Fourth Annual World Wide Festival of Races

WWFoR Logo 2009Last Monday I ran my half marathon for the World Wide Festival of Races. This is a race I have participated in for the last 4 years. It was also the 4th running in some form or another. It started out as just a half marathon and now includes a 5K and 10K option.

This year I was running from Mom and Dad’s house in Pensacola, FL. I have already called off a marathon later this fall due to a stress fracture in my left foot. It is not serious yet, but I don’t want to do too many long miles. I am still running, but mostly 3 miles or less at a time. However, you don’t run a half marathon at only 3 miles, so there was work to be done.

I got 7 miles into the run when I knew it was time to stop. I walked from that point on. It took me 3 and 1/2 hours to do the 13.1 miles, but I stuck it out.

I had a “first” on this run. A black snake decided to visit with me a short time. I have seen snakes on runs before, but this was the first time while running “in town.” Or, at least on roads and not trails. I also strongly considered a DNF on this run. Even though this was not an official course with other runners around me, I entered this run as a race and felt like I had to give myself my first DNF if I did not finish.

Physically I did fine. It was mentally tough to stay at it. By walking the last 6 miles I did not give any more pain in my foot, but it sure took a long time.

This will not go down in my record books as being a special race/run, but I did accomplish the task.

Do you GoodSearch?

GoodSearch logoOne of the missionaries I had in a class a couple of weeks ago suggested we use a search engine called GoodSearch. It is a search engine that lets you specify where you would like a portion of the advertising money that you generate from web searches to go. She said that there is a charity that she always sends her money to through GoodSearch. To do that all you do is choose the charity and use the GoodSearch website. Everything else is taken care of in the background.

I have set up my mission organization, Baptist International Outreach, to receive money through GoodSearch. You can choose BIO on the drop down menu if you would like to help us out, or you can choose your own charity. By helping out our board office you are helping to support over 100 missionaries through your web searches.

While it is a small portion that is actually donated with each search, it is at least something that is being sent to the charity. That is certainly better than donating nothing.

GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo. I find that I get totally different results with them than when I use Google. Neither one is necessarily better than the other, just different. Try it out and see for yourself.

Take time to learn your tools

Receptionist phoneYesterday (Thursday) I got a phone call from a doctor’s office I called on Tuesday. The receptionist was calling me back to confirm that my doctor would take my wife as a new patient even though he is currently not taking new patients. This was good news.

The receptionist asked to speak with my wife to get all her information. Since I am clueless as to my wife’s address, phone number and birthdate, I relinquished the phone to her. The conversation included my wife having to give her Social Security number 4 times. Address, phone number and birthdate 3 times. This was because the receptionist (who schedules all the appointments) was having trouble with the “new” computer system.

In my phone conversation with the receptionist on Tuesday I had to go through similar antics. After giving all of my information once, she had to ask for it again. I think I probably went through the whole battery of questions 3 times.

Since I am an existing patient and they have a new computer system I can understand that the receptionist would want to verify my information in their computer. But the data from the old computer system did not get pulled into the new system. So she was having to input it all for the very first time. That seems poorly implemented.

Here’s the rub though. If the system was “new” on Tuesday and all this receptionist does is schedule appointments and input data into the computer, shouldn’t she be better at it after 2 days of use? I can’t imagine having as much problem inputing data into a computer after 2 days as I did the first day. My suspicion is that the system is not “new”, as in, this week, but “new”, as in, the last week or two.

One would hope that the doctor knows how to use his tools before he starts working on you. Shouldn’t other professions be trained in their tools too? I know data entry may not be as life-critical as a surgeon’s work, but you should be able to accomplish such a simple task with at least 2 full days of practice. This isn’t brain surgery; it is data entry.

I try not to be harsh on older people who are trying to learn new technology, but if you have a tool that you are supposed to use for work, you should be able to adapt to it pretty quickly or maybe look at a different line of work. I have no idea how old the lady is in the doctor’s office, but I have never seen anyone in there older than maybe 50 except for one nurse who I am sure is not the data entry specialist.

Google Maps Feature: Lot Markings

Map detailThis morning I got up to map out my running route for the day. I noticed a new feature on Google Maps. It marks out where the housing lots are. I thought maybe this had already been there and I just now noticed it. Though it had to be less than 5 days old since I know I used Google Maps on Saturday.

