Juan Cole over at Informed Comment has a post up today detailing just how badly the US has fucked up in Iraq.

Although it’s very rarely mentioned in the media, it’s pretty clear that Iraq has descended into civil war for a while now and with the US now firing up the bullshit machine aimed at Iran, it’s hard to see how the world is going to get any safer in the next decade or so.

Iran’s only hope is that Iraq stays screwed up enough to keep US troops booged down there long enough for Bush & the Fuckwits to get voted out of office. Hopefully the fact that his approval rating is among the lowest in history, and still trending down, means that the Republicans will get a hiding the next time out. We can only hope…

Race day dawned with a mild panic as I realised there were no buses from my place in to town at 6am, so I had to wake Jacqui and get her to give me a lift to North Bondi. I’d arranged to meet Kev in Martin Place at 6.30 before walking over to the start on Hickson Road. By the time we’d done the obligatory trip to the Portaloo, some stretching and dropped off our gear to be picked up after the race, it was almost time to get going and we only had to hang around for 5-10mins.

I lingered in mid-pack, away from the front as I was realistically hoping for a time around 1:55 to 2:00 so there was no point getting in everyone’s way. Kev had moved up closer to the front as he was aiming for a time around the 1:35 mark. The gun went, the crowd surged forward and I was off on the longest run of my life. It felt like I was going backwards as wave after wave of people passed me by, but I knew roughly what pace I should be running at and had resolved to be fairly conservative for the first half of the race. My aim was first to run the whole distance, and second to break the 2 hour mark.

Within the first two kms I was ruing the fact that I hadn’t gone for a quick piss before the start, so I had to hold it until the 5km mark. The first time up the hill at Hunter St. wasn’t too bad, then it was down to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair and a much needed pit-stop. All was well then and I could relax and get on with the race. People were still going past me, but I stuck to my plan. The second hill on the course was up Argyle St. which was easier than Hunter. The 9km marker was at the top, which was great as I knew that it was flat, or slightly downhill, until the finish.

I went through the 10km mark in 55:16 which was right on target. If I hadn’t had a toilet stop it would have been around 53:40 which would have been the fastest 10K I’d ever run. I was still feeling good at this stage so it was time to pick up the pace a little bit. At the 12km mark Kev shouted to me. His hip problem had cropped up again and he was out of the race, but cheered me on as I went past. Niall was out on the course a couple of kms later and I had a quick chat to him as I went up Hunter St. for the last time.

By the time I got to the 15km mark my knees and my right hip flexor were starting to twinge a little bit, but it was nothing serious. I’d less than 6km to go, so I resolved to pick things up again and hold a constant pace until the top of the Argyle St. hill, at which point I’d 2.1km to go and it was all downhill or flat at least. Kev was there to cheer me up Argyle St., and once at the top I knuckled down to finish strongly. By this time I was passing a lot of people who had passed me at the start of the race which helped a lot mentally.

I was feeling pretty tired by this stage, but I still felt way better than I had for the 10km run at the end of the Canberra triathlon so I knew I could push myself harder still. I continued winding up the pace, corssing the line at what felt liek a sprint, but what was probably nowhere naer it. Final time on my watch: 1:52:00.2, or almost three minutes faster than I had hoped to do, so I was pretty happy. I’ll have to wait a couple of days for the official results, so hopefully I get rounded down to 1:51:59 ;-)

I met up with Kev, then headed back to Bondi for breakfast with John, Tom & the guys who’d all been out watching Munster win the European Cup last night, then it was home for a wash, a beer, then in to the Opera Bar to help Malachi celebrate her birthday. My legs are slowly seizing up, but it’s nothing serious and they’ll be back to normal in a day or two. All in all, I’m happy with a good result.

R: 25.1km

Just got an e-mail this morning confirming that I’ve been granted a one-year working visa for Canada. Woooo hooo! There’s lots of snowboarding in my future ;-)

I’ve a couple of runs I haven’t written up lately. The first dates back to May 2nd. I went to run in to work and had to stop halfway because my left foot was hurting. I had a bit of a feel to see if it was anything serious, and noticed that it was a pain around the knuckle beside my little toe. I had noticed twinges in it before, and had thought nothing of it, but it flared up a lot that morning so I decided I’d better take some time off and let it clear up. It was probably a result of me doing too much mileage too soon.

I took a week off, then got back into it a little last week. Went for two runs on Wednesday, 3km in the morning and 4.5km that afternoon, then followed that up with 6.3km on Thursday. I had planned to get another longer run in at the weekend, but a poker night with beers on Friday, followed by more beers to watch the FA Cup on Saturday put paid to that. However, given that I won $80 on Friday, and Liverpool won on Saturday I’m pretty happy anyway.

NASA have published an interesting video showing the operation of one of the cameras aboard the Huygens probe as it descended towards the surface of Titan, including various data readouts. It’s also interesting because of the amount of data crammed on to the screen, and the way they use sound to convey data as well.

