Sri Chinmoy Half @ Centennial Park – My first cross-country run/race

Yesterday was race 2 of the Sri Chinmoy Series at Centennial Park. I did the half marathon. Waking up for a Sri Chinmoy race is always made a lot easier by the thought of guilt-free post race pancakes provided by the race organizers. I had stuck to my training (almost with a 100% completion rate of all planned sessions) and have been running well... I had only done two long runs at a 'steady' pace as per the plan and the most I did in those runs were about 18.5kms. However, with sufficient taper, I was convinced I could run the 21.1 KMs in under 2 hours (and most probably, under my PB of 1:56).

The race was scheduled to start at 8am. Weather-wise, it was perfect running weather. It was slightly chilly in the morning and the occasional drizzle which acted as a constant threat that there could be a down pour at any minute. I got to the park by 7.30. I decided to park the car outside assuming the park is either closed or will have too many restrictions because of the race. My assumption was the run course will be the same as the centennial park part of the Sydney marathon course – which was all on-road (Note to self – Research the course well before working out a race plan!). Only difference I expected was that it will be 3x7km loops. The park was packed with cars, horses, bikes and other walkers and runners – none of them looked like they were leaving the park in a hurry to clear the road for the race. This was when I vaguely remembered reading on the Sri Chinmoy site that this was a cross-country course. The description was:

"an ever-changing cross-country course over dirt, grass and gravel takes you alongside pretty ponds, across playing fields and through lush groves of natives. With the occasional horse idling by, it's easy to imagine you're out in the countryside – until you look up at the imposing city skyline, which you can almost touch."

The race started just after 8 and we started running on grass and then onto a dirt track filled with very fresh horse manure! I was still convinced that this "cross country" wording was a marketing stunt by the organizers to attract some trail runners and we'll get on the road for most part of the loop. If anything (in true Sri Chinmoy race fashion), I expected we'd have to share the road or bike path with other cyclists and walkers (Most of them are usually nice and supportive!). We continued running on the dirt track and got on to a muddy gravel road. I wasn't concerned about my pace at all as I was more focused on where I'm stepping and trying to avoid horse manure, some tree branches and mud. After about 2-3kms of running in a 7k loop, it was time for me to accept that it was indeed a cross-country course. Unlike road running, it was extremely hard to control my pace or heart rate and get a rhythm going. I decided to stick to a pace that I could manage (given the high HR) and continued running. The race organizers' description was quiet accurate and we did run along "pretty ponds, across playing fields and through lush groves of natives".

My highlight of the whole course was running through the 'Centennial park pine forest'. When running outdoors or cycling, every now and then, you witness sights such as a sunrise, sunset or a random act of a stranger, which sticks you forever and makes you realize that it is all worth it !!.. This was one of those moments – It was a pine forest filled with black pine trees and the ground was filled with wet brown tree leaves and small branches. There was an occasional ray of sunlight coming through and it was a chilly morning. The little red signs with the arrows to direct us were barely visible – we instead followed the trail on the ground created by the faster runners... Having never run off-road before, this seemed like a glimpse of what I was missing out on.

I managed to find a photo on the net of this pine forest...

Rest of the loop was (almost) equally entertaining. My pace wasn't entirely going to plan but I couldn't have expected much considering it was an x-country course and I have always run on roads before. I was still on track for 1:56 finish as I did 16kms in 90minutes. However, I think I paid for my lack of long runs at about the 18-19km point. I didn't have much left and plodded along in just under 2 hrs (Time on my watch - 01:59:04). My immediate post race thoughts were that it was a 'slow' race and I was slightly disappointed. But having talked to few people in the last 24 hours, it seems like there was going to be no way I could've run anywhere near the time of a half marathon on the road. This race has certainly introduced me to the world of trail / cross-country running, which I would like to explore further one day. But for now, my goal is still the Sydney Marathon in SeptemberJ... Next stop will be the SHM half marathon on May 15^tt!!

Linking Garmin Connect