This feature may have already been available in other areas, but this is the first time I have seen it. I do know that it is new for my neighborhood.

I have now been able to narrow down the time of when it was rolled out here. I was playing a game last night that uses Google Maps and the feature was not there. This morning the game has the new feature shown. So sometime between midnight last night and 7:00 this morning is when it was implemented in the Pensacola area.

Anyone already see this feature in your area?

What is it good for? I can see that it would be helpful in searching out property. If you are looking for some place that has a little bit larger than average yard in a particular neighborhood it would be useful. With the already current feature of having the blocks marked out with numbers telling you approximately the address of each house, this is an incremental step to giving us an exact address for each of the little lots that they are marking off now. When typing in an address you can see if the house you are looking for is on the corner, or three lots down. I can imagine that they will make it easy to click on one of the blocks and get the exact address in the near future.

This does not work in Mexico where we lived. But they also don’t have addressing information in the city of Merida yet either. Only the streets are laid out.

Marathon Training: Week 7 and 8

Week 7
Monday
2.02 miles run. Easy run. Nothing special.

Wednesday
6 mile tempo run. That was really supposed to be a 4 mile tempo with a mile warm up and cool down. That is basically the way it played out. Not quite the total 6 miles, but it was close enough.

Found loot on runThis was a Eureka! day. Not because anything super special was discovered in my mind, but I found loot on my run. I have rarely found things. And almost never anything of value. But that day I found 2 hitch pins and a toy lizard.  The first hitch pin I saw I just took note of it in my mind and thought it was curious. The second one caused me to stop and think that maybe I had a collection started. I picked the second one up and then turned around to get the first one.

After rounding the corner on my way back to the house I saw a little toy lizard. I was not convinced it was a toy at first, so I was careful when trying to grab it. Since we had just started a meeting in a church with a group of friends, I determined right off that the lizard was going to go to church with me and be used to scare some ladies. What fun!

I got home with the loot and showed the lizard to my 5 year old daughter and told her she could have it after I used it to scare people at church. When she prayed for breakfast the prayer was something like this: “Heavenly Father, thank you for letting my daddy find a lizard that he is going to give to me after he takes it to church and scares some people with it. Amen.” Somehow she forgot to pray for the food. The lizard was too exciting for her.

By the way, it was mostly just the older ladies who screamed at the lizard. The younger mothers seemed to be used to creatures being shoved in their faces.

Saturday
16 mile long run. This run was done completely in the rain. 3.5 hours of torrential rain. At times I had trouble seeing the cars on the road, I am sure they had trouble seeing me. The hills were a bit of a challenge (I was in east Tennessee near Gatlinburg).

The ugly truth
I think I am out for this marathon. At least for doing a good time at it. Without any warning or previous discomfort, during the long run on Saturday I felt the pain of a stress fracture in my left foot after 12 miles. I made it the rest of the way home, but my foot definitely needs to heal. I have babied it since with just shorter runs. Now, a week and a half later, the pain is almost completely gone, but I know there is damage in there.

How will I proceed from here?
I am going to limit myself to shorter runs (2 to 5 miles) for a few weeks. I am also going to ramp up my cycling. I will try and keep my endurance up with that, but cycling is no substitute for running. You can’t prepare for a marathon on a bike. The muscles used are a different set. I will do some strength training work on those important running muscles and keep running the shorter runs. My goal is to see if I can get a couple of longer runs in just a couple of weeks before the marathon and see how my foot does. I only have 7 weeks to go before marathon day. I am not out of running and I am not giving it up, but I am going to do more cycling to let my foot heal and come back stronger.

What caused it?
I suspect I know the cause of the stress fracture again. Too much too soon. Last year I had been running much more consistently when I started my marathon training. While I have been running well this year, I have mostly done shorter runs. When I looked up the cause of stress fractures in the foot I found a picture of me by the definition. Trying to run either too fast or too far without working up to the speed or distance. I just added the miles too quickly this year. I have also put on an extra 25 lbs. That added weight just adds to the stress on the feet.

Week 8
Monday
Ran 2 miles with friends. Nothing fast nor fancy.

Wednesday
Nothing.

Saturday
20 mile bike ride over into Alabama. Since I don’t listen to my iPod during bike rides I tend to meditate more on scripture. That day the verse “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” (Psalm 121:1) came into my head. Hills and cycling are not what I consider a great combination. At least not for someone who is biking in flat Florida.