Mark Lenahan's Blog

My 2nd Dublin Marathon - 03:32:38

2008-10-27T16:52:00.005Z

My GPS map and times and some photos I took along the way are all here: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=500192

Winning times and results are here: http://adidasdublinmarathon.ie/

It was cold but bright and sunny. The start was a mess, it took me about 4 minutes to get across the line (thanks to the chip that doesn't impact on the time), and the first four miles were more about weaving side to side and stopping and starting than running at any particular pace. I intended to start slow anyway, so no harm done really. It took me ages to warm up, by the time I was consistently beating 8mins a mile I was already 5 minutes or so behind. Apart from all that I really enjoyed it. Waist up I felt great for the whole race. Waist down I was a bit sore, soles of feet and leg muscles complaining for the last 6 miles or so. Already feeling better but I can tell I'll be a bit sore this week. I'm very happy with the time, an improvement of 22 minutes on last year!

In Dublin on Monday morning?

2008-10-24T23:50:00.003+01:00

I've entered the Dublin City Marathon again this year, so if you are around and feel like cheering me on get your rotten tomatoes ready...

If the race starts on time and all goes according to plan I'll be running up North Circular Road around 9:25am.
(For other locations/times see this link: MARK_MARATHON_TIMES_2008.pdf)

I'm not doing any charity thing this time. But if you want to donate to Crumlin Children's hospital check out my fellow runner Tom: http://www.cmrf.org/sponsorshipmanager/Usr_EventDonation.asp?EventId=192

Ship...

2008-10-05T18:07:00.002+01:00

I woke up on a ship in the middle of the North Sea this morning.

Last thing I remember was sipping Akavit in a little Bar in Oslo with Jorge. Then it all gets hazy...

At least I wasn't wearing a sailor's uniform.

The ship is Color Fantasy, I'm writing this from my cabin, already on the return trip from Kiel. Some pictures will follow soon.

Restaurants in Rio

2008-09-06T14:07:00.002+01:00

This holiday I've mostly been sleeping, running and eating! So far we've been to the following great restaurants (I won't bother mentioning the not so great ones):

Academia da Cachaça
Greatly expanded in size, still a great informal Brazilian "tapas" style cafe. Best Caipirinhas in town.
Giuseppe Grill
Great beef and seafood restaurant. A bit pricey by Brazilian standards.
Restaurante Giuseppe
Same owners as the grill, and just around the corner, but the menu is more traditional Italian. The gnocchi is fantastic!
Mini Mok
Sushi and other Japanese treats. Very small place, very tasty food. Recently changed name from "nobu" but the menu is the same. Nothing to see on their website yet.
Fellini
The "kilo" across the road, probably the best restaurant of this type in Rio! You select from a large buffet and pay by the weight. (WARNING: terrible website)

I think next we'll have to try some of Mindy's recommendations:

Zazá Bistro
Siri Mole
(I hope the food is better than the website.)

In other news: I've been keeping up with the running, I train for 3 days and then take a day off, yesterday I managed 22.5km, but I was fairly slow given the heat! If it gets too hot I have the option of paying R$40 for the gym across the road, but I've only had to do that once.

Sleep, Run, Drink

2008-08-30T16:20:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was a great day to start our holidays. Bright and sunny all day but without being too hot (never got above 25 degrees). We got into the apartment around 8am. I unpacked and slept for 3 hours (no sleep on the flight), then I went for a quick run around Lagoa (the lagoon) just at sunset. Finally Academia da Cachaça for my caipirinha!

The weather in Rio is not so good today unfortunately. I ran in the morning (along the beach) without getting wet but it has been raining on and off since then!

Starting to blog again - on holidays

2008-08-28T20:12:00.002+01:00

I'm on holidays, hurrah!

I'm writing a blog, hurrah!
(On my Nokia N95 which I never bloged about before - more on that soon)

I've still got nothing to say, boo!
(partly why I stopped bloging)

Anyway, we're going to Rio, currently killing 3 hours in CDG, which means we're shopping.

Check back in 24 hours, there's more to come. After we land and I decide between sleep, run or caipirinha.
(unless something interesting happens before that - unlikely, or I get really bored shopping - quite likely - a review of terminal 2E dining options maybe?)

