Quick Marathon Summary

I hope to write more later, below, I'll paste my twitters of the day. My race time was 3:47:27.

Home now, and bathed. I probably won't wear clothes for the rest of the day. This robe is comfy. Need to eat soon. My chip time: 3:47:00 about 1 hour ago from web
Finished! about 4 hours ago from txt
Mile 20! about 5 hours ago from txt
18 done 8 left about 5 hours ago from txt
Half way! about 6 hours ago from txt
Off we go! about 8 hours ago from txt
Clothes checked. Now to find start. about 8 hours ago from txt
Arrived Seattle Center about 8 hours ago from txt
Freaking out a little. In a good way. about 8 hours ago from txt
Buses work. Good start too day. about 9 hours ago from txt
Been through the checklist twice; nearly ready to leave. about 9 hours ago from web
I slept reasonably well last night; now I'm up having coffee before the final preparations. about 10 hours ago from web

Marathon Prep

I picked up my chip and whatnot today. The marathon is Sunday. I'll send brief twitters along the way, specifically at the start, mid-point and 18 mile mark. My username is modernkutuzov

I need to remember all the important things:

band-aides on nipples
Buckaroo Banzai hat
special socks
running shoes
utility belt
bottle with 1/3 Powerade, 2/3 water
ID
House key
cel phone (charged)
iPod (charged)
earphones
iPod armband
boxer-briefs
non-bunching running shorts
long sleeved, synthetic running shirt
cash (enough for cab fare home)
the chip
stocking hat (for before and after, weather dependant)
sweatshirt (ditto)
the bag to put those in
watch

The itinerary there follows:

Walk 0.2 mile SW from S SPOKANE ST to
Depart	Rainier Ave S & 33rd Ave S	At 06:54 AM	On Route MT 7 Downtown Seattle
Arrive	Rainier Ave S & S Walker St	At 06:58 AM
Transfer to
Depart	Rainier Ave S & S Walker St	At 07:08 AM	On Route MT 4 Downtown Seattle
Arrive	5th Ave N & Republican St	At 07:38 AM
Walk 0.1 mile S to MEMORIAL STADIUM

The race starts at 8:15 a.m.

My first goal is to finish
second goal is to finish in less than four hours
third goal is to finish under 3:41

My training pace has been right around eight minute miles, creeping up to 8 1/2 and over for long runs of 10 miles or more.

Battlestar Galactica, the Board Game

I first caught sight of the Battlestar Galactica Board game at the Fantasy Flight Games booth during PAX. I kibitzed for awhile, wandered the hall awhile, then checked back; the table was still full, so I wandered some more, and returned again. This time, a game was wrapping up, so I was able to reserve my spot for the next round.

By the end of the hour long demo, I’d fallen in love. Unfortunately, aside from about 300 copies between Gen-Con and PAX, the game hadn’t really been released yet. October, they said.

October came, I asked my game shop to hold a copy for me, but the game didn’t arrive. I even scheduled a party with some of my closest friends for mid November.

Finally, on November 11th (Veteran’s Day), four days before my party, the Fantasy Flight website announced the game’s release. I called my normal game shop: no luck. Their games arrive on Friday. That was okay, I thought. The party was scheduled for Saturday.

I stopped in on Friday, and they hadn’t received the game: it was looking bleak for Saturday’s event. We might wind up playing Munchkin, I thought.

I hadn’t quite given up home, however, and earlyish Saturday, I got my phone, sat down at the computer, and started calling game stores. I’d already scouted Borders and Barnes and Noble; both had board games, but neither could help me.

Immediately, I struck gold: Gary’s Games in Greenwood had a copy. Yes, she would hold it, yes it may be the last copy. Please bring cash because our machine is broken.

After a few stop hunt to find some soundtrack accompaniment (I’d resisted the day prior because of the theme’s uncertainty), I returned home around 3 p.m.; I had just enough time to glance at the rules before guests started to arrive.

The game has many elements and can be confusing to new players. No single element is particularly complex, and for the most part, a player doesn’t need to know the details of each piece.

Early in our inaugural game, we discovered the first Cylon. That’s when it started getting good. We had strong suspicions about the second, but had some trouble getting her into the brig. She proclaimed her innocence, but then, any sleeper Cylon would plead innocent.

