What boggles my mind, though, is that anyone thinks it’s well-written. Even ignoring the theological issues, it’s downright painful to read. It was so bad, I couldn’t bring myself to continue past the second chapter.

I certainly hope so.

I ran the Portland Marathon in 2005 (5:17:34) and the Bellingham Bay Half-Marathon last year (2:16:24), and I think I’m going to make it an annual event.

Primarily, I’m looking for someone I can train with at least a couple times a week (more often is fine, too) and to at least start the race with.

I’m fat and slow (though I’ll be working through the Spring and early Summer to improve on both counts), so someone who runs a 7-minute mile comfortably for long distances is going to have to be comfortable jogging or be comfortable running alone (which kinda defeats the purpose).

Last year, I used a training program designed by Hal Higdon. I think I’ll do the same this year, but I’m not sure if I’ll go with the Novice or Intermediate program this year. Both are 12 weeks long and start up on Monday, July 7th. Both plans also assume you can run 12-15 miles per week comfortably before beginning, so that’s why I start asking early, in case any non-runners (or out of shape former runners/athletes) want to give it a shot. There’s plenty of time to work up to it.

I usually run early in the morning (between 5:30 and 7:00 am, optimally) and I usually run on heavily-groomed trails.

If you’re interested, leave a comment. If you know someone who would be, send them the link.

We need to live in this hope again and again: fearsome enemies can become precious friends. Adversaries can become advocates. Critics can become comrades. For most of us its pretty easy to believe that an intimate disciple can become a deadly betrayer, like Judas. Thats the way the world is. But we need to remember that a deadly persecutor can also become a great ally and partner in the cause of Christ. Thats the way God is. Thats the kind of power he has.

Look on your adversaries with the eyes of faith—that someday, by the power of God they could experience a turn-around as amazing and unexpected as Sauls.

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
    lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

I arrived at the start around 7:20 AM and jogged a bit to warm up; then I started looking for my running mates. I found found them on the way to the portable toilets, half of which were on their backs, probably the victims of local hooligans the night before. The wind was really blowing hard as we stood in line, a taste of what was yet to come.

As we waited for the 8:00 AM start, the three of us agreed that we were aiming for a pace between 10:45 min/mi and 11 min/mi. We also agreed to try to stick together for the first half, and then to run whatever was comfortable for each of us. We hung back toward the back of the pack, as we were definitely among the slower runners and we didn’t want to impede any of the faster, more competitive types.

We crossed the starting line a minute or so after the front of the pack and made the turn southeast. For the first 5 miles or so, we were running into a mild/moderate headwind with the occasional heavy gust strong enough to blow off a hat or two. I had been worried that things might be a bit congested on the boardwalk between Boulevard Park and Taylor Dock, but it turned out to be fairly smooth-going. The wind was the strongest and gustiest on the dock.

As we came into Fairhaven, we were greeted by a group of about 30 Harley-Davidson enthusiasts, which was cooler than it sounds. As we made the right and headed down toward the Ferry Terminal, we started to pass the first (back of the pack) walkers, who had started 30 minutes earlier. We made the left onto 4th street and headed up the biggest of the hills. As I had in an earlier training run, I employed my half-walk/half-run stride (which, I’m sure looks incredibly silly) with good success. I got to the top with a lot of energy left and without losing a step in pace.

As we ran along the ridge through Edgemoore, Nate and I were still feeling good at the five-mile mark and Brian was still going strong, but acknowledged he was starting to hurt a bit. We made the turn to head back toward the Bellwether between five and six miles. As we reached the top of the downhill coming out of Edgemoore, I was feeling great and just let myself pick up the pace a little, separating a from Nate and Brian. After sticking with the 11:00 - 11:30 min/mile through the first half and most of the hills, I had a fair bit of energy left and quickened to around 10:00 min/mile.

I was passing people pretty consistently now, having stepped up the pace quite a bit. As I came back through Fairhaven, and the Harley-Davidson group, I identified a couple of “rabbits” that were between .1 and .25 miles head and set my sights on catching and hopefully passing them. I slowly closed on them and passed all but one before coming across the bridge back into Downtown Bellingham. I was within about 50 yards of the last of them when I met up briefly with my own personal, roving aid station — Betsy, Sean, Caleb and my Mom, who were waiting with encouragement and another bottle of supplemental Gatorade about 3 miles from the finish. I got my drink and Sean ran with me for about 200 yards before he turned back. I again set my sights on the one remaining “rabbit”.

I passed her about the 11 mile mark and as I did, Nate came up on my right. Turns out he had kept pace with me but had been hanging about 50 yards or so back since Fairhaven Middle School. Brian wasn’t with him and, according to Nate, had separated around the 7 mile mark. Nate ran with me for the next mile or so before taking off ahead. I managed to keep him in sight for most of the rest of the race, but with about a quarter-mile left, realized I wasn’t going to catch him — I just didn’t have it in the tank.

Just before he left me in his dust, Nate and I had agreed that when we finished, we should head back and find Brian to finish with him. So, we did. We caught up with him a little more than a quarter-mile from the finish and jogged in the rest of the way with him.

I finished with an official time of 2:16:24 (see complete race results). All in all, it was a great day and a great race. My time was well below my target time of 2 hrs 24 min.

A few pics. More to come.

Um… excuse me? Hello from Seattle? That has, I’m afraid, none of the same resonance. It evokes nothing. Boeing and rain, maybe. Kurt Cobain’s unhappiness.

For some reason, this essay evoked a picture of the hapless middle-aged dork with a hat, zinc oxide on his nose, an inflatable lounge wearing 20-yrs out of style swimwear attempting to woo the beautiful ladies away from the handsome, muscular surfer.

…there’s nothing magical about a degree. There’s nothing that magically changes after you take that last exam. The importance of degrees is due solely to the administrative needs of large organizations.

The link points to an article about the future of startups, but this snippet stood out to me as it’s something I’ve been saying for a very long time. A large number of incredibly successful entrepreneurs that I know personally don’t have degrees. One of them didn’t even graduate high school the first time around, and it hasn’t prevented him from becoming incredibly successful.

One thing I’ll add is that degrees have also become a tool for those inclined to over-emphasize a degree’s importance to establish an ad-hoc class hierarchy based on institutional achievement. I often wonder how many young people lacking a college education choose to temper their ambition because they’ve been fed the “no degree = loser” propaganda by our public schools for so long.

DISCLAIMER: I did not finish my degree ;).

That’s a particularly hard challenge when the company’s chief sources of revenue are not necessarily aligned with its creative vision.

A great tidbit about what happens when a company replaces a meaningful founding vision with purely financial motives. Make no mistake, profitability is a high priority, but the goal is to take a “great idea” and make it profitable. Profitability for it’s own sake often isn’t a “great idea”. If it were, SPAM and slavery wouldn’t be so widely frowned upon.