--
Mark Lenahan
(sent from phone)

IMRA Howth run

2008-05-02T20:05:00.004+01:00

I went for a run up around Howth with the IMRA (Irish Mountain Running Association). Kevin and some of his mates came along. All of them were faster than me! It was a lot harder and more dangerous than any of us expected. I think we were all about 20% slower than we estimated at the start. Despite being fairly experienced "flat" runners we knew nothing about hills. Anyway, we'll probably do it again because it was also great fun, there's nothing quite like reaching the top of a climb or charging down a narrow mountain path.

IMRA - http://www.imra.ie/
Event page - http://www.imra.ie/?sec1=racedetail&id=493
The results (I came 104th, just under 49 minutes)
The pictures
One Picture of Me!

I almost caught the brother at the end, had I known he was only a half minute ahead I might have made a better push towards the end, maybe next time...

MC Hawking - What We Need More Of Is Science

2008-03-24T16:57:00.001Z

This is very lazy blogging, just stumble across a youtube video you think is funny and cut and paste...

Goodbye Arthur

2008-03-18T23:25:00.003Z

In the Airport

2008-01-21T18:02:00.001Z

You know you travel too much when the guy in the Cafe on Pier C knows your order...

Actually that is an exaggeration, he doesn't know me, I don't travel that much, but this month's itinerary makes it feel like it. This week Oslo, then Munich next week, then Munich again the week after, then Oslo again.

My training is going to fall further and further behind, I did an hour on Saturday and before that nothing since New Year's Eve. Got my new Asics Gel Kayanos for 2008, hopefully that will motivate me. They are up to number XIV, not sure if they are a bit lighter and harder than the XIIIs or if I'm imagining it. My running buddy in Oslo has sacred me with stories of snow, slush and black ice. Might not do a lot this trip, though generally it is a great city for running, especially West along the coast.

Boarding now....

Valve's Portal - Best Game of the Holiday - and THAT song...

2008-01-10T17:22:00.000Z

I was going to post a review of Valve's Portal, part of The Orange Box, but I'm not a good review writer so I'll link to a couple of good reviews instead:

GameSpot.com
Zero Punctuation (Yahtzee's usually scathing weekly video reviews)

All I'll say is I played it all day in one go (it isn't very long) and I was comepletely blown away, the most fun I've ever had in a game. I'd like to try and explain that to non-game players, if you are a gamer and haven't played it yet please don't read this blog, it really will spoil the surprise... (also, what the hell are you waiting for? Buy and download Portal from Steam!)

Portal is not a simple 3D puzzle game as it is billed, and how it starts, but something far more sinister. The puzzles are really a test being performed on you in some kind of millitary weapons reasearch test centre and failure is fatal. The game gradually tansitions from a linear set of 18 puzzles into to creepy sci-fi survival horror, with a large dose of black comedy. From the start you are instructed by a recorded female voice (you later learn this is not a recording but an A.I. monitoring your progress called "GlaDOS"), then as the levels progress you start to see evidence that the test centre, and the A.I., are not well maintained: broken equipment, dirt, gaps in walls. A real eye opener is when you actually find some loose blocks and you can step outside the test area into a small area of dirty scafolding, locked metal doors, empty paint pots and coffee cups, a transistor radio (left on by fleeing workers?) and some disturbing graffitti. By the time you get to the last test you are seeking ways to escape! Sure enough GlaDOS's promises of cake and a big party on completion of the tests turn out to be lies, and "she" tries to kill you!

What follows is probably some of the best one-sided, passive-agressive, psychotic, black comedy dialogs I have ever heard. Never has a game given me goosebumps, creeped me out and made me laugh out loud at the same time. While you try to escape through a massive, dark, industrial, and dangerous "back stage" maze of pipes, wires, scafolding, machines, and deserted offices, GlaDOS is monitoring your moves, taunting you with bad advice, trying (hilariously) to persuade you to kill yourself. GlaDOS's constant chatter is both disturbing and hilarious, at one point she says "what you are doing is wrong, unlike you, I can feel pain". She also claims, "if you were a good person you wouldn't be here" (having weapons testing on you?). It is all rather like the scene in 2001 a Space Odesy where HAL9000 tries to persuade the very mute Dave not to switch him off. Finally when you defeat GlaDOS, you escape the testing centre, and the game ends.

Then you hear that song, by now the most famous video game music ever, for the end credits.

The song was so good I watched the end credits in rapt awe and want back to the last save point before I defeated GlaDOS, and fought through, just so I could listen to the song one more time.