With both suspected Cylons (Baltar and Helo) in the brig, we reached the half way point; by rule Boomer was sent to the brig. Otherwise, space was quiet; unfortunately we weren’t spooling our FTL very quickly, but we saw no cause for alarm.

We freed Boomer, and by a twist of fate, Tyrol was thereafter imprisoned. That’s when the dirty Cylon spy struck: it was Boomer, and we had freed her. Through her dirty machinations, my character, Saul Tigh (the commander of the fleet) was imprisoned as well. At this point, every character aboard Galactica was in the brig. Lucky for us, Laura Roslin was on Colonial One. Helo was righteously indignant.

Even though I was on the wrong end of it, this was a moment of pure gaming beauty. My team, the human team, thought we had control, and suddenly BAM! virtually everyone was in the brig.

A few turns later, the brig was empty. Baltar left Galactica to join his partner in the Cylon fleet, and the rest of us were pardoned. Slowly, the fleet jumped closer to Kobol, as our resources dwindled.

We reached a point where the FTL was nearly ready; on my turn I would take us home; I would lead us to victory.

That’s when Baltar struck again: there was an explosion in our food stores. It was worse than a crisis. It was, the end. The human fleet starved in space, mere moments from freedom.

I had heard that it was difficult for the humans to win; at first I didn’t believe it. We seemed to be cruising along with little difficulty. However, now I understand. We had even overlooked a few rules and strategies that may have helped the Cylons even more: we didn’t know to launch Raiders during their activation step, if none were on the board, and Baltar probably would have been better off if he’d joined the Cylon fleet sooner.

I also forgot to abdicate military control of the fleet when I was thrown in the brig, but that probably didn’t affect the game’s outcome.

Next time, I want to play a pilot, or the president. Next time, maybe I’ll get to be a Cylon...

Brain Power / Consulting

Lately most of my brain energy has been focused on developing in the new job, not to mention the physical energy I continue to expend duirng the last phase of marathon training.

As a result, I've been lax on adding to the blog. Below are recent observations following a class I co-facilitated yesterday:

11/21/08 – CPI Fundamentals

This group had many social workers and others for whom the class was mandatory.

I was struck again how there is often one or two questions written in the evals that could have easily been answered, had the student asked during the class. At some point, they need to meet us half-way. Students need to take responsibility for their own educations.

Having said that, I have an idea to improve based on the feedback that we got afterwards: it sounds like at least one person would have liked to hear ‘how a RPIW is born / comes into being’ story, not unlike the ‘how a bill becomes a law’ story from those old Schoolhouse Rock episodes in the ‘80s.

I always build in time for questions, and I frequently ask if they have any. This emphasizes that I certainly don’t do it too much, and could still benefit from building in more ways to pull out the class members.

There were several comments about the dryness of the content. Part of this probably ties back, again, to the fact that the members didn’t particularly want to be there. On the other hand, there’s always room to make the content more dynamic and interesting. This exists both for the presenter and for us as a group, as we continue to polish the material.

Another feedback disconnect occurred between the perception that the class was too long, and the sufficiency with which the content was covered. For example, I felt like the Quality module went really well. Discussion went well, folks were engaged, I trust in my own understanding of the content... yet I got many ‘4’ out of ‘5’s, along with feedback that the class was too long.

I wonder if there’s room to split the groups into 2’s and 3’s for the more pivotal discussions. That way everyone hears and is heard, even if the group gets fragmented.

The Airplane Simulation was the funnest part of the day. For one thing, it strongly resembled teaching folks to play a new game – more than resembled – in many ways, that’s what it is.

I’ve had some practice with this lately, so getting everyone to understand what they were to do went smoothly. Everything else just kinda worked. The total run time didn’t get out of hand, the lead time was reasonable, and shrank appropriately with the second run. Productivity worked, and tripled between runs (from .06 to .2). As always, it’s important to keep the units: the number represents percent of a plane built per person per minute.

Halloween 2008

I'm still a little impressed that we managed to get home from work, into costume and go out for Halloween. We don't have a great record for Friday night entertainment.

We went to the Little Red Studio's "Erotic Haunted House, the Dreaming." Nearly all of the attendees were in costume, and it was a very attractive group of people. There was lots of lovely cleavage; cuteness abounded.

