Last month I launched a new website for a technology company in China, ArcherMind Technology. It’s my first international website. The challenge was to build an American website for the company to make their debut in North America. The primary purpose of the site is to generate sales leads. I designed the website and integrated it with a sales portal on the backend that allows ArcherMind to track sales leads through a step-by-step process.
The URL is http://www.archermind.com
Why is it unseasonably warm every time I run a marathon? One thing is for sure, when I’m scheduled to run 26.2, you can count on a clear, sunny day. It was in the low 70s and sunny last Saturday when I crossed the finish line for my second marathon, this one the Bayshore in Traverse City.
The conditions were perfect, the course was very flat, and I ran strong. My official time was 3:47:16 - nearly 12 minutes faster than my first marathon, which I ran in Nashville in April of 2007. For the record, I finished 411th out of 1,263 runners. I was 72nd out of 145 men aged 40-49.
I was feeling very good through the 18-mile mark, and then I started to tighten up. I gutted out the last 8 miles or so, really slowing my pace. Should I run another marathon, my goal is to run a more even “split” - meaning that my first half (which I ran in 1:48 this time) and second half (which I ran in 1:58) are nearly identical or at least much closer.
Those of you who pledged my run, thank you! I raised nearly $2,000 for Dakoske/Phoenix Treatment Center. The money will go to help pay the cost of drug and alcohol treatment for their patients. Also, for the rest of you, there’s still time to pledge.
If you pledged, you’ll receive a pledge packet in the next few days with details of where to send your check and how your money helps.
I appreciate everyone’s generosity so much. It’s a great cause. I was overwhelmed by the outpuring of donations and also good wishes for my run. I really felt like I was running for a purpose, which helps when you’re logging 26-plus miles. By the way, a funny thing happened on Saturday morning - I missed my ride to the race! My neighbor knocked on my door, but I had biked down to the store to pick up a few carb boosters for the race. When I got back, she was gone, and I didn’t have a ride across town. So, I rode my bike the 3 miles to the start and was there in time for the gun. Phew!
I loved the race and I’m sure I’ll do another marathon in the future. For now, I’m looking forward to some short runs with the Traverse City Track Club, and a marathon relay in August in Crystal Lake. If there’s anyone who wants to run the relay as part of my team, email me. You’ll only have to do a five-miler.
Until next time, keep on running.
It’s never been easier to travel, as airlines, hotels, resorts, and travel-related retailers are clamoring to attract us to use their services. The website TravBuddy.com is a great place to get travel info and much more.
The best thing about TravBuddy.com: Social networking. The site allows users to find travel buddies planning to travel to the same places at the same times, or to learn about destinations from people who have been there or actually live there. In fact, some users find friends on TravBuddy who they can travel with or get help from when they take their trip.
Another wonderful part of the site are the reams of travel reviews. There are, as of last count, more than 17,000 reviews of restaurants, bars, hotels and attractions. Need to know where the best martini is in Madrid? You can find out. Want to find the best place to rent a kayak in Sydney? That’s there too.
Users can also create travel-based blogs and upload travel photos. The photos (750,000 have been posted to blogs so far) are a great way to actually see places you want to go to, but the blogs are a little thin. Though TravBuddy boasts 65,000+ blogs, most of them are old our rarely updated, and many of them offer little to help you plan a trip. The reviews are best for getting the nitty-gritty details.
As of March 2008, TravBuddy has nearly 1,350,000 registered contributors and it’s growing, as it has been featured prominently on the NBC Nightly News, Popular Science, Real Simple Travel, and other media outlets.
I signed up on TravBuddy a few months ago because I’m going to the South Pacific in 2009. In a very short time (within hours) I had connected with folks who had been where I plan to travel and they gave me valuable tips. I also met several very friendly TravBuddy users who gave me advice on booking flights. The community at TravBuddy is wonderful.
The worst thing about TravBuddy.com: the blogs are not updated frequently (user-driven so that’s to be expected somewhat). For that reason, the site just misses a 5-star rating.
The least you need to know: TravBuddy.com is a social networking site to connect travelers with similar interests and itineraries. It’s especially appealing to adventure travelers, the types who cringe at the thought of a bus tour or a guided walk through a museum. However, it still offers a community that will benefit all types of travelers. It’s a fantastic way to safely connect with people in the places you want to travel to, to learn the secrets of enjoying that destination. You may also make a travel buddy who will throw on a backpack and take the trip with you!