"Still Alive" was written by Jonathan Coulton a "nerk folk" singer of growing repute, and sung in the game by voice actress Ellen McLain who is the voice of GlaDOS throughout the game. So bear in mind the song is sung from the villian's point of view. Now that you know the context, I encourage you to listen to the words carefully. This is GlaDOS, announcing she is "Still Alive", psychotic as ever and not even slightly penitent about her actions! It is equally creepy and funny, while on one hand you deplore her machivellian attitude ("for the people who are still alive"?!) on the other hand you can't help but feel some empathy for an obviously lonely, isolated and essentially empathy-free intelligence.

(You need Flash for this to work, if the Video still doesn't work, try this link instead: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/116006.html or search for Portal on YouTube)

If you liked that, you can find a bit more of the story of the song and how it came about in this interview with Jonathon Coulton in CVG. You should also check out his webpage, I particularly like the song Code Monkey, which you can listen to here, probably the saddest and funniest song of unrequited nerd love ever sung.

Mobile Blog from Leblon, Rio

2008-01-08T18:53:00.001Z

Not long left in my holiday, I'll be leaving on Sunday night and back in work next Tuesday!

I made the mistake of bringing work with me, about 5 days worth (or so I thought). This worked out well before, it is a nice place to work, but this time the nature of the work didn't really suit taking it off site. I spent longer than expected trying to access systems, sending emails, on calls, finding docs, reading bugs, etc. Anyway, it is almost done now, I'll have my last few days not thinking about work.

Not too hot today, maybe 22 degrees. Just had a walk along the beach. Now I'm having a late lunch in a a place called Botequim right in the middle of Leblon. The menu is quite like Academia de Cachaca, but it is primarily a bar, so the food is not quite as good. Handy location though.

I haven't been running since the 31st. That day I did 16km in 80 minutes (very pleased with that time) but the next two days I was laid up with a rotten head cold. Still sniffling a bit. So escaping Irish winter didn't mean I escaped the cold!

See you all next week.

Jardim Botanico

2007-12-31T01:49:00.000Z

I made a photo album of today's walk around Jardim Botanico. Some of these pics are pretty similar to ones I took some years ago, but it is a much better camera this time!

Jardim Botânico

A couple of selected photos:-

Ex Trinity student was CIA's Irish link, records show

2007-12-28T18:16:00.000Z

I'd file this one under "not really news". So there was a CIA man in London in 1955 receiving communications from the Irish government. What about the dozens of operatives actually in the country at that time?

Not really, I'm just kidding, but it reminding me of something...

I'm not sure if it was an urban myth or not, but I've heard plenty of stories about "the local CIA man" down the years, normally in the pub. The way "the local CIA man" character is described is as follows:-

Doesn't do a normal day job, or has some minor job that couldn't fill a person's time
Collects news paper clippings and fliers and posters about local or national events, societies, meetings, etc.
Sends said clippings to a post office box in Dublin or London every couple of weeks
Goes to meet some guy in Dublin once a year
Receives a cheque in the post every month
Goes to the pub (often "this very pub") for a knees up when the cheque arrives
Can't be bothered keeping the whole thing a secret but if you are a Garda or someone like that he'll deny it

I guess the appeal of this mythological character is that he (always male) is so plausible. If I wanted to keep tabs on every possible political or cultural movement in the world prior to the Internet and a global PSTN, and I had organisation skills and budget though finite man-power, and it was common knowledge I was doing it anyway, this is exactly how I would go about it. I could have a couple of dozen such characters in each country and of course they themselves would have no way of knowing who they really worked for. Working for the CIA would be politically acceptable in Ireland at the time, and the best cover for a "handler" of any kind to use, but telling them they worked for the Kremlin or MI5 or the Mossad would not have gone down so well.

The story has several appealing elements - "the lazy bum gets lucky", "sticking it to the man", etc. also it might be taken as a comment on one paticular Irish notion of secrecy, namely that secrets should be between the locals and the authorities, not between locals themselves, the "us and them" mentality. Also the core plausability and it's stark contrast with 007 movies would add to the entertainment value.

Usually though the main purpose of recounting this myth is as a lead in to the "Murphy the Spy" joke. I'll have to tell you that one in person...

Brazil!

2007-12-16T11:54:00.000Z

We're going to Brazil today, see you in 2008!

Amazon ruins Christmas?

2007-12-15T23:29:00.000Z

Well not quite that bad, this is what happened...

I have a wish list on Amazon.co.uk. I'm a hard person to get presents for apparently (I'm not sure why), and my family rely on the list.