The show itself followed a young woman's subconscious throughout her dreams. As dreams often are, the narrative was largely non-linear, but with themes and characters that threaded throughout. Some lovely, some funny, some erotic and some rather horrifying.

After the show, we lucked out and hailed a cab very quickly, and were home a little after nine.

Collaboration and Competition

Lately I've been thinking about collaboration and competition; I don't have any interesting conclusionk, but I do have a list of observations and opinions:

People, and by 'people' I include myself, often wrap their competitive natures in with their sense of self worth.

Competitive play is often exciting and more fun than non-competitive play.

Sometimes play with less competition is more fun.

Competition and hierarchy are often connected. Sometimes this is right and appropriate.

We as an American society tend to connect the two too much rather than too little.

The value of collaboration is often overlooked.

A collaborative effort will generally accomplish more than a competitive effort.

We are all in this life together.

When you're escaping from a burning plane, sometimes only the first [insert unknown coefficient] number of people out the door will survive.

Sometimes everyone can survive if you work together.

Unhealthy jealousy spawns from allowing competitive impulses too much influence over one's relationships.

D&D Feats

Notes to self: when Ayn hits level four, he gets another feat. I plan to take Channel Divinity: Harmony of Erathis. This provides a +2 to hit once per encounter to an ally.

Paladins are primarily defenders, but also can perform as back-up leaders/healers or strikers. I'm trying to balance his feats and powers to fill out the dual nature of the character and to allow him to perform in some of those roles capably.

My vision is to focus on the defender and leader aspects; that aligns with his impulse to hit the bad guys balanced with his urge toward harmony.

When I first created him, I took Ritual Casting as his feat. However, he couldn't afford a spellbook, and hasn't been back to civilization since. Now, ritual casting doesn't really fit into his concept. So, I think I'll retrain that feat into something defendery: either Ferocious Rebuke which allows characters to push opponents once per encounter, or Weapon Focus: Heavy Blade, which gives +1 damage rolls.

Grace beats Karma

I'm blessed by many things: good health, great job, amazing friends, a deep and ever growing love for my wife, the sun is shining etc...

I don't believe for a second that I 'deserve' any of it. Sure, I've earned much of it, I had to work hard to get this job, and I try to make and grow meaningful relationships... but that's not the same thing. It's a trap to think that anyone 'deserves' anything, whether it's good or bad.

Starving kids in Africa don't deserve their fate, and Bill Gates doesn't really deserve the resources he controls. Yes, he's earned it, but that's different.

1792

1792 is the name of my favorite bourbon. I get confused by numbers sometimes.

Friday is for...

relaxing.

I have a bottle of 1738, my favorite bourbon, purchased in honor of my recent (long time coming!) job transition.

Today I got to play tour guide to a group of five on the Children's CPI Showcase. I always love to play smarty pants and talk about Lean and Children's CPI journey.

Tomorrow, we're going out to dinner and to see a play about zombies. Life is good.

****
Earlier today I heard Paul Simon's "The Sounds of Silence" again thanks to Pandora.com. It disturbs and awes me as much now as when I first heard it twentyish years ago.

Smile

Click the link.

Lessons from 21 Miles

Yesterday’s run was very difficult for a number of mostly unrelated reasons. I will list each difficulty along with what I suspect to be its root cause and my plan (if any) for countermeasure.

Problem: my back felt extremely tired and weak around mile 15.

Root Cause Analysis: I was wearing a long sleeved cotton t-shirt over a synthetic undershirt. While I didn’t get rained on, the sweat absorbed through the entire shirt and literally felt heavy. I believe the strain from running with that additional weight made my back sore.

Countermeasure: buy a better (synthetic and marathon ready) long sleeved shirt.
*******
Problem: general exhaustion for the last third of the run (approximately 10 miles in).

Root Cause Analysis: 1) While running up Holgate, to reach the spine of Beacon Hill, I hit a phase of good music. My pace was brisk, and eventually I passed a bicycle. While I felt great on my way up, once I hit the top, I thought my heart would explode. I was especially tired after that.
2) I didn’t eat much the day and morning before my run. It’s very likely that my overall nutritional status wasn’t where it should be for a 20+ mile run.

