I used to get pretty nervous before a half marathon; the distance always seemed fairly substantial. I guess after finishing an Ironman a mere 13.1 miles seems inconsequential. It is only fitting that my lack of respect for this distance resulted in one of my worst performances in recent memory.With the race starting at 2:30 in the afternoon, I had figured I needed to leave by 9am in order to make the trip to Conway Missouri to pick up my friend Brandon and then to Springfield for the run. As usual, I didn’t get on the road when I wanted and didn’t end up leaving Kirksville until 10. This meant arriving at the race site only 20 minutes before the start and after waiting in line to register I had only about 5 minutes to use the restroom and jog to the starting line.

Once at the starting line I talked to the eventual half marathon winner and asked him what kind of time he was shooting for. He told me around 1:16:00. He asked me my goal time and I said I was hoping for 1:20:00. Yeah, right…

I was still optimistic that I might run a PR. My previous best half marathon was the 2003 Drake Relays half marathon which I ran in 1:24:45. I figured this course was flat and I should be in better shape than I was back in 2003. What I didn’t consider was that the Drake Relays was in late April when I would have been prepping for the start of the triathlon season, not during Christmas at a time when I had been doing more drinking and eating than serious training.

The horn sounded and we were off! There were about 300 runners starting together, but there were 4 different races starting concurrently (5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon). The primary course was a 5k course; those of us running farther than a 5k were doing multiple laps, 4 laps for the half marathoners. In addition, the half marathon runners were running .37 miles out and around a cone then back to the starting line and around another cone before we started our 4 laps.

The run to the cone went relatively quickly and only one person rounded it before I did, the eventual winner who was going for a 1:16:00 time. Back to the start and I was still in second though I was beginning to realize it was going to be a tougher run than I had thought going in. About a half mile later I got passed by a runner. A little while later a second runner passed me. Eventually by the end of the first loop, I was passed by two more runners which put me in 6th place.

The course was a loop with several out and back stretches so there were plenty of chances to see people who might be closing in on you. There were several runners I kept on seeing that I knew were in the half marathon that I thought looked stronger than I did and I figured I would hear them coming up behind me at any time. However, after the first 5k loop, no other runners would end up passing me. This is surprising especially since after the first loop I began thinking how nice it would be to just be doing the 10k. Then following the second loop I began to seriously consider quitting until I decided that even though I wasn’t doing well, at worst I was getting in a good training run.

As it turns out I was the 5th person to finish so I wasn’t in 6th like I had thought. However, this race was “age graded” which means that while I was the 5th person across the line, in the “official” results I finished 19th. Regardless, I was not happy with my time of 1:30:32.

Probably the most frustrating aspect of this race was the inability to keep mile splits on my watch. What I ended up doing was recording my time for each time I crossed the finish/start line.

3.84 miles – 24:51 (6:28 pace)
3.1 miles – 21:28 (6:55 pace)
3.1 miles – 21:56 (7:04 pace)
3.1 miles – 22.29 (7:15 pace)

Now for a little rant: I’m not at all a fan of “age graded” races. As a highly competitive person, a huge motivator for me during a run is the competition. Pit me against an equally fit individual and unless they are as competitive as I am, I will beat them because I’m driven to win. However, in a WAVA age graded race, there is no way of knowing how much time you have to put into someone in order to “beat” them. I would have had to finish 11 minutes ahead of any 50 year olds to beat them and 9 minutes ahead of any 40 year olds to beat them. Even the eventual winner, had I been able to run shoulder to shoulder with him for the whole race, I would have lost to him as he had 55 seconds taken off his time of 1:15:48. So while the WAVA age graded results are cool to encourage runners who might be older and struggle to lower their times, to base race results on them is stupid. If you are too old to compete for the overall, that’s what age groups are for.

Here is a link to the results: http://omrr.tripod.com/results/2004/ranchhalf04.htm

Just in time for the Holidays I’ve got my projector up and running. Now if only I could get myself outside and running! When will this cold weather end??