Website rating: 4 out of 5 stars
URL: www.travbuddy.com
Earlier this year I wanted to challenge myself to build a website completely with CSS and PHP. I did a a makeover of my workhorse site The Baseball Page, which has been online since 1995, chugging along with a faithful following and generating excellent page views and income via Google Adsense. All the content has been and always will be free, and with a loyal group of writers and contributors, the site is fresh.
The site has much more color and it relies more on graphics than ever before. As I always have, I relied heavily on PHP includes to make the site flexible for updating the look-and-feel.
In addition, this is the first of my sites that I’ve run on Expression Engine, the CMS from Ellis Labs. Outside of the dynamic database content that generates the player pages and the lists of rankings, etc., the content is stored inside EE.
New features include a daily baseball video provided by YouTube, and an email newsletter that delivers This Day in Baseball History info to your email box every day.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
I like this quote and just wanted to share it.
In May, on my oldest daughters sixth birthday, I’m running the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, MI. In an effort to raise awareness of alcohol and drug addiction, I’m asking for pledges to raise enough money to send one person through an addiction treatment center.
Each year, there are more than 20,000 alcohol-induced deaths in the U.S., including more than 12,000 from liver disease. In addition, roughly 50,000 people die each year from their use of illegal drugs. Many of those who suffer the most are people who cannot afford the treatment, spend time incarcerated, and re-offend and relapse later, with devastating results for themselves and their families.
According to the Center for Disease Control and the American Society of Addiction Medicine, professional treatment in rehab centers or medical facilities is one of the best methods for breaking the cycle of addiction. Participants are much more likely to stay sober than those who do not receive this valuable treatment.
Dakoske/Phoenix treatment center in Traverse City, MI, has helped thousands of addicts (alcohol and illicit drugs) get clean since they were established more than 15 years ago. You can learn more about Dakoske/Phoenix at their website.
The average stay in the center is 21 days, with costs of $160 per day. Many of the candidates for this program do not have the means to pay for their treatment. The local, state, and federal governments assist where they can. I’m asking you to help me send one candidate through the treatment center. That cost is $3,360.
Last year, as some of you may recall, I ran the Nashville Marathon and raised more than $1,200 for the fight against Multiple Sclerosis. Please help me reach my goal this year to help battle addiction. Fill out the pledge form for whatever amount you can afford - $1, $5, $20, or more. Your gift is tax-deductible.
You will not be asked to make any payments online today. Your pledge will be recorded, and in June you’ll receive a letter asking you to send your pledged amount to Dakoske/Phoenix treatment center. I’ll also include details of my run and some information on addiction treatment, as I know it’s something we’re all touched by.
If you have any questions about my Run for Recovery, please leave a comment here or leave a comment when filling out the pledge form.
I’ve officially started my training for the Bayshore Marathon, which winds up the peninsula on the west shore of Grand Traverse Bay. It’s an out-and-back course. I logged 2-3 miles of the course last year when my friend Travis ran the race. I plan to do a 16-week training plan, the same plan I did for Nashville in ‘07. At some point, I’ll post it on here. First, I need to get my weekly mileage back up to 25-30 miles, to have a base to work from.
Read an excerpt from my book, Ty Cobb: A Biography. This is taken from chapter three, titled Jealousy and Persecution
When Ty Cobb arrived in Royston, Georgia, on August 10, 1905, his father was dead from a shotgun blast and his mother was facing arrest for involuntary manslaughter. The small community was abuzz over the shocking death of their most influential and prominent figure, while Ty was in a state of shock at the loss of his father.
When Ty Cobb arrived in Royston, Georgia, on August 10, 1905, his father was dead from a shotgun blast and his mother was facing arrest for involuntary manslaughter. The small community was abuzz over the shocking death of their most influential and prominent figure, while Ty was in a state of shock at the loss of his father.
