Runner knits his way into record book

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via Runner in KC Marathon knits his way into record book – KansasCity.com.

I heard about this strange but true story on the morning radio. A guy has run a complete 42.2km marathon, while knitting a 12 foot scarf. When I came home I just had to see if there was an accompanying photo that showed whether the guy looks completely crazy or not.
I gotta say, he appears quite normal.

What possesses someone to add such complexity to an already grueling event?

Did he do it in the hope that at a dinner party he can painfully trump any other running story? Others may be proud to report they’ve completed a half marathon, at which point this fella would jump in that he ran a full marathon while, all the way, knitting a world record scarf!

Perhaps I’m a little bitter about these novelty runners. I remember in 2007 in my first half marathon feeling quite demoralised as I couldn’t keep up with the guy in a clown wig, and ballerina tutu skirt.

It made me now wonder what other crazy marathon records are out there.
A couple of years ago at the Dubai marathon, we got talking to a guy juggling a football the entire 10km event. It was an awkward conversation, cause I didn’t want to be responsible for putting him off. He allegedly had world records for football juggling.

That now seems less impressive, compared to the world record for the Fastest Backwards Juggling Marathon I just spotted:

 

The knitter and the backwards juggler’s marathon times are just over the 5 hour mark, which isn’t terribly quick. Other novelty records though are embarrassingly fast.

I’ve compiled a list of my favourites, and included my own personal best marathon time – free from any intended novelty.

  • David Stone, 2:42.15, dressed as Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow
  • Ian Sharman, 2:42.52, dressed as Elvis
  • Camille Herron, 2:48.51, dressed as a superhero (Spiderwoman)
  • Paul Simons, 2:55.50, dressed as Santa Claus
  • Joe Elliot, 2:58.03, dressed in full business suit
  • Ryan Brinkworth, 3:22.23, normal as I can be
  • David Ross, 3:25, dressed in a wet suit
  • Mike Ellicock, 3:25.21, carrying a 40lb (18kg) pack
  • Bruce Moore, 3:31, dressed in full gorilla suit
  • Xu Zhenjun, 3:43.39, running backwards
  • Dale Lyons, 3:47, carrying an egg on a spoon
  • Paul Simons, 3:49.21, dressed in full military uniform
  • Chris Baron, 4:28.48, while skipping
  • Darren Weissman, 4:39.12, dribbling two basketballs

Sourced, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/, 24 October 2013.

LEGOLAND Windsor, UK – 03 Oct 2013

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As part of the boys’ birthday this year we treated them with a trip to LEGOLAND, in Windsor. The boys and Elle hadn’t visited the UK before, and with the short time frames we had of just the weekend, this was not the trip for much of a visit. This trip was all about the boys having LEGO-themed fun.

We flew into Heathrow, on a sadly (or for a passenger, happily) half-full Emirates flight. With so many free seats, we could split up and spread out our stuff over a few taken-over rows. Our latest addition, six month old Owen was wonderful, sleeping for ages. And the other two were good like usual. Before takeoff they had already got the headphones on and switched on their favourite in-flight channel, sadly it’s The Family Guy at the moment.

We had a few walks of the awesome A380 plane, and had a nap here and there, and got a baby photo of Owen wearing the female cabin crew’s distinctive hat (she thought Owen was a girl). Then before we knew it, we were approaching London. As we were going thru customs, the official was a little suspicious of us flying in to the country for just two days. Tho his concerns seemed to vanish when he learned we were off to LEGOLAND.

We had a Windsor Car waiting for us, which we booked via email which made life easy, and was quite a lot chearper than a London taxi.

We knew it was a reasonably short drive. And we knew when we were getting close by spotting the magnificent sight of the Windsor Castle looking quite stoic, lit up on a hill in the distance.

From there we tracked the signs to LEGOLAND. And, OH! MY! GOD! As soon as we were a turn or two away I felt like the trip was all about my own childhood dreams. There were single LEGO blocks the size of cars, telling us where we were. The roundabouts were a natural habitat of life-sized LEGO animals. And the entrance had a LEGO dragon. The same dragon happened to scare a certain smoker when she unsuspectingly smoked beneath it, and the dragon hissed and spewed its own smoke.

We entered the Resort lobby, and Lewis immediately asked if he could buy some LEGO. The place wasn’t a hotel it was the kind of toy store I thought you only see in movies. It was awesome, literally.

Our room was on the Adventurers floor, we decided against the Pirates floor. The elevator had LEGO characters talking to us “Adventurers”.