It will be some time before the complete “home theater” is done, that will involve finishing the basement, but the projector is running great. Click on “read more” to see more pictures of the video projector…

The projector all setup in the living room…

Watching “The Two Towers”…

This gives a perspective on the size of the projected image. Currently I’m limited by the size of the screen…

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a guru yet. I’m not a guru when it comes to triathlons, and I’m definitely not a guru when it comes to electronics! So when I decided to build a video projector, I wasn’t 100% certain it was possible, especially not by me. Nevertheless I jumped headlong into the project…

I had entertained the idea of a DIY big screen tv a while back and had researched the idea on the internet, only to decide that most of the “plans” available online were bogus. The majority of the plans suggested that with the use of a tv, a big box, and a fresnel you could project the tv image to a wall. The obvious (to me at least) missing piece of the puzzle was “light”, how will the tv image be bright enough to show up on the wall? So I scraped the idea, at least for the time being…

After a year or so, a co-worker and friend of mine, Walt Howd came across an article and video on Tom’s Hardware titled “Supersize Your TV for $300: Build Your Own XGA Projector!”. In short, the approach in this article was to take a 15″ lcd monitor and remove the lcd from the casing and remove the backlight after which you set it on an overhead projector. I knew this was legitimate, not only since it was on Tom’s Hardware, but because I had seen something similar done before with an lcd panel that was manufactured explicitly for this purpose. However, I wasn’t real impressed with this approach. Then Walt came across a much better method which is documented at Lumenlab. This new approach involves building a “box” that the stripped lcd goes in along with several fresnels, a projector lens, and a 400w metal hallide bulb. So that’s the idea in a nutshell and since a picture is worth a 1000 words…

The first order of business is to get all the necessary parts. Ebay is a great source. Also, having lots of miscelaneous junk laying around never hurts…

Stripping the LCD was the scariest part, any mistake could ruin the LCD

Once started, space quickly became an issue and I found my work space needed to expand…

I used scrap/salvaged wood to build my box. The dimensions are approximately 15″ wide, 11″ tall, and about 30″ long.

The interior of the box goes something like this: Reflector (mixing bowl), MH 400W bulb, Lexan heat shield, fresnel, lcd, fresnel, lcd brains, projector lens/focus box.

The focus box allows the lens to move for focusing…

…just about done with the focus box.

Firing up the bulb for the first time. My bulb and ballast hasn’t arrived yet, the testing I’ve done has been with Walt’s bulb and ballast…

For the intial testing I used a colored transparency…

Later on I added the LCD, it was a relief to see it still working following the stripping of the LCD…

This final image I hesitated to post as I didn’t set the camera on a tripod and it turned out really blurry. Trust me though, the image looked great in person!

So “the Van” was finally in its new home with its new hippie wannabe owner. Driving it around was a hoot. People got excited when they saw it. When I had stopped on the way back from purchasing it to check and make sure my fuel tank wasn’t leaking, I had several people ask me when I was going to sell it as if they wanted to buy it. I can remember thinking “I won’t be getting rid of this anytime soon”…

One of the first items on the agenda was to purchase a “garage” from Sam’s club. These VW vans are notorious for rusting and I didn’t want my van sitting outside in the harsh Missouri winter.

I had learned on my trip back from St Louis that the heater didn’t really work so for most of that first winter the van sat in the plastic garage except for an occasional jaunt around town or to work. I also learned that for going out, nothing beat the van. On more than one occasion I would leave a bar or restaurant and find college girls getting their pictures taken in front of the van! Everyone loved the van…

I wasn’t real happy with the condition of the carpet which was the original green carpet. So my first project on the van was to replace the carpet. This turned out to be a little more labor intensive than I had expected as most of the furniture had to be removed to accomplish this. Eventually the carpet was replaced and I also had a CD player installed.

The van was ready for the triathlon season!!

Several weeks after winning the bidding for my VW van, I arrived in Saint Louis to pick it up. I had caught a ride to St. Louis with a friend, figuring I could drive the van home. However, when we arrived at the sellers house, we were informed that earlier in the day the van had died and he had been unable to restart it. The plan had been for me to drive it home that night, but instead I hung out in St. Louis at my parent’s house while the seller had it towed to a VW shop. Turns out it was a loose wire and the following day the van was fixed and the transaction was made!Driving it home was a new experience. Not only was it remarkably underpowered, the heater didn’t work and it was kind of cold outside. So I was cruising down the highway at about 65mph with the gas floored and gloves and a jacket on to stay warm. That is when the gas leak sprung! One minute the tank is full and the next minute the needle has dropped below empty. Something has to be wrong! I pulled into the next gas station and bought a flashlight. After a cursory inspection, I was unable to spot any leaks, so I went ahead and filled the tank up. I still was unable to spot any leaks, so I continued on while keeping a closer eye on the tank. Turns out it was just a faulty gas guage. I eventually stopped for the night just outside of Hannibal and tried out the sleeping arrangements for the first time.

One of the primary reasons for purchasing the Van was for traveling to triathlons. My current vehicle at the time for triathlon travel was my Ford Tarus Station Wagon:

Now, with my new van the plan was to use it for my “triathlonmobile”, something I could travel to triathlons in and get a good night sleep in once I arrived:

Not only was there a bed and sink, their was an extendable roof with an “upstairs” double bed as well!