It soon became apparent what had happened the evening of August 8 at the Cobb residence. Contrary to Cobb’s description of a “shooting accident� in his autobiography, there was more to the story. Suspicious that his young, attractive wife was having an affair, W. H. Cobb had set a trap. Telling his wife that he was going out to their farm for a few days, he hitched his horse to his buggy, left their home, and made a plan to catch his wife in the arms of her lover. That night, as he quietly made his way back to his home, W.H. Cobb was seen walking in Royston alone. Shortly after midnight, he climbed to the top of the roof above his porch and crept to their bedroom window, finding it locked. Amanda Cobb was awakened by the sound of footsteps on the roof and retrieved a shotgun which she kept within reach when she was left alone. According to the neighbors, two shots were fired, though not in quick succession. Amanda Cobb had shot her husband twice, once in the abdomen, and once in the head. Joe Cunningham, a neighbor and friend of Ty’s, heard the shots and made his way to the Cobb residence. When he arrived, he found Amanda Cobb kneeling over her husband, who was still holding on to life, despite massive bleeding from a large hole in his stomach and from the side of his head. Cunningham called it “the worst thing I ever saw.� A doctor was summoned, but W.H. Cobb was pronounced dead at 1:30 AM.
Despite her explanation that she had mistaken W.H. Cobb for an intruder, from the beginning Amanda Cobb was suspected of having murdered her husband. The authorities found a revolver in his pocket, and the testimony of eyewitnesses in Royston who had seen Mr. Cobb walking toward his home, led them to speculate that the cause of death was a domestic squabble. On August 9, Amanda Cobb testified to a coroner’s jury as to what had occurred. On August 11, with Ty and her other children at home, a funeral was held at the Cobb residence for William Herschel Cobb. The following day, the sheriff arrested Amanda Cobb and set her bail at $7,000, a portion of which she was able to post to receive her release.
Ty spent a week at home with his mother and two siblings before returning to Augusta to join the team. The fact that he wasted little time in returning to his playing career is an indication that Cobb desired to be away from the gossip of Royston and the overwhelming anguish of his father’s death. Though he rarely spoke of his father’s death the remainder of his life, Cobb was greatly affected in many ways. The suspicious circumstances of the death cast a dark cloud over his family’s otherwise respectable name. It soon became evident that many people in Royston had suspected that Amanda Cobb was having an affair, and it may have even been brought to W.H. Cobb’s attention by a friend. At 33 years of age, Amanda Cobb was nearly 20 years younger than her husband, and she was described as “beautiful and radiant.� 18-year old Ty, though he was not close to his mother, didn’t suspect her of wrongdoing, at least not outwardly. “This isn’t the kind of people Cobbs are,� he said at the time.
Back with the Tourists, Cobb returned to the lineup on August 16, collecting two hits in the first game of a doubleheader against Charleston. Three days later, Charles D. Carr, the president of the Augusta club, informed Cobb that he his contract had been purchased by the Tigers and that he would be expected to report to Detroit by the end of the month. The 18-year old Cobb was excited by the news but weakened by the thought that his father would never know of his accomplishment. Cobb played the next week for Augusta and appeared in his final game at home on August 25, in front of a large crowd. In the bottom of the first inning, as he made his way to the plate, Cobb was intercepted by several well-wishers, including the mayor of Augusta, who presented him with a watch and a a bouquet of flowers. Cobb collected two hits in the game, stole a base, and recorded an assist from left field in his farewell to the Augusta faithful. His final average of .326 would stand up as the best mark in the league, and his 40 stolen bases ranked third. Though he was the youngest player on the Augusta team, Cobb would be the first to make it to the big leagues. Pitcher Eddie Cicotte would follow him a few days later, while Clyde Engle, Nap Rucker, and Ducky Holmes would make it in subsequent years.
After a brief stop back in Royston, Cobb was on his way north to Detroit. He had never been above the Mason-Dixon Line, and now he was on his way to a city larger than any he had ever seen. After a few missed connections, Cobb arrived in Detroit by train on August 29, and checked in to a hotel within walking distance of Bennett Park. Detroit’s Bennett Park was located on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in the heart of the city in a section called “Corktown,� because of the predominance of Irish immigrants living there. Cobb reported to the park on the August 30, just over three weeks after the death of his father. He was ready to start his big league career. The Detroit Free Press, writing of his arrival and his minor league batting success, speculated that the young Georgian “wouldn’t pile up anything like that in this league.�
Cobb saw action immediately with the Tigers, who were hosting the New York Highlanders in the second of a three-game series. Bennett Park was named for Charlie Bennett, a star for the National League’s Detroit Wolverines in the 1880s. A catcher, Bennett’s career was ended abruptly when he lost both of his legs in a terrible train accident in 1894. Bennett had been tremendously popular in Detroit, and in 1900, when the city earned a team in the Western League (later to become the American League), their ballpark was named in his honor.
