Official Butterfly Boogie 10k Results

Here are my results from yesterday. It's the same format as what I posted for Cowtown. You can refer back to that post if you want more details.

Philip Heath #1399
Hurst, TX
Age: 35 Gender: M

Distance 10K
Clock Time 54:27
Chip Time 54:02
Overall Place 210 / 506
Gender Place 142 / 232
Division Place 26 / 44
Total Pace 8:43/M

As I said yesterday, not bad considering the conditions of the race. The 10k at the Fort Worth Zoo Run is up next!

Until next time...
PH

My Butterfly Boogie 10k Experience

My retelling of the Butterfly Boogie (I promise I didn't name it) 10k is going to be a little different than what I did for Cowtown. The primary reason is my brain was frozen so I don't remember it as well. While the weather was similar, it was overcast so there was no sunshine to give a hint of warmth.

The course had almost all of its uphill sections during the first half. This all but ensured a "negative split", i.e. faster time on the back half.

At the first water stop after mile one, there were a couple of little girls giving high fives as we went by - cute!

There was a man running with his son who was probably around 10. Dad was yelling at the kid about technique. Who drags their kid out on Saturday morning and does that?

The back half followed the Katy Trail. It is a nice bike/running trail. However there were three things that stuck with me. The trail passes near a BBQ restaurant, and the smell of the smokehouse was surprisingly sickening. The trial is lined with trees, but I came across a gap in the trees at the same time a gust of wind came. It was like being hit by a linebacker! Finally, I passed near a hamburger joint, and it had the same effect as the BBQ place.

While I don't have the official results yet, I think I was within 30 seconds of my Cowtown pace. Given the conditions, I'll take it.

As a side note, the initial formatting of the post may be a bit off. I am posting it from my BlackBerry while waiting on my car to be serviced.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: Ordinary Riches

It's been a while since Amazon has offered good music through Vine (although there have been plenty of good books!), but the drought is over. New band Company of Thieves made their debut CD Ordinary Riches available last week, and I've been enjoying it for a few days now. I've got my review posted for your reading pleasure. Be sure to check out the samples and/or entire songs available on the various links. I hope you enjoy their music as much as I have.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

I recently had the opportunity to participate as a reviewer for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. Between February 23 and March 8, I was assigned excerpts from 40 contestant entries to read and give a brief critique. The purpose was to narrow the field from 2,000 entries to 500 for the quarterfinals which are now under way through April 15.

It was an interesting process as the 40 excerpts I read were spread across many genres as well as levels of quality. I read mysteries and thrillers, historical fiction, westerns, young adult, and literary fiction among others. Each excerpt had two reviewers assigned, and these are listed as the "Editorial Reviews" on the book excerpt download page. As of now, I cannot divulge which of the quarterfinal entries have my reviews. However for the ones that are available now, you can be a part of the process. The excerpts are available for free download, and you can post your own review on Amazon. These reader reviews will be the basis for narrowing the field down to 100 entries.

It was tiring to chug through the excerpts in such a short span of time, but there was a nice reward for completing the task. Amazon provided a Kindle 2 to all judges who successfully completed all 40 reviews. I got mine on Monday, and I've posted a review with my first impressions. It's a pretty nice device, but I don't know if I would shell out the $350+ to buy one on my own. People who have iPhones can get an application that essentially gives you an iKindle so there is an alternative. You can see more about the iPhone option on the Kindle 2 page.

Until next time...
PH

A couple of mystery novels...

I've recently finished reading a couple of mystery novels as a part of the Vine program. The first is one that I highly recommend - Spade and Archer. It is a prequel to The Maltese Falcon, and it is very well done. The second is more of a police procedural novel called Don't Look Twice. Enjoy!

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Round Up

I've got a couple of new reviews up on Amazon that you may find interesting. The first is for the Blackberry Curve from Verizon that I've been using for a few weeks now. The second is for R.E.M.'s 2008 release, Accelerate. Happy Reading!

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: Harmony 1100 Advance Remote

I've completed my evaluation of the new Harmony 1100 remote from Logitech. It's a decent device, but I didn't think that it stacked up in comparison to the Harmony One. I wrote my review as a comparison of the two so check it out for more details.

I've got a couple of books that I picked up last month that look promising. Write now I'm reading Spade and Archer which is a prequel to The Maltese Falcon commissioned by Hammet's wife. Look for more on this in a week or so.

Until next time...
PH

Official Cowtown Results

Here are my official results with my explanation as posted on the Cowtown web site. If you know anyone else who ran, you can search for their results and leave them a comment as long as you know the distance that they ran. Here's where to look.

Without further ado, here's how I did:

Philip Heath #10392
Hurst, TX, USA
Age: 35 Gender: M

Distance 10K
Clock Time 53:59
Chip Time 53:47
Overall Place 482 / 3259
Gender Place 352 / 1278
Division Place 21 / 217
Total Pace 8:40/M

What do the numbers mean?

* Clock Time is the elapsed time from the official start of the race until I crossed the finish line
* Chip Time is based on when I crossed start line until I crossed the finish line. I was not at the front of the pack at the start so this means that I crossed the start line 13 seconds after the race started.
* Overall place is based on total entrants so there were 3,259 finishers, and I was 482 out of them - roughly top 15%
* Gender place is who I fared against all the men - just outside of top 25%
* Division place is how I fared in the men's "big person" division. At 204, I barely qualify for the men over 200 lbs. At any rate, I did my best here - top 10%
* Total Pace - over the 6.2 miles, my average per mile pace. To have reached my goal of 50 minutes total time, I would have had to average around an 8:00 mile.

Next up: The Butterfly Boogie 10k in Dallas on March 28. (No, I didn't choose the name! But no, it doesn't sound very manly!) I want to see how I do in *hopefully* better weather.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Roundup

As usual, I've continued to stay busy reviewing things on Amazon both Vine and Non-vine. I've picked up a number of CDs in the last 6 months, and I've been slowly putting reviews out for them. Some of them come quickly while others have to simmer a little longer.

I've also continued to do a fair amount of reading. As we've unpacked, I've come across some books that I bought but didn't get a chance to read. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team was one of those books. My book offering below also falls into this category. Without further ado...

The Starbucks Experience - a leadership book based on Starbucks
Back to the River - latest CD from bluestrist Susan Tedeschi (highly recommended)
Little Honey - Lucinda Williams' latest CD
Blues Caravan: Guitars & Feathers - live blues CD that I got from Vine recently

I'm also in the process of evaluating Logitech's Harmony 1100 remote for Vine. I should have something up for it in the next few days.

Until next time...
PH