Countermeasure: 1) don’t sprint up hills; remember that there are many miles to be travelled.
2) Eat and drink well the day before.
***********
Problem: my toe bled some during the run. There appears to be no overall negative affects here.

Root Cause Analysis: This could have been caused by my socks and/or shoe fit. I have three different kinds of socks that I typically wear, and only one kind of shoe.

Countermeasure: use different, higher quality socks. I already own some that I think will work better.
**********
Problem: I experienced knee soreness less than halfway into my run. This led to inflammation, during and after the run and some weakness after.

Root Cause Analysis: Root cause unknown. This possibly has to do with my running form and mechanics. My shoes are good and well within their life span.

Countermeasure: none for now. I expect to be able to run again tomorrow, as scheduled. If problems persist, I may need medical attention.

New Toy

I believe in shopping locally. I want a neighborhood that I can walk around in, where I can get what I want from a real business with real employees and real inventory.

When I went shopping for my new iPod, I went directly to the Radio Shack that’s just a few blocks from my home. Yes, I could have gone near where I work and had a bigger selection; I could have purchased online and had it engraved.

The only color they had in stock was pink. This would not have been my first choice, but it really looks pretty nifty. I’m happy that it’s a sharp, almost metallic pink, rather than cutesy Hello Kitty pink.

While I’m sure the 8 MG Nano isn’t special for earlier adopters, I’m very pleased with my new toy. Not only does it download and display album covers, it lets me load and display my own photos, which makes them digital wallet sizes. While I don’t need to have piles of pics there, I enjoy having my favorites at hand.

The End

The iPod is dead. Like I've heard of the recent bank and financial institution collapses, the decline was slow, then it was fast.

The good news is, I had a relatively short run today, and the silence gave me more time to think about God and how God and the Tao are the same. Harmony in the world is often inharmonious seeming. Some days belong to the oak, others to the reed.

Marathon Miscellanea

I registered for the 2008 Seattle Marathon today. On the application, there’s a blank for projected finish time: I entered 3:41:24, which, I believe roughly corresponds to an 8 ½ minute mile. Barring illness or injury, I think that’s reasonable, especially when the passion of the day catches me.

The iPod is going to be a photo finish. The battery swap that I wrote about earlier has shifted the machine into a new and different phase of unreliability. The battery, once charged, seems to last for several hours. That’s the good news. It seems to last around the same amount of time whether it’s playing or dormant. It also has developed a habit of spontaneously turning itself off. That’s the bad news.

Ayn's Journal

I think I'll continue writing journal entries from my D&D character's perspective, and I may as well post that material here. We had a major battle during Wednesday's session. It was every bit as exciting as a video game boss-battle; really it was a little more exciting in some ways. In Dungeons and Dragons, there aren't save points to go back to. It's very possible for a character to really die, especially at relatively low levels, and often the consequences for defeat are significant. Fun stuff!

Ayn’s Journal Entry 2 – Kalarel

Shortly after the battle with the priest, we learned that Kalarel waited in the chamber below; the only way down was through a hole in the floor.

Like the priest, Kalarel seemed interested in negotiation; while there was little doubt that it would end in blood, Kalarel agreed to allow us down into his chamber, so that we could continue the discussion face to face. This allowed us all to climb down the rope and collect ourselves before the battle began.

Before the break down of negotiations, Kalarel admitted that dozens, if not hundreds of sacrifices had been required to move the ritual this far forward. The blood of these innocents still pooled in the chamber and dripped into another area below. This blood must be paid for. Kalarel’s death was only the beginning. Just as the innocents’ blood dripped red from Blackscale after the battle, so will the blood of the guilty conspirators drip from my blade. Justice will prevail in Winterhaven.
********
I must also comment on the nobility with which my cohorts conducted themselves. I’m not sure how we survived: after I destroyed the wight that Jack had kept occupied for most of the battle, I was struck by something… a blast from Kalarel perhaps, and all went dark. I awoke several minutes later, covered in blood. Had one of us failed, had one of us lapsed in courage or power, we would have perished, Shadraxil would have come through the portal, and Winterhaven would have been lost.

I fear that that once the business in Winterhaven is concluded, I may have to take my leave when I continue my journey home to Baldur’s Gate.

Random Run Bits

My iPod is circling the drain, so I've had a few relatively short runs without podcast or musical support.