The Highlanders, later to be known as the Yankees, started ace “Happy Jack� Chesbro, a master of the spitball. The previous season, Chesbro had won an amazing 41 games and pitched more than 400 innings for the New York club. The Tigers, managed by Bill Armour, countered with “Big George� Mullin, a fidgety right-hander from Wabash, Indiana. In front of an afternoon crowd of approximately 1,200 fans, Cobb hit fifth in the lineup, playing center field. Armour’s Tigers, due to injury, had a shortage in the outfield. In the bottom of the first inning, the Tigers hit Chesbro hard, putting together a double, single, and a sacrifice bunt to plate one run and move another runner to third. With one out, the left-handed hitting Cobb strolled to the plate for his first major league at-bat. Using the hands-apart grip that he’d perfected as a boy in Georgia, 18-year old Ty Cobb peered out at Jack Chesbro and tried to overcome the nerves that were causing his stomach to twist and turn. The first pitch he saw was a high fastball that he swung through and missed. The next offering from Chesbro was a spitter that fooled Cobb for strike two. Chesbro then returned to his fastball, sending a pitch into the heart of the strike zone that Cobb met with a flick of his bat. The ball soared into the left-center field gap where it was retrieved by New York left fielder Noodles Hahn, whose throw to second base was a split second too late to catch the sliding Georgian. “Pinky� Lindsay, the Tigers’ runner on third, trotted home to make the score 2-0. Ty Cobb had his first hit, first run batted in, and first double in the big leagues, having victimized one of the best pitchers in the league. Ty walked against Chesbro his next time up, and with Sam Crawford in front of him on second base, Cobb was out on the backend of a double steal attempt, but it did little to dampen the day for the Tigers, as they vanquished the Highlanders, 5-3. In center field, Cobb handled two putouts without incident and his first big league game was under his belt.
To order the book, follow this link: Ty Cobb: A Biography
Note: This entry was originally posted in April of 2007. But has been migrated to the new blog application and timestamped for October to be more easily accessible.
I’m hooked. After running my first marathon - the Country Music Marathon in Nashville on April 28, I am officially hooked. I’ll be running another as soon as I can. I ran it in under four hours - 3:58:14 to be exact. Like many Average-Joe runners, I wanted to crack that magical four hour mark. I made it, and I’m proud of my effort. I never really felt tired. I feel that I ran it slower than I could have, no question, but I’m not arrogant enough to think that it was easy. It wasn’t.
Those of you who run races are well aware that race day is often lots more fun than the training. I’ve experienced that with 5k, 10k and 15k races, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from 26.2 miles. My body was ready, and most importantly my mind was. The distance challenges your mental toughness. It heated up to 83 degrees by the mid-point of the race, and it took some mental toughness and positive attitude to make it, combined with my training.
I felt very, very strong and rested as I approached the 20-mile mark, but I kept worrying that if I made my kick too soon, say at 21 miles or 22 miles, I would collapse. So, I decided to go for it at 24 miles. It was too late. The 83 degree heat took its’ toll and I developed cramps in both calves the last two miles of the race. I had the energy reserves and the mental strength to run all out, but the cramps wouldn’t let me. I was afraid I’d pop something if I pushed, so I trudged along at my 9-minute mile pace. However, I was still very satisfied. I eclipsed the times of a few of my running friends from back in NY, so that pleased me. Maybe I trained harder than I thought.