For the morbidly curious, here it is:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/registry.html?id=3K521NAANZ65A

The problem is that many years ago I had a wishlist on Amazon.com.

I can no longer access or delete that old list because the email address the Amazon account is based on is long gone (it was my old @iol.ie one). The list is many years out of date, I have a lot of the stuff already and some of it is not even for sale any more. I can't get the old iol.ie address back, so I can't get the Amazon account back. If anyone searches my name in Amazon they see the old list first! Any suggestions?

Porter House, Thursday 20th - THE PLAN

2007-12-06T22:44:00.000Z

Step 1: Any former VTI, Eland, SITA crew in the Dublin area are going to gather in Porter House on Thursday 20th of December (2 weeks from now).

Step 2: Once gathered together they will probably drink beer (or bicardi and coke).

Step 4: World Domination!
(Or maybe not, it depends if anyone comes up with a fool proof step 3 that doesn't involve doing anything difficult, or for that matter actually leaving the pub..., otherwise better just stick with step 2)

I'm not sure why I'm bothering writing about this because I won't actually be there myself. Myself and Andrea have a prior engagement!

Gary K (gk_hackflag) is probably doing something similar the very next night, don't know the venue though.

I make The Mayo News

2007-11-06T19:29:00.000Z

link: http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2725&Itemid=39

Daniel Carey of Mayo news interviewed me about my marathon experience and it came out today. I'm famous now! The interview came out very well, pretty much exactly what I said and it has a good word to say about Mum & Dad, Paula and Kevin and provides URL of our web site and the donation page, which is great.

I'm slightly embarrassed though, I understood that I would be one of multiple runners interviewed rather than having the spotlight on myself. With 11,000 entrants I think there were many runners from Mayo probably more well known and certainly faster than me. Anyway, no real cause for complaint.

I just noticed, the results page is back online, and a few quick queries (search by category) yielded some interesting facts:-

F70 - Five women over the age of seventy finished, three of them under 5 hours
M80 - Three men over the age of eighty finished
M75 - Two men over the age of seventy five finished in under 3 hours and 30 minutes
F60,F65,F70 - 58 women over sixty finished, one of them, Hilary Webber from the UK, beating me by 7 minutes

I actually admire those runners more than the elites who regularly beat 2 hours 30 minutes, whom I never even get to see. I don't really care about going any faster, but I'd love to still be running in 30 years time.

My First Marathon

2007-10-29T18:16:00.000Z

I finished it under 4 hours, and right now I'm very pleased with myself!

I've posted some pictures on Picassa:-
2007-10-29 DUB Marathon - Canon
2007-10-29 Dublin Marathon - Mobile
The Canon ones were taken by Paula using Mum & Dad's Canon Powershot A410, the mobile ones I took myself (while running) using my pretty low res Samsung S400i (same phone I wrote the blog entries from).

The run was very good, the weather was nice (some complained it was too warm, but I was too cold for the first half), the route is flat enough also, there's a last big hill around the 20 mile mark then it is mostly down hill. The facilities and organisation was great, despite more than 11,000 entrants! Runners from all over the world, but I noticed a lot from England, Germany (and other parts of Europe) and the USA.

At first I ran a bit fast (though it felt like I was really going slow), and I got to the five mile point in under 43 minutes. Big mistake, but I made a better effort to pace myself after that. It didn't help that I broke my stop watch some days ago and hadn't gotten around to getting a GPS watch or phone as per my plan. I started to feel a bit sore in my hips around half way but it got better. Then around 18-19 miles my legs started to stiffen up (dull ache + heavy feeling), this got gradually worse. At 20 miles though I was feeling better than I had been on my 20 mile training run also I was 4 minutes or so faster at about 2:56 and my dodgy left knee wasn't complaining. So I had reason to be happy at that point. Really the pain started to get worse about 21-22 miles, I'd say I slowed down a fair bit. I had some adrenaline to spare at that point (to my own surprise) so I used the lot. Miles 23 and 24 were just HARD, I plodded along trying not to think. Then being in the city for the last 2 miles with the crowds helped a bit. I couldn't remember where the end was and started to get disappointed when I went around every corner, "are we there yet?". I can't describe coming around the last corner on Merrion square and seeing the finish line just about 100 yards away, the joy!

