The Home of Tom & Morven

I just wanted to write how I had a great hike with Morv on the weekend, and here are some beautiful photos:

The walk was from the old mines, up towards eagle on the hill. Morv had the idea that we should get a group of people to hike from her house one night to this beautiful spot we found for a picnic, and walk back again.

Last weekend I ran another marathon - 44.3km in fact! The week before that I also ran a full marathon (42km). This weekend I’ve had a rest, because next weekend I’m running in the Adelaide Marathon event. It’s mostly along linear park, around the city a bit, and finishing back (where it starts) at Pinky Flat on the Torrens near North Adelaide.

I have a proposal for you. Sponsor me any amount for this marathon, and if I don’t beat my all-time PB (personal best time which is 3 hours 30 minutes), I’ll personally donate 50% again of what you’ve donated. If I fall behind my PB by more than 15 minutes, I’ll match exactly what you’ve donated!!** Keep in mind that this is a real challenge for me since I was extremely sick again at the start of this year, with a cough that wouldn’t go away. So basically, the more you sponsor me, the more pain you’ll put me through since I really don’t want to lose out here!

The marathon is on Sunday 27th September, from 8am, so please contact me to sponsor me ASAP. See details for the marathon, the couse map (in case you want to see me in pain yourself and make sure I’m not at the pub with your sponsor money), and a description of the course.

** Note: I won’t put in more than $100 from my pocket since I’m not exactly that wealthy myself. If you think I’m cheaping out, go run a marathon yourself you lazy bugger.

A funny maths joke from Arie:

A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.

He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of maths instruction. “Al-gebra is a problem for us,” Ashcroft said.

“They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like ‘x’ and ‘y’ and refer to themselves as ‘unknowns’, but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, ‘There are 3 sides to every triangle’.”

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, “If God had wanted us to have better weapons of Maths instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.”

White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the president.

Today is a great day for the Team_Bammann crew - Mike is reporting another CPU addition to the fleet. Unfortunately this is only just off-setting the loss of a 3.0GHz P4(D) with HT. But with a current record high ranking for our team of 555, it’s hard to argue that this won’t get us into the TOP 500!!!

Yesterday I did my 3rd ever marathon length run (at least that I have recorded). The other two being the 2005 melbourne marathon and my first rogaine. I had always wanted to try this run, and I thought it was about time to do it, given that I should be training for my first ever Adelaide marathon in three weeks time. I wanted to run from Glenelg jetty to Mt Lofty summit.

Morv graciously dropped me off down at Glenelg, because running from home to Glenelg to Mt Lofty and then back home again was a bit much (at this stage)! Since it was the first beautiful fine sunny day we’ve had for some time we went for a little walk on the beach which was probably a good leg stretch/warmup before running.

So I ran from the very end of the Glenelg jetty, up Anzac Highway, Greenhill Road, Glen Osmond Road, and up the old freeway along the cycling path. I stopped shortly up the cycling path to tape my toes which were blistering. I regret not taping them earlier, before they started (my toes after the run developed blood blisters, ewww)! I went up past Eagle on the Hill, at 2hrs 30mins and 22.5km. I kept running up to Crafers, and purchased another 1.2L of Powerade Isotonic at the Crafers BP. I’m probably the only person to ever have purchased Powerade from that store, that would actually have NEEDED it The guy at the Crafers BP still doesn’t believe I ran from the Glenelg jetty, even after I showed him the GPS map Click on the thumbnail to see my GPS evidence.

I then kept running up past the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, to the summit, and did a couple light stretches, as I’d been running uphill for a fairly long time (3hrs 23mins), and so the hamstrings that do most of the work when you’re running uphill, that take a break when you’re running downhill, would be likely to cramp up. Sure enough they did, so I slammed down my remaining 1 litre or so of Powerade to help relax those crampy muscles. They still cramped up a bit, but I was able to negotiate a comfortable zone and running style with them, until it flattened out down on Bartril Spur Track (running down through Cleland).

I then kept running from Waterfall Gully Road, to home, but that was only 40.4km. You can’t brag about running 40.4km, because that’s not even a marathon, so how could I go out that night and brag about my run, people would know it’s below my standard. So I kept running around the block, and then the other block, and up and down the road, until my GPS said 42.00km THEN I had truly run a marathon. But not only was it a marathon, it was a Glenelg to Mt Lofty and down again, marathon, with an almost 1km ascent. You don’t have that 1km ascent in a normal marathon.

So this run took me 4hrs 46mins. I’m aiming for a 3hr 15min or so marathon in three weeks in Adelaide, and hopefully a sub-3hr marathon in Melbourne in October. The sub-3hr mark gains much respect in the running community. I’m pretty happy with 4hrs 46mins for this Glenelg to Mt Lofty run, because even if I ran a 2hr marathon, it’d take at least 2hrs 46mins to climb up a 1km high ladder.

In total, I consumed 3 bannanas, 2.2L of Powerad Isotonic, 4 GU Energy gels, and 3.0L of water. I could comfortably consumed a few more energy gels and a couple more litres of Powerade. Next time I will.

You be the judge. Not only is it literally IMPOSSIBLE to enter the melbourne marathon (online) unless you use Internet Explorer, but then when I finally work out that I have to load IE for the first time this, year, I get this bullshit:

They actually don’t let you enter online, unless you specify your occupation. WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THIS!!!

I am very dissappointed with the Melbourne Marathon website this year. Last year it was so much better. Hopefully, this is all because of budget constraints which are in turn because they are increasing the amount of money they donate to charity from the profit they make.

And then so I click on next, and they give me this crap!!!

CRIKEY!!!! Anyone would think they’re trying to cut down on their number of participants this year!!!

There is no back arrow, but fortunately I know enough about computers to hit Alt+LeftArrow. I then change the occupation field to say “This website is a piece of sh*t” and then it works.

So there you go, you be the judge of this website.

But then there’s more:

And then, I can’t believe they even have the never to ask this:

They might as well say “Can we screw your email account over with SPAM, sell your soul for $1.50, and give you nothing in return?”.

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

I got the letter ‘Q’ from my favourite redhead.

1. QWERTY: Is the name of a conventional keyboard, as named by the top row of keys.
2. quintessence: I never actually knew what this word meant until I remembered it from somewhere, couldn’t think what it meant, so looked it up in the dictionary.
3. quick: Is how I usually am, except when doing annoying lists of ten words starting in Q.
4. quasistatic process: I love using the terms quasistatic and infinitesimally slow to describe people that are doing something really slow. It’s like a pay out, because you use a spiffy word to describe how slow they are.
5. quality: Is what I look for in everyone and everything, certainly not quantity. Unless we’re talking money!
6. quasar: Because when my brother Mike and I get drunk on a friday night (on those very rare occasions, in moderation, responsibility, and with adult supervision) or just in general, he talks about quasars, supernovas, photons. This also leads me on to the next most commonly used word from Mike when he’s talking Physics ….. *drum roll*
7. quarks: He used to talk about these heaps, something to do with inside the atom, these things are so tiny it’s like INSIDE an electron or something, as if the electron is the size of a football field, there would be heaps of quarks flying around the football field which are the size of pinheads. I don’t really know, it’s all too complicated for me.
8. quantity: Because now I don’t CARE about word number 5, I just want to get this bloody over with!
9. quit: It took me 9 words to think of this word, because it’s not something I ever do. Or if I do, it’s because I’m taking on something else which is even cooler, faster, more exciting, or whatever.
10. quiet: Is what Morv should be, instead of MOCKING me for not being able to think of a tenth word ahaAHAHAHhahhahaha. Just kidding, I don’t really mean that.