In keeping with the theme, the room was even more amazing. The boys were welcomed by an adventure. They had to count the number of green lizards the fun carpet design had, and other challenges. Once they had the four answers, it turned out to be the secret code for the treasure chest where they got their welcome present of, you guessed it, LEGO!

The boys wanted to stay awake all night. They only agreed to go to bed after we mentioned the theme park was tomorrow.

We had buffet breakfast at the aptly named BRICKS restaurant. Not only was there an impressive assortment of food, there were life-sized LEGO waiters and the largest LEGO ice cream sundae you’ll ever see.

Once b’fast was done, the boys had some play time in the indoor castle of X-Boxes. Such great product placement.

The park itself seemed to be all ours, because it practically was. Resort guests can access the park 30 mins before official opening. In that time we figured out the lay of the land, and enjoyed the serenity; or was it the calm before the storm?

The rides were awesome. We had two days to make the most of it. And on Thursday, day one, we managed probably 97% of all the rides. The boy’s favourite was the park’s scariest roller coaster, the Dragon. I was surprised that Lewis braved with hardly any prompting. The Atlantis submarine was nice. The Laser Tag was especially good. For it, you seem to have a kilometre or two to walk, then you’re put into these cars which take you around different LEGO exhibits, not too dissimilar to the ‘It’s a small world afterall’ you get at Disney Land, except for one key difference. At this one, you have laser guns, which you use to shoot the various targets you spot on the way through. This ride was particularly fun for the photos they take of the participants in mid-action.

Owen was only allowed to go on a few rides. For the others, Elle and I took turns going with the bigger boys. And since we had a couple of days, the boys would go on the good ones again, where we’d switch the parent. It worked out well.

One thing I’d say which seemed unique to LEGOLAND compared to other parks I’ve visited, is the great majority of staff really seemed to love what they were doing. It didn’t just seem like a job to them. They were genuinely keen to ensure the boys were enjoying the place to the maximum. I got talking to a few of them while waiting, and on learning that we were from Dubai, one girl complimented me on speaking English so well for an Arab.

Our day two coincided with the public changing of the guards ceremony at Windsor Castle. It seemed to make sense that the sky would open up and rain while we were standing outside the castle without shelter. It was only a drizzle, and this was England afterall. After determining that the castle tour of 1.5 hours was too long for the kids’ patience, we had a short wait on the roadside opposite the castle, then we heard the marching band. They got closer, and once I caught a glimpse I couldn’t help but admire this old institution. The bands and guards marched like they had for nearly 1000 years. The huge semi-automatic rifles they now hold, showed the weaponry has certainly evolved a lot in that time.

We missed the LEGOLAND shuttle bus, so we took a London Taxi back, before having a few final hours in the park. The boys did what they missed on day one, such as the Digger Challenge. And they managed quite a few turns of the good stuff they already knew.

Like clockwork the Windsor Car was waiting to take us back to the airport. Then we checked in at a very busy Heathrow airport, and caught our flight home.

On the way back, Owen had a bit of a tanty before takeoff. We finally managed to settle him down, then he was fine for the rest of the flight. We were split up between a couple of rows, though we had the bassinet. So it was easily manageable.

We landed in Dubai and drove home in a cab. Once home, Lewis just had to ask if we could go to LEGOLAND again tomorrow.

I thoroughly recommend LEGOLAND for anyone with kids, even for just a short stay. It’s very achievable to get a lot done. It’s thoroughly worth it for the attention to detail, the passion of the staff, and the variety of rides and attractions. 😀

Review: Outliers: The Story of Success

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Review: Outliers: The Story of Success

Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Outliers. After reading it, I may go back and explore Gladwell’s more famous titles. In Outliers, Gladwell uses the benefit of hindsight to take the shine off the magic of success. He argues that success is often nothing more than circumstance, whether it is through culture, history, opportunity, or legacy. He presents an interesting range of cited examples, demonstrating that success is often down to one critical element, for example, the power of 10,000 hours of practice, or being born close enough to the start of the year, and so on. Depending on how you look at it, Outliers opens up the possibility to our own success, or closes the same door. Either way, it provides fascinating food for thought – particularly to hopeful parents of future hockey champions.

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Review: For Crying Out Loud! (World According to Clarkson, #3)

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Review: For Crying Out Loud! (World According to Clarkson, #3)

For Crying Out Loud! (World According to Clarkson, #3) written by Jeremy Clarkson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this holiday-reading book, altho quite a bit of the content is now outdated, and I missed a lot of the many references to UK celebrities or politicians. Clarkson has an enjoyable writing style, bouncing between exaggeration, insight, and sarcasm. And he tells a tale with perfect lead up and description, making me laugh out loud all too often.

