Random thoughts

Well - it is over. The marathon went off without a hitch this past Saturday. 13.1 miles later and I was still in a good mood. My split was respectable for a first timer and I thought I had a decent finish in my sites. I was wrong. 

After the hundreds of training miles, proper tapering, proper hydration and a great new pair of shoes ... the midpoint of the run was my highlight. At that point, I felt strong, relaxed and I just saw several of my friends cheering me on. What a feeling! The next 13.1 miles were horrible. I finished the race with a disappointment that I had never really felt in my life. Yes, there was some success - I finished the race. However, the time and the way the finish hit me has left me not caring too much about ever doing this again.

I imagine it will stay with me for a few days - they pain in my legs that is. The pain of failure will stay with me for some more time to come. It is good to be humbled - I have and will continue to learn from it. 

Well, here I go - entering the world of on-line blogs, kicking and screaming. I have been encouraged, nudged, coached and harassed to start blogging about things I know and do for the last several years. The fact is - I am just not that interesting.  That being stated, I have finally succumbed to the pressure and will make an attempt at sharing what I know, think and do.

To start - whoami? By day, I am a 'Solution Architect' in the software practice, squirreled away further in Sun Federal. More specifically, I am one of the three members of the Desktop team, where I spend most of my time working with customers leveraging Sun Ray's and Solaris Trusted Extensions. It is from this place in the ether that I promise to document some of the tricks and solutions that I have been fairly successful at implementing over the past several years.

After the work is done for the day, I am a dedicated father of three and husband to the love of my life. Our kids keep us pretty busy, which has taken on a life of its own in recent years. Specifically, I have moved from interested parent on the sidelines to coach, program coordinator and board member of both soccer and baseball programs in the area.  Recently, several of the members of the soccer board asked me to help organize 'an old folks' team, where some of would play and try to avoid having a heart attack in front of our children. Plenty to follow on that subject over the next several weeks.