As a consequence, "I've Had the Time of My Life" from the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack weaseled its way into my brain and wouldn't go away.

******
I've mentioned before that I almost always wave at other runners. Most wave back, or nod; some are too wrapped up in their run to notice me. Occasionally, people get really excited, like we're long lost friends. A flash of almost excitement shows in their face, and they typically say, "Oh! Hi!"

I wonder if, in their endorphin soaked brains, they're confusing me for someone else. Or maybe they really enjoy the brief connection with a fellow runner.

Coordination and Planning

I saw Clay Shirky on Ted.com discuss the rise of coordination in today’s technological era. For example, now that we all have cel phones, we no longer need intricate plans for finding one another at concerts. Flickr does a great job of coordinating millions of photographs by encouraging people to tag their own pictures. Users then search by tag and have access to the wondrous library of images.

In my line of work one can see the need for both when it comes to controlling the flow of work and managing resources. We spend a lot of time helping people create simple, preferably visual, systems to ask for help and / or control the flow of work through a system. Creating ways to coordinate work is wonderful and important. It is also often limited by the amount of planning done previously. It’s great to maximize the use of resources, it’s not so great when the resources aren’t available, again, to handle the spike of patients leaving the OR at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Dungeons and Dragons Story Fragment

Below is a journal entry I wrote from my character's (Ayn Blud) perspective based on Sunday's session. I had the privilege of running the party's wizard, Jack, since his player was absent. I had to leave before the end of the last battle, but I've since learned that my character, Ayn did prevail against the evil priest.

We are acutely aware now that every moment wasted is another moment Shar’s cult has to finish its ritual. Their success would have dire consequences that I would prefer not to consider.

Still, we were exhausted after our battle with the block of ooze; considering that the keep’s other inhabitants seem to avoid this area, we thought it best to rest, and to plan to face our dark adversaries in a final push, beginning tomorrow.
*******
Jack’s not quite himself today. He’s not talking much, and he seems to have forgotten that illusion spell he’s occasionally used before. Still, he remains mighty with the missles and fire, so there’s little reason to worry.
********
Looking back, my impatience turned into a benefit: we suspected a trap. When the group’s pondering and waffling became more than I could bear, I marched forward. I found myself trapped behind a wall of force, and the chamber filled with water. There were a few dicey moments when the water level reached my shoulders. I’m not a tall man, and I don’t swim particularly well...

Some of the others seemed to have some difficulty with some of the other statues in the room; I couldn’t really understand why they didn’t just stay away from them. Then again, I wasn’t really paying attention, with the water rising to chin level.

I notice that Jack was smart enough to stay away from the dangerous
statues...

**********
We entered an enormous and vile chamber of blood, sacrifice and pure evil. Before us stood a priest for this terrible religion. I was surprised when he initiated parley. It was clear that he was responsible for vast suffering and evil, still, it seemed wisest to engage him, perhaps discover more of what was going on. My rage built... I wanted nothing more than to slaughter this villain, but I restrained myself.

My comrades Rukh and Aelar also seemed interested in parley, so we approached. Negotiations quickly broke down when one (maybe both) insulted Shar. I don’t think they have much training in the art of diplomacy.

The next thing I remember, a swarm of vampires emerged from the darkness, and the foul priest struck me with a bolt of pure evil. Erathis was clearly watching, as Blackscale protected me. I charged the monster and engaged him, toe to toe, trusting that the others could handle the swarm of undead and whatever beasts lurked therein. He had to die, that’s all I really knew.

I felt exhilarated and godlike as the light of Erathis flowed through me and through my blade. Light will punish dark. I was again reminded of the advantages to fighting alongside (so to speak) a wizard such as Jack. His missiles and bursts of flame bring me great comfort during pitched battle.

I felt much less godlike as the battle wore on, but the villain also looked the worse for wear. Who would outlast the other? I refocused myself. Of course I would prevail. For Erathis. For order. For Winterhaven. For vengeance.

I had to leave before the end of the last battle, but I've since learned that Ayn did prevail against the evil priest.

Like a Coast Guard

The New York Times got a telephone interview with some of the Somali pirates holding a shipload of tanks and other weapons.

The one who agreed to be quoted said some interesting things, including, "We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

I have no doubt that these really are the bad guys. At the same time, they're compelling figures.