Astroprof

NSPIRES announcements

NASA’s grant selection page doesn’t have an RSS feed, so I built one with Yahoo Pipes.  It definitely should be considered a beta version.

Pulsar papers on astro-ph

I really struggle to keep up with the crush of new papers appearing every day on astro-ph, especially when I’m on travel or otherwise not paying attention for a few days and suddenly there are hundreds of new papers to scan through for something interesting.  Rather than declaring astro-ph bankruptcy, I’ve figured out how to make Yahoo Pipes do the winnowing for me.  Here is an RSS feed that tries to filter out pulsar-related papers.  For fun, I’ve also set up a FriendFeed room that accumulates links to all the papers.  I’ll keep tuning the filter to try to match just the right set of papers. Check out all the options for the pipe — you can even have it call you with updates every day. Cool and easy.

Wharf to Wharf 2008

We had great weather this year for the 36th annual Wharf to Wharf run in Santa Cruz, after a really hot race the last two years.  The race is capped at 15,000, a crowd that fills up Beach Street between the Boardwalk and the Wharf. The pace signs don’t do much to sort out the crowd, so unless you are running with the Kenyans and Moroccans and Ethiopians up front, the first mile of the six mile run is more of an obstacle course than a race.

The crowds really make this one of the truly great races. This year, there were 52 bands along the course (according to the announcer at the start). Some of them come back year after year, and become a real part of the race. My favorites include the bagpipers near the beginning and the lone bagpiper around mile 5.5; the pots and pans band of Crow’s Nest employees; the Great Morgani, who is always at the top of the first hill; all the drummers; the groups playing Mustang Sally and Johnny B. Good; and all the hard rockers who seem so out of place on a misty Sunday morning unless they’ve been there all night.

Despite a really slow start, I managed a pretty good race, and set a personal course best at 46:31, which was a full 7 minutes faster than last year (!).  The first mile was just over a minute slower than the average, and I was overcautious in the middle part of the race.  Probably with a better start and a smarter race, 45 minutes would have been reachable.  And if I stay healthy and actually do some speedwork next summer, maybe I’ve still got a few minutes to go after.

Of course, some might say that finishing within twenty minutes of the winner (Gebo Burka in 27:48) isn’t a very aggressive goal.

[Photo of 2007 race leaders (c) sgrace on flickr, used under cc license.]

recovery

With the Wharf to Wharf coming up this Sunday, and my long-term right hamstring problem acting up, I’m taking a rest from running this week.  The same problem made me pull out of the last marathon I entered, NYC ‘96, and has led to a couple of long recovery breaks since then.  This time, maybe I can ease off enough that I don’t have to give up running entirely.  But if I can’t run the Wharf to Wharf, what’s the point?