I had a lot of help on this Marathon and I should mention some of the people behind it:-

The Crowd! All very nice people and all very supportive! They gave me no end of encouragement and handed out lots of sweets and biscuits (mmmm Jafa cakes...)
The other runners - polite and helpful and fun to run with!
Kevin O'Sulivan (Brighton) suggested I put my name on my shirt, it was a great suggestion and a lot of people were shouting "come on Mark"!
Spailpin wrote a hilarious post in which he described me, optimistically I think, as a cross between Arkle and a Cyberdyne Systems T-101 (Terminator). I was thinking about that around mile 22 when it was starting to get very very hard. Specifically I was thinking about the scene in Terminator 2 where he routes to a new power source. I was needing one myself. The things nerds think while in duress! What I really needed then was a laugh, so thanks Mr.M!
Swedish pop duo The Knife gave me a much needed adrenaline buzz, I just hummed "Heartbeats" in my head at the point I needed it most.
My brother, Kevin, gave me plenty of advice and encouragement. In fact he helped with most of my training. The most useful advice was not to overdo it at the start and take it easy. Not followed 100% I'm afraid but at least I knew it was a problem and got it under control.
The staff and management of OpenJaw Technologies helped also with their generous contributions and lots of verbal encouragement and sometimes just verbal humour - specifically JL wondered aloud if there was a sanity clause in my contract. (A pity about the showers not working, but not their fault!)
Everyone who sponsored me for MS Ireland also helped me a lot, not only with the sponsorships but their helpful comments, check them out. I think by the time I collect on all promises we'll be looking at about €1100, a fantastic contribution. It helped me also, thinking I might be doing something useful (Marathon running is quite a selfish activity otherwise!)
Various people sent me encouraging notes and text messages and voicemails, apart from my family, including: Jorge in Oslo (who also helped me keep up with my training on business trips), David & Audrey, John Barry in Paris, and family members too numerous to mention from both Ireland and Brazil!
Aidan and Tom for running it also - I didn't see you on the day but knowing you were trying it helped. Hope you both got on OK!
My support team - Paula, Joe & Phil - who travelled far to be with me on the day, Paula from Madrid, and managed to watch me run past at three or four points along the way and were there with cloths and refreshments at the end.
... and most of all Andrea - waiting for me at home - who put up with mornings and nights I was out pounding the tarmac - and encouraged me all the way - and re-enforced me with lots of love!

Sorry, I'm making it sound like I won the Olympics! It was a personal victory only. An added benefit is that I lost about 10kg / 22 pounds / 1.5 stone over the last 6 months. I'd better keep up the running, but this week is for rest. Now I'll have a nice dinner in La Strada. Back to work tomorrow!

I did it!

2007-10-29T14:35:00.001Z

I finished it in 3:56. Beat 4 hours!

Thanks for all the support.

I'm feeling ok now. Last 4 miles were painful. I'll write a more detailed Blog later.

19 miles

2007-10-29T12:01:00.001Z

Feeling a bit rough. Thanks Kevin for the name tag idea, its working.

Half way

2007-10-29T11:09:00.001Z

Feeling ok. Hips a bit tight.

Dublin city marathon

2007-10-29T10:39:00.001Z

Dublin city marathon
Originally uploaded by IRLBRL.com

On the run

2007-10-29T10:09:00.001Z

Just home through 10K mark. Phoenix park. Lovely day. Feeling ok.

Not long now...

2007-10-28T12:39:00.000Z

In case you have missed the earlier blogs, emails, etc., I'm running a marathon tomorrow morning starting 9am. Right now, I am feeling very, very nervous. I'm not 100% sure I'll sleep tonight, or how my stomach will be tomorrow morning (always been my weak point).

Anyway, several people have been wishing me good luck on facebook and via email, voicemail and text messages. Also, Spailpín Fánach gave me a great write up in his blog. I really appreciate it and would like to thank you all!

I know some other people running, including Aidan Haran from OpenJaw and Tom Rourke (old friend, ex-Irish Life), so maybe I'll have some company!

The marathon running isn't entirely pointless, so far, at time of writing, I have raised about €970 for MS Ireland, €670 of which is online (http://www.mycharity.ie/event/marks_first_marathon) and another €300 or so has been promised by work colleagues. Tom and Aiden are also doing their bit for charity, Aiden for the Parkinsons society of Ireland and Tom for Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin (donate online)

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me, or anyone else, it really helps both our motivation and the charties involved.

My next blog will probably be post race, so I'll let you all know how I got on.