Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

Pictures from Rock'n'Roll San Jose Half Marathon 2009

Content available at: http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/10/pictures-from-rocknroll-san-jose-half-marathon-2009/

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Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon 2009 Completed - 6:57 pace, personal best!

Content available at: http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/10/rock-n-roll-half-marathon-2009-completed-657-pace-personal-best/.

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[2]

Running Summary Q3 2009 – 400 miles, 80% of running days

Content available at http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/09/running-summary-q3-2009-400-miles-80-of-running-days/.

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TheRelay 2010 Rules Simplified – Are you interested in running ?

Content available at: http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/09/therelay-2010-rules-simplified-are-you-interested-in-running/

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Cross training for Runners using Biking

Content available at http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/09/cross-training-for-runners-using-biking/

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Running Inspirational Quotes from “Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an all-night runner”

Content available at http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/09/running-inspirational-quotes-from-ultra-marathon-man-confessions-of-an-all-night-runner/

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Track your running miles using Apache Wicket, GlassFish, NetBeans, MySQL, and YUI Charts

Content available at: http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/09/track-your-running-miles-using-apache-wicket-glassfish-netbeans-mysql-and-yui-charts/.

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[0]

Rancho San Antonio County Park - Ideal location for Hill Workouts

Content available at: http://blog.arungupta.me/2009/08/rancho-san-antonio-county-park-ideal-location-for-hill-workouts/.

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San Francisco Marathon 2009 Finishers Certificate & Pictures

Here is my official San Francisco Half Marathon finishers certificate:



And here are some pics (credits marathonfoto.com):

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Track your running miles using JRuby, Ruby-on-Rails, GlassFish, NetBeans, MySQL, and YUI Charts

This blog introduces a new application that will provide basic tracking of your running distance and generate charts to monitor progress. There are numerous similar applications that are already available/hosted and this is a very basic application. What's different about this ?

The first version of this application is built using JRuby, Ruby-on-Rails, GlassFish Gem, MySQL, and NetBeans IDE. This combination of technologies is a high quality Rails stack that is used in production deploymnet at various places. Still nothing different ?

A similar version of this application will be built using a variety of Web frameworks such as Java EE, Grails, Wicket, Spring and Struts2 (in no particular order). The goal is to provide a similar application, slightly bigger than "Hello World," built using different frameworks and deploy on GlassFish. Each framework will then be evaluated based upon the criteria ranging from the basic principles of framework, ease-of-use in design/development/testing/debugging/production of this web app, database interaction, tools support, ability to add 3rd party libraries, browser compatibility and other points. 

An important point to note is that this is not an exhaustive evaluation of different Web frameworks and the scope is limited only to this application.

A complete list of frameworks planned is available here. The criteria used to evaluate each framework is described here. Your feedback in terms of Web frameworks and evaluation criteria is highly appreciated.  Please share your feedback on the users list.

Now the first version of application. The complete instructions to check out and run the Rails version of this application are available here.

Here are some charts generated using the application:



and



YUI is used for all the charting capabilities.

And here is a short video that explains how the application work:



If you are a runner, check out the application and use it for tracking your miles. A sample runlog is available in "test/fixtures/runlogs.yml" and races in "test/fixtures/races.yml".

If you know Rails, please provide feedback if the application is DRY and using the right set of helpers.

If you'd like the existing list of web frameworks to be pruned or include another one to the list, let us know.

Share you feedback at users@runner.kenai.com.

Technorati: jruby rubyonrails glassfish netbeans mysql yahoo yui chart running miles framework

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San Francisco Half Marathon 2009 Completed - Personal Best so far!

I ran San Francisco Half Marathon 2009 yesterday and here are the results:



I'm excited about the results because improved my timing by almost 3 minutes. And running on Golden Gate Bridge is always a great experience. As always, the race was very well organized starting from expo to bib/tee-shirt distribution, well marked course, water and medical stations, local community support, buses from half marathon finish line to start line and every thing else. A few possible improvements are listed below.

I saw Dean Karnazes (50/50/50 marathon man) and met Bart Yasso (Yasso 800 man) in the Expo. There is certainly a wealth of knowledge to pick up from these elite runners.

1. Really, really, really qualify runners in Wave 1. Ask them for a qualifying time from a previous race or something. Walkers and 10-minute milers are NOT Wave 1.
2. Separate the course going on/off the Golden Gate Bridge, not just with orange cones, but with an additional rope. Otherwise slower runners spill over on the other side and almost bumping into the faster runners.
3. The expo hall had a wonderful set of exhibitors but it became really crowded as the day progressed. Either an alternate location or back to Market/Embaracdero next year is a better option.

1. Run a half-marathon with 7ish pace
2. Qualify for Boston - probably next year

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[3]

Running Pet Peeves - Running San Francisco Marathon 2009 First 1/2

I've been running for many many years now and got into long distance running 4 years ago. Just love outdoor running and use treadmill for speed workouts and hills. Treadmill is a very predictable environment and allows you to focus on particular aspects of training. Most of my workouts are in the neighborhood and I generally try to run on business trips. As much as I enjoy running, I have my share of pet peeves experienced over these past years.

1. Leashed dog who are wandering multiple feet away from the owners and certainly all the unleashed dogs chasing/barking people in public areas.
2. Abreast walkers on the trail not willing to give up way for the runners coming behind. They just look behind and continue walking at 2 miles/hour.
3. All the more weird, walkers abreast on the trail not willing to give up way for runners coming from front.
4. Group runners who run abreast, love to chat and don't yield to other runners.
5. Hikers who move to right when you say "right" coming from behind ... ouch!
6. Drivers yapping on their phone, not paying any attention to oncoming traffic and especially to pedestrian/walkers/runners.
7. Another similar one, drivers unwilling to yield on unprotected right turn for walkers/runners with right of way.
8. In races, runners (more like fast walkers) who sign up for Wave 1 and 2 where as they should really be Wave 6 or 7. They just cause extra traffic for faster runners.
9. In races again, right before or after the start the runners who take a deviation start peeing off anywhere they like ... yuck! Have seen it all the times in early morning races, especially San Francisco Marathon. I think one of the San Francisco Marathon photographers should shoot each runner's photo who is spoiling the bay with their dump and then publish them.
10. Walkers/runners who just stop to fix a shoe lace or itch or something else without bothering to check if there is somebody coming fast behind them.
11. Runners who expect a return "hello/hi" from you when you are totally focused on getting that last stretch completed.

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[4]

Running Streak in Q2 2009 - 378.5 miles, 77/91 days of running

Continued from Q1 2009 running streak, here is a summary of Q2 (Apr 1 - Jun 30) 2009 running:

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[0]

Running inside Parque Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre

I ran 10 laps in Parque Moinhos de Vento and it felt good :)



After strength training for past 2 days at the hotel, felt nice to run outside.

Anybody interested in running together until Sunday ?

Technorati: conf fisl running portoalegre

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Rails Conf 2009, Las Vegas - Day 2 Run

Eight of us started at 6:15am this morning from the Hilton Lobby, looped around Las Vegas Country Club and another short loop in the neighborhood for a total of 5.2 miles in 43:18 mins.

Interested in running together while attending Rails Conf ? Follow @railsConfRunner and meet us at 6:15am in the Hilton lobby.

And don't forget your Tequilas - it's Cinco de Mayo!

Technorati: conf railsconf lasvegas running hilton

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[0]