Three things I learned from my first marathon:
- Don’t listen to what anyone else says, stick with what you trained with and ignore other people’s advice the weekend of the race. While standing in line at the Nashville Convention Center to pick up my bib and chip on Thursday, a woman in front of me asked if it was my first marathon. When I told her it was, she said it was one of the hardest courses to run your first marathon, that it was very hilly, and that the heat was very tough. She seemed shocked I was running that course as my first 26.2 miler. She suggested conservative pacing the first 18 miles to make it through the hills. I admit it worried me a bit. She was running her ninth marathon. I was a rookie, and a little bit nervous. I did. On race day, I kept expecting the hills she talked about. A few came, but they weren’t very big hills at all. At mile #18, I’d heard there was a tough hill that breaks runners every year. I zipped over it and wondered “Was that it?” I had trained in Cooperstown near our home on a rather hilly 6-12 mile out and back. There was a 1/2 mile hill that rose from my driveway that was a killer. After moving to Michigan in mid-training, I trained on Cedar Run Road the last few weeks, and ran a nearly 1 1/2 mile incline that began gradual and then spiked up brutally. More than once I had ran a ten-miler that included that hill and I was left walking a stretch on the way back home. It shook my confidence. But looking back, running those hills made me strong. The hills of Nashville may be unusual for a marathon course, but they were nothing compared to what I had trained on. Several runners that were packed near me for 18 miles, fell back in the later stages. I think my hill training is one reason.
- Hydrate. I drank at nearly every station (about every mile), something I didn’t do all the time on my long training runs. I credit that with helping me stay fresh into the later miles.
- Enjoy the ride. I smiled and waved when I could and thanked volunteers along the way. I think that helped keep my mind occupied, it helped the miles slip by, and it kept me in a good mood. The cheerleaders and bands at nearly every mile were great boosts. Most importantly, I know now just how important the cheering and encouragement is. Especially later in the race, everyone who applauded, cheered, waved, and screamed, gave me a surge of energy. By the finish line, my chest was thrust forward, my arms were pumping, and I couldn’t feel the ground.
A few words about pacing. I had trained for a 8:35 per-mile pace. That works out to about a 3:48:00 marathon. The Nashville Striders running club had pace runners for every time: 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:00, etc. I told myself I would find one of those pace runners in my corral (the CMM uses a wave start) and keep them in my sights. Since it was my first marathon, and I have had problems pacing myself in shorter races, I would lean on the pacer to reign me in.
During the days leading up to the race I flip-flopped between the 3:45 pacer and the 4:00 pacer. One night I was convinced I’d trust my training and go for it - I’d run near the 3:45 pacer. The next day I thought the 4:00 pacer would be better, so I wouldn’t burn out. I’d burnt out in 10k races a few times, even having to walk because I ran the first 4 miles at 7-minute pace. I finally decided that I wanted to be certain I broke the 4-hour mark, and that being a little more conservative would let me accomplish that. I found the 4:00 pace group and ran with them for the first few miles. The pace seemed slow, it was 30 seconds slower than my training. I crept ahead of them at mile #3, and again at mile #6, but I kept aware of where the pace group was and made sure not to rabbit out too far in front of them. At mile #11 I just went ahead and ran, not worrying about them. I felt good. I glided alongside a girl, Nicole, who also had been running the 4:00 pace. we started chatting and she said she’d also trained at a 8:35 mile pace. We decided to stick together and bring each other in weel under 4 hours. Nicole and I ran stride for stride through mile #19, after that hill. Then, she hollered for me to go ahead and “go for it.” I didn’t feel I was running that much faster than our 8:35-8:45 mile pace, but I soon lost sight of her. I continued to feel strong. The miles slipped by. Unfortunately, my watch had broken mid-race and I eventually just tossed it into a trash can with an empty gel packet. But I felt I might finish near 3:50. It was too late. As I mentioned above, I never got tired, but my legs cramped. Plus, my 4:00 pace through the first 11 miles or so was too much to make up, even though I ran the next 7-8 miles 25-30 seconds per-mile faster. That’s a lesson learned. You can’t get back the time you lost running slower at the start of a race. My last 10k was at 9-minute pace. That was to be expected with the cramps and heat. But I feel that had I ran near the 3:45 pace group the whole way, I would have trimmed some minutes off my time. Next time I’ll train for that and target an even faster time, to set a new PR.
In May, the Bayshore Marathon will run out and back on the beautiful peninsula here in Traverse City. It’s sold out and I can’t run it, but maybe I’ll slip onto the road and get a few miles in. A few friends are running it and I want to cheer them on. But I can’t wait to run my next marathon.