Some recent pictures

Elva play at park. only few people in the big park.

I run DKSV Marathon today

I must admit that I am very disappointed today. I was on 3:50 maker even at 21 miles, while my legs felt tighter and tighter. Not far from 21 mile marker, I had a cramp at my right thigh, then my right calf. I had to slow down to nearly walking. When I attempted to speed up, cramp happens. Then I had cramps at my left thigh, even both arms. I had painfully watched the 4:00 pacer man ran by and there is nothing I can do, I had to walk/run/cramp and eventually I finished 4 hr 12 mins. After I had to change my stride, I also got few blisters on my left foot.

I don't know why this is happen to me, I had harder practice run with water bag on my back for up to 23 miles and I didn't have any hint of cramp at all. When the cramp hit me, my first thought was I wasn't hydrated enough; yet I took drink at almost every aid station. Then I think maybe is because of the drink they provided, it's called Ultima Replinisher drink. (I trained on Gatorade) I don't know if it was suppose to be like that, but it tasted very light. I check out their website, it says it has no sugar and only 10 calories per serving. Maybe that's is also why I felt hungry all the way at later half of my run. I got chunk of banana at two aid stations, and I had my sport gel, that's all. I also think their aid station ran pretty badly. At few stations, I passed all the water and hopping to find a sport drink and I found no one is providing sport drink and I had to settle with a cup of water. Some race use different color of cups for water and sport drink, you can tell from yards away, they didn't have those. And after the bad cramps, I just felt they don't have enough drink for me and I had to stopped at a gas station to buy a bottle of drink myself. But it was too late, cramp won't go away.

Oh, anyway. My dream to run faster than 4hrs had just been shattered, I have to train harder and give another try at next Marathon. By the way, do you like the new medallion design? It's over simplified with just one hollow circle with 5" in diameter. Half marathon has same design but just smaller in size.

=== possible answer to cramp ===

After talk to a few friends, they ask me how much liquid I have taken, I told them a little less than half cup at each station, and there are trotally 10 aid stations (and you can take drink qhwn you run both directions). I did the measurement, and the way I drink water(sport drink) (lose some first so it will spill, then take a few sips, throw away the cup with a little fluid still in it). I was probably taking 120 CC at each station. Before I cramped up, I ran pass aid stations 15 times at most. That's under 2 liter of fluid I took for running 3 hours straight. If at each aid station, I can finish the entire half cup, or take two half cup, I should do better.

Starting a Chinese Marathon Blog

I am starting a new blog in Chinese for Marathon or running in general. See My Blogs section for link.

RSS link is http://marathonchinese.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

I ran Rock'n'Roll San Jose Half Marathon This morning

I did it, I was much faster than I thought. I started with group #7, which is a 2 hr 15 min group, too slow for me. Once I passed starting line, I started to pass people. It was difficult since there are so many people running, and so crowded. After mile 6, I felt more easier, people around me were moving almost same speed as I do, that's after I passed 2:00 pacer man.
Did I mention I have a little cold with me before I came, once started running, no more running nose or anything. At end, I made 1:49:07. I was surprised because I slowed down to walk twice for water. . . And I just ran 37Km last Monday (6 days ago). According to Runner's World Magazine, runner who run 1:50 Half Marathon should be able to run 3:50 Marathon. I am hoping that I will do just that at Oct 25th Silicon Valley Marathon.

Elva's first day on bicycle

I bought an old child's bicycle from a garage sale. It's the smallest kind for child; any smaller, it would be a tricycle. The original owner already took off the two side training wheels. So I went to Walmart and bought her a helmet set and side training wheels.
Elva was so excited and couldn't wait till late afternoon when sun light isn't so strong. So she wear her helmet set in the house and even watching TV. After 6PM, we finally went out and she had a spin on the bike, she learned quickly to paddle forward by herself. Elva is on bicycle now.

First Patent Lincence agreement

Today I signed my first Patent License Agreement of one of my invention, and there are a little up front fee comes with it and later on, hopefully more royalty base on an agreed percentage to come. Anyhow, I am official an Patent Licensor.
Oh, as for my first payment check, I will donate it to a Church as my thanks to God. I believe God gave me all my good ideas.

Elva's new Night Light

I made a night light for Elva's room. In fact, I need it more when I check on her's sleep. She often kick away her blanket at middle of night. And I need some kind of light to see that. The room light or table light are too much. This LED light is just perfect. It disguises as a toy car, when I open its door, the LED light comes up and post light. Close the door, light goes out.

Another 20 miler this morning

I did another 20 miler this morning, it took me 3hrs 27 mins to finish the 20 miles. But I had a 6 lbs water bag on my back and I know I could run faster without it. This time I brought my camera with me so I captured some magnificent view. I like the run on Monday morning, I like the feeling in wildness and no one single person in sight.
Youtube link

House improvement and bicycle shed

This is a rental house, It was hot during the day and one heat source I found is the garage roof. I measured 55C or 130F from inside of roof panel. I stapled my old cardboard boxes on to the roof panels (as top two picture), the the temperature came down more than 5C or 10F. Still warm, but bearable.

The middle two picture show how I separated a sleeping area with my bookshelves. There are another set of book shelves on the other side; (but not as pretty) .

I spent three hours to build a shed for my bicycle. It's quite strong. It also has a cloth hanger for drying my washed cloth. Yeah, I have set up 220V for dryer.

Alameda Creek run

The view is more splendid than I thought. I ran through Alameda creek valley in the early morning, ran into Coyote Hills park and the wet land before it. And the beautiful Bayview trail. . . I really regret that I didn't bring a camera with me. I will take some picture next time I ran 20 miles on it.

And I have been losing weight recently. When I worked for BroadLogic, I had problem big time to keep my weight down. They provide snack all the time and I weight went up even when I was training for last Marathon, I weighted over 200 stunning lbs when I was with them. Now for the first time over years, my weight goes below 190lbs, in fact after this run, it was close to 185lb. I couldn't remember when I weighted this little, maybe that was 5 years ago.