Playa Del Carmen Vacation Pictures

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• Having fun at Bad Boys (a bar on the beach). I am in blue.
• Our group on the beach at our table
• Check out the videos from Feb. 16, my friends and I are in there...

Feb 17-24, 2008: 5 Runs in Playa Del Carmen, MX & Birmingham, AL: 3, 3, 6, 3 & 8.5 Miles

I have not kept up with the Daily Source Code, This American Life, and Phedippidations. But, I did hear the episode where Steve indicated that he will no longer be committed to weekly podcasts. Sounds like he has sort of burned out on put out so many which requires a significant time and financial investment on his part. I certainly understand, but will definitely miss the weekly shows.

I have been on vacation in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. What a blast! We snorkled in a cenote that led into a cave. It was totally awesome. We swam with sea turtles. We almost rented scooters for a day on Cozumel. Well, we did until one of our group wrecked with 1/2 block of the rental place. They simply switched us to jeeps and we were off again. My wife didn't want to do scooters in the first place and all of the other women lost their nerve after seeing the wreck. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the guy that crashed lost nearly $800 to cover damages. Hint: buy the insurance. Better yet, don't rent scooters! We also visited Chichén Itzá. This place was awesome and huge. What a walk through history and majesty. I will be posting the pictures to flickr later and will post a link on this blog when I am done.

I ran several times in Playa Del Carmen as indicated below. It was nice to run in shorts and no shirt in nice warm weather. Today's run was steady and felt great despite the cool temperature. I rode with Prince and say the usual lot at Brownell. The Timex Time & Distance watch died again. So, I think it is simply time to upgrade. Nearly all of the runs in Playa Del Carmen are based on my initial run where I got a measure of a 3.4 mile loop. The run listed as 4 miles is due to my missing a turn and running a bit further. I estimated the distance to 4 miles for this run.

I finished reading Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner. It was a interesting read that consisted predominantly of Tim Weiner whining (pun intended) about the incompetence of the CIA. But, the read was good and it offered a very interesting perspective on America history for the last 60 years or so. I especially liked the insight it provided into the policy and personalities of the presidents during these years. Good reading.

Data

02/24/2008: Shades Creek

Distance:	8.5 Miles
Time:	1:15:07
Heart Rate:	153
Pace:	8:50
Weather:	Mostly cloudy Temperature-38° Humidity-82%
Route

02/23/2008: Playa Del Carmen

Distance:	3.4 Miles
Time:	32:00
Pace:	9:24
Weather:	Scattered clouds Temperature-72° Humidity-88%

02/20/2008: Playa Del Carmen

Distance:	6.8 Miles
Time:	1:01:00
Pace:	8:58
Weather:	Scattered clouds Temperature-72° Humidity-88%

02/19/2008: Playa Del Carmen

Distance:	4 Miles
Time:	38:00
Pace:	9:30
Weather:	Scattered clouds Temperature-68° Humidity-100%

02/17/2008: Playa Del Carmen

Distance:	3.4 Miles
Time:	31:00
Pace:	9:07
Weather:	Mostly cloudy Temperature-72° Humidity-94%

2/10/08: Mercedes Marathon: Personal Record

I ran the Mercedes Marathon today. I ran with the 4:15 pacer, Marie Bartoletti, up through about mile 21. At that point, I picked it up and gained about 4 minutes on the pace in the last 5 miles. I was feeling strong. I never walked! Clearly, running a well paced, slower start race pays off for me. This is my third marathon and the first time I ran the whole thing and I gained 19 minutes on my previous best for a new PR. Yeppee. The weather was perfect. I saw a lot of my friends including Judy who ran in the relay. Prince paced the 4:00 minute group. And, Dan ran well too.

Data

	Distance:	26.2
	Time:	4:11:07 (Results, Bob Evans in the 50-54 Male group)
	Heart Rate:	156
	Pace:	9:35
	Weather:	Clear Temperature-32-60° Humidity-82-24%

Splits

Distance	Time	Pace	Leg Distance	Leg Time	Leg Pace
6.2	1:00:47	9:49	6.2	1:00:47	9:49
9.3	1:29:44	9:39	3.1	28:57	9:20
15.5	2:26:18	9:27	6.2	56:34	9:07
18.6	2:56:45	9:31	3.1	30:27	9:49
26.2	4:11:07	9:36	7.6	1:14:22	9:47

Some Pictures (Larger pictures on Flickr)

I just finished

I'm feeling good.