Stephen Wiltshire is a British autistic savant which the ability to draw detailed cityscapes from memory. He was recently taken on a 30-minute helicopter flight over Rome, after which he sat down and drew everything he’d seen on a 15-ft scroll of paper.

As a child, Stephen was mute and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London, a school for children with special needs, where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line and reveal a natural innate artistry.

He has also done similar drawings of Tokyo and Hong Kong. Have a look through the site, and be sure to check out some of the videos of him in action.

Was down in Canberra this week, but didn’t bring the MTB as it’s now dark by 5.30 and I don’t have a good enough set of lights. It’s also bloody cold down there now. After the massage on Monday I decided to make this a recovery week after building up the run distances over the last three weeks.

Did nothing while in Canberra, but got up on Saturday and went for a 14km run which was reasonably hilly. I abandoned the 150 HR limit and pushed it a little harder, finishing up in 1:19:30 (AvHR 157) which was decent enough.

This morning I clambered out of bed and headed off to La Perouse on the bike, via Centennial Park. Did a few quick laps of the Oil Refinery circuit, then back to La Perouse, and home via CP again. All up, 69.7km.

B: 69.7km – R: 14km

Well I got up early and headed out on my long run without issue, leaving the house at 7.05. Not bad for a Saturday morning. I’d run a semi-hilly 14.6km last week, so the plan for this week was to avoid all hills and see if I could get up around 18km. My legs are starting to feel the cumulative effects of lots of mileage (for me anyway) so I was a bit unsure of how they’d cope with yet another “longest run I’ve ever done”.

I opted to run laps of the golf course as it’s a known distance (4.25km) and fairly flat, and after the usual 15-20 minutes of grumbling, the legs settled down and it was plain sailing. I stopped down at the Rose Bay ferry for a quick slurp of water every lap to keep myself hydrated, and I’d brought along an energy gel left over from my last triathlon which I took on the third lap to give me a bit of a boost.

I was feeling good, so the idea of keeping going and aiming for a half marathon (21.1km) cropped up and I decided to go for it. I had to think a bit and try and figure out how to add on enough to make up the distance without leaving me further from home, so I elected to run down, then back up, Newcastle Street, finishing with a time of 1:57:10 which I was happy enough with, especially as I’d been restricting my HR to a max. of 150, and had averaged 146.

My legs were bloody exhausted, so I did my usual post-long run thing of stopping off at the garage for some coke & Gatorade to get some sugar in to me then began the walk home. Once back at the ranch, I fired up Google Earth to measure how far I’d really run (isn’t technology great!), to discover it was only 20.75km! Damn!

Oh well, even if I didn’t knock off the 21.1km it’s still 6km further than I’ve run before, and at least I now know that I’ll have no problem finishing the race in a couple of weeks.

Thankfully I’ve booked a massage for Monday. I reckon my legs will need it!

B: 33.7km – R: 48.8km

This week is shaping up to be a huge run week for me. Went for a 5.8km run last night just to loosen out after the longer commute run on Wednesday, then just did another cruisy 5km this evening. I’m doing all my running keeping my HR under 150, and despite this I’m running as fast as I was 6 weeks ago when my HR would top out around 165, so I’m slowly getting fitter.

I’ve racked up 28km so far this week, and with my long run still to come tomorrow morning, I should top 40km for the week. Up until the beginning of April I’d never run more than 20km in a week, so I’ll be pretty happy if I reach 40. The aim will be to run around that distance that consistently, week in, week out.

Didn’t get much cycling in this week though. Just cycled in and out of work today, with a few laps of the park thrown in for good measure.

Update: Just noticed that coincidentally, by completing my 5km run tonight, I’ve equalled the total distance I ran for the whole of last year… 218km.

B: 33.7km – R: 28km

After having a few days off, and getting on the beers over Easter, it was time to get back out for a run last night. I’d intended aiming for around 6km, but mis-counted my laps and ended up running 7.3km (41:07). Felt pretty good, though when I got home I noticed that my left shin was a little tender. My first thought was ‘stress fracture’, but then it had been fine during the run so that couldn’t be it. I figured it must be down to only doing a brief stretching session before heading out and decided to see how it was this morning.

Woke up and it felt fine. Did a proper stretching routine, got my stuff together and headed out the door for the run to work. I decided against going the New South Head Road way like last week as it was too hilly, so I headed for Bondi Junction. The hill up Birriga Road was always going to be the toughest part of the run as it was the only real uphill, so I just got stuck in to it and saw my HR rise to 168. After that it was relatively plain sailing for the rest of the way in to town, via Moore Park Road and Oxford St., for a total of ~10.3km in 58:51. I’ll have to measure the route on the bike tomorrow to be sure.

The shin issue I’d noticed last night showed up a lot fainter than last night, despite it being a longer run, so presumably it’s not serious. I’m not going for another run until tomorrow evening at the earliest, so that should be enough rest to clear it up. Running’s going well at the moment, and if all goes to plan I should crack 40km this week.

R: 17.6km