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Flying home

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On a plane I always enjoy a window seat. I’ve never tired of that childhood excitement at seeing the takeoff, flying up into the clouds, and seeing the miniature scenery on the ground below. Flying out of Dubai at 10:25am is one of the most beautiful window seats possible. We flew around and (what looked) quite close to the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa. We were so close I felt like I could open one of the doors and throw a watermelon out and it’d get skewered onto the spire.

I also enjoy the ability to watch a movie, or three. This trip I watched the following:

    Moon Rider

What a peculiar documentary. It covers the rise and challenges of Danish cyclist Rasmussen Quad. It makes mention of the distance a professional cyclist covers thru training, which is roughly the distance to the moon – hence the movie’s title. The film began very dull. He appeared very uninteresting.
Typical of old footage, the colour was faded, with blemishes, and the effects were quite odd. Then I noted the documentary was covering events from 2010!
The soundtrack was mostly odd, drawn-out synthesizer music. It was so foreboding I felt at any moment in the story Rasmussen was going to arm up and kill everybody.
Another thing I couldn’t ignore was the race footage they showed. The riders were not microphoned, yet to add more drama, quite often there was loud, heavy breathing. I’m certain someone else added this during the film’s production. It successfully added to the creepiness. Then the story focused on the world championships in Rasmussen’s home country, Denmark. It showed the human element lovely, even introducing his girlfriend. I won’t give away the ending though it made the movie passable (spoiler alert: especially for an Australian cycling follower!)

    GI Joes: Retaliation

What a stupidly wonderful action movie. Non-stop adrenaline-soaked predictability. I rate it very highly – particularly with beer or rum.

    Hitchcock

What an amazing tale, and glimpse into the movie genius!

And then not too long later we’re less than an hour from Brisbane International Airport. What a scene. For some time there’s been a window of nothing but darkness with the odd spot of mining lights. Now the black silhouette of the landscape is capped by a rich, hearty orange of the burgeoning East coast sunrise, giving light to the still dark blue sky.
Hello Queensland, lovely to see you again.

When the going gets hot, the hot go to #Dubai Sports World

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The Summer heat in Dubai was making my weekly tennis matches a game more of perseverance, attrition, and stupidity than fun or skill.

Rather than migrate to the air-conditioned squash court, a friend found a good tennis deal going at Dubai Sports World.  To be clear, it is on planet Earth between June 21 and August 21, in a large hall of the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre. It’s where they bring outdoor sporting activities indoors into the luxury of enjoyable temperatures – thanks to our good friend, air-conditioning.

This massive arena offers a wealth of sporting facilities for all ages, including academies and tournaments.

– Dubai Calendar, http://www.dubaicalendar.ae/en/event/events/
dubai-sports-world-2013.html (accessed 18 July 2013)

I was aware of the place through my running club using the facilities from last year.  Though, like a naughty student cutting class, I never attended.  Coincidentally, on Tuesday evening this week when I went as part of a tennis foursome, the Striders happened to be doing their speed session. A few seemed to have a gaze of “Hey, isn’t that that guy, what’shisname?” Or it could have been my imagination.

As I walked into Dubai Sports World, I was very impressed that such a massive, fun-filled facility exists. In Dubai’s regular July-August climate of  35+ degrees outside, it’s crucial to have something like this available.  And it was encouraging to see how many people made use of it, rather than doing nothing with the excuse it’s just too hot.

DSW supports a large variety of sports and wellness activities. From what I couldn’t help but see, there was a preference for activities popular with very fit and attractive females.

At our regular tennis game, we’d see no one – except maybe an occasional compound kid wanting to play with one of our tennis balls.  Here, under one big roof, there were complete tribes of active Dubai residents everywhere doing their thang.

Actually, for the four of us, it became a little distracting.  In fact, with our wives away for the standard Summer break, we may be more comfortable telling our wives that we’ve been drinking all night at various seedy bars rather than share the actual jewel of a venue we’ve discovered and enjoyed.

See you next week!

Half companion, half trouble-maker

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(An imagined real story :-))

Norm was a typical Australian bloke, with a typical Australian dog.

The dog was called Rusty.  He was half companion, half trouble-maker.

It proved difficult to keep such an active, free-spirited dog under control.

He would always fall into mischief.  And some mischief was clearly worse than others.

In fact, limits had been reached of late, and Norm had to give Rusty a couple of warnings for ruining people’s property and bringing home dead animals.  It was a point of complaint in the community, a point of embarassment for Norm, and a point of concern for Rusty’s future.

During the day Rusty would usually be out and about.  It was when he returned in the afternoon, that Norm would feel most uneasy about what Rusty had destroyed this time.