Marie, the pacer

Prince in green, Larry in white

Feb 5 - 9, 2008: 3 Runs in the Birmingham, AL: 3, 6, & 3 Miles

I kept up with the Daily Source Code, This American Life, and Phedippidations. It was a light week of running and tomorrow is the big day, The Mercedes Marathon and I'm running. I have not missed a single run; I have had no injuries; and I have had no illness. How lucky I have been. I did get a good lesson this week. To Illustrate the point, I will show you an email thread.

Today's Lesson: When a Planned Aggressive Response Backfires
To a Friend in My Neighborhood

The intent of this email is two fold: 1) Gain your forgiveness if I am right 2) Amuse you if I am wrong About what you might ask? Well, as I finished up my run this morning coming up the road after entering the back gate to the neighborhood, a car approached honking and waving. My mind said, "here's that fool that keeps honking and pointing to the side of the road again". I had decided last time he passed me that I was not going to just passively go about my run as I had in the past. In the past, I didn't realize he was being mean until after he passed and regretted that I didn't let him know that he was being rude and unappreciated. So, I have been on a hair trigger to get him next time I had the opportunity. Well..... I think this morning I pulled the trigger and IT WASN'T HIM. Worse the driver was being friendly. And, I think it was you. I am embarrassed and ashamed. If it was you, please forgive my stupidity. If it wasn't you, you have my blessing for laughing at my silliness. And, gees I hope I didn't push someone over the fence to hate all runners. Gees, I can do some silly things.

The Response

Bob, That WAS me. I laughed at your response because I thought it was in jest, just like my rapid fire birdies as we passed running earlier. After I passed I thought that you had been pretty convincing. Now I know why. You have succeeded with both intentions listed below [above].

I heard from Dan today and he and I are going to run with the 4:15 pace group. He his hoping to do something closer to 4:00, but I will be way satisfied at 4:15 which would be a PR of 15 minutes better than either of my previous 2 marathons. Judy is running a 10K portion of the race as part of a relay. She is struggling with Plantar fasciitis, so I am not sure she should run. But, she's a big girl (as in grown up). I hope it goes well as I know she wants to run.

Oh, and I voted for Obama

Data

02/09/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:51
Heart Rate:	143
Pace:	9:16
Weather:	Clear Temperature-47° Humidity-74%

02/07/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	6 Miles
Time:	56:05
Heart Rate:	147
Pace:	9:20
Weather:	Clear Temperature-33° Humidity-82%

02/05/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:27
Heart Rate:	143
Pace:	9:28
Weather:	Cloudy Temperature-64° Humidity-90%

Jan 30-Feb 3, 2008: 4 Runs in the Birmingham, AL: 7, 3, 3 & 11 Miles

I kept up with the Daily Source Code, This American Life, and Phedippidations. I am still thinking about politics a bit since our primary election is this coming Tuesday. I am updating my del.icio.us 2008 Campaign links as I spot things that are most influential on my thinking. A perusal there will show that I have settled on Obama as my choice. I shared this switch in my thinking with the person that challenged me to think about what my Iraq war stance was last week. He, too, is leaning towards Obama. At this point, I say "cool beans" to that.

Today's run was steady and felt great. I did not see Dan today. I noticed his absence and hope that it doesn't mean anything that he didn't come out for the last group run before the marathon next week. Prince was there as were quite a few others. There weren't many of the Mercedes Marathon runners though.

Data

02/03/2008: Shades Creek + Jemison Park-Mountain Brook Loop

Distance:	11.2 Miles
Time:	1:51:04
Heart Rate:	145
Pace:	9:54
Weather:	Cloudy Temperature-44° Humidity-83%
Brownell 7 Miler + Jemison/Mountainbrook 4 Miler

02/02/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:36
Heart Rate:	146
Pace:	9:31
Weather:	Clear Temperature-31° Humidity-85%

02/01/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:10
Heart Rate:	146
Pace:	9:23
Weather:	Clear Temperature-46° Humidity-54%

01/30/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	7 Miles
Time:	1:04:11
Heart Rate:	152
Pace:	9:10
Weather:	Clear Temperature-41° Humidity-32%