k (sort of). I promise to catch up on the results of those races (along with the promised pictures from the polar plunge in January) over the next few weeks. Hopefully I can get back into posting on a semi-regular basis.
I also want to (try to) post more current news relating to technology or geek stuff (or whatever I feel like) as those things come up. This will likely mean shorter blog posts, but hopefully they will be more relevant and current when I post them. One of my goals is to improve the quality of my writing over time.
So here we go again…
There is a recent news story about an awesome new device called the Raspberry Pi. Here’s the gist: some really smart guys built a prototype of a computer in the form factor of a USB stick. But that’s nothing new. Devices like the SheevaPlug have been around for a couple of years now. So what’s the big deal about this one?
The most amazing thing about this new prototype is its cost; the developers expect it to sell for around $25US. That’s enough to make even the people over at the OLPC foundation do a double take.
So why won’t it take? Simply put, the target audience — according to its creator — is made of of low-income students who do not have access to a computer at home. The idea is that with this tiny computer, the student could learn about programming and be able to access the web from home. But here’s the problem with that logic: if a family cannot afford a computer, what makes you think they’ll have internet access? This computer has no built-in wireless connectivity. Now, you could probably plug a USB hub into it and get all the ports you need, but without an actual wireless connection, what’s the point?
Don’t get me wrong, I think this is an awesome development in the field of ultra-small, inexpensive computers. However, until the creators find some way to include wireless — standard wi-fi or, better yet, 3G (or LTE, or 4G, or some other cell network) — I don’t see it being quite the boon everyone is making it out o be.
What do you think?
Am I totally off base, or do you agree? Let me know in the comments.
It’s frustrating how easy it is to stop doing something. But I finally managed to get back out and run last night after two weeks without anything. I still haven’t gotten to writing my recap of the polar plunge and strut from January, but I promise it’s coming (with pictures and video!).
I’m going to change up the format of my posts about runs. I don’t want/need to focus so much on my time for my daily/routine runs, so I’ll just post the mileage and totals at the end of each week.
So for yesterday, 2/15, I had a nice 2.1 mile jog/walk with Orion. I’m planning to jog a bit tonight as well, but I have a busy night ahead of me, so we’ll see.
On second thought, I need to run, not make excuses… so if I wind up having a late night run, so be it.
Talk to you later.