What damage has Rusty done which will need explaining, fixing, or covering up?

One particular afternoon, almost on cue to the worry that was awaking in Norm, Rusty started his return trip down his long home street.  But this time, Rusty’s approach was accompanied by a loud, horrible screeching noise.

It was the sound of a large goose.  An extremely distressed goose, being held against its will and being dragged slowly and surely back home.

Rusty’s natural instinct and determination patiently dragged this poor goose some unknown massive distance, with each drag only covering 30 centimetres at a time.  This was despite the goose being physically larger than Rusty, and its intense flapping and distressed screaming throughout the entire ordeal.

It became clear to Norm what had happened before even seeing the crime scene of feathers Rusty was dragging from who knows where. The trail of evidence was clearly leading all the way directly to Norm’s back door, and the whole neighborhood would already know the culprit.

The noise surely alerted everyone a kilometre in any distance from his home.

The next door neighbour, Jack, came on the scene at the same time as Norm.

Norm was sweating.  There’s no way he could escape from this extremely unsettling, awkward moment.

Norm had instant visions of community outrage, police reports, and Rusty’s demise.

Jack, the neighbour had a look of shock at this massive goose still struggling in the jaws of a tired yet proud Rusty. Then he walked in close to Norm’s ear and whispered, “I’ll go you halves.”

Should we be Social after we die

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Last year a dear family friend passed away from a heart attack. This morning on my smart phone I received a Notification it was his birthday today, “Tap to write on his Timeline!”

I decided not to.

It made me wonder though, what is the protocol in these socially-connected times when you do pass away?

Social networks are quite a new thing for me – I believe he was my first Facebook friend to pass away. I was unsure how it worked. Then I found it was touching to see the messages of condolence free flowing onto his page, and for people to share their feelings and memories of such a loved person.

One particular tribute from a colleague of his, turned out to be a long-lost school friend of mine whom I reconnected with, and shared our own stories about him.

His Facebook profile still lives on today. It’s a nice time capsule of the thoughts and wishes of his friends and families, and a report on the funeral. I treasure the physical programme from funerals I attend, and keep them as a record. Perhaps the persisting social presence of those loved ones who pass away is the modern day equivalent where you don’t attend the funeral.

Facebook has several set Relationship statuses for people to use. I’ve seen people evolve from Single, to In a Relationship, to Married. And sadly the opposite direction from Married, to It’s Complicated, and back to being Married or Single again.

But what to do about the “living” status of your (online) presence?

It’d be too late for us to update our own status when we’ve left this mortal coil. So my wife and I agreed we’d hack each others Facebook profile to make the change, and inform our Friends in the present condition.

I recognise this is truly a First World Problem. And it’s an unimportant one at that. But I do find it interesting to ponder.

In this digital connected age, our physical existence has an important relationship with our virtual existence. For completeness and ongoing relevance, we may need greater consideration on the impact of one on the other.

For the record, #iamstillhere ..

My Enterprise Architecture elevator pitch

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There’s always some debate on the value of enterprise architecture, and particularly whether it deserves any real focus on it.

I have definitely been in the pro-EA camp, having been in the role for 10 years.

With anything you wish to sell, it’s handy to have an “Elevator Pitch” ready.
For those unfamiliar, an elevator pitch is a short, enticing dialogue you have ready in the event that you share an elevator with an influential executive [see my tweet below on Elevator Pitches].

EA Elevator Pitch

Enterprise architecture is a strategy that directs investment across business and technology changes to help design the enterprise that best delivers value.

 A well-defined enterprise architecture helps you to make better decisions through understanding the company’s goals, operations, information, application and technology assets as a set of logical portfolios.

 This is important because strategies only succeed where there’s an alignment and relationship between the assets that support it.

 Enterprise architecture as a strategy can save you money through standardising and optimising what’s currently available.

 But enterprise architecture’s real value-add is enabling success by design – not by chance, experience, so-called best practice, or gut feel.

Addendum:

I wrote this pitch in around 2009. Even with more experience, I still have the same thoughts around EA benefits.

My views have changed though on the appropriate focus to place upon EA, and the future of it.

I can even relate to some in the Enterprise Architecture is dead movement (and here).

To be clear, it’s not dead. All enterprises will continue to have an architecture.

The way to design it appropriately is just increasingly becoming more pragmatic and led by communities on the ground, rather than towers of ivory in theoretical clouds.

EA lost a lot of ground building itself into a so-called specialisation or discipline through academic exercises. Part of the solution is to demonstrate value, and for us all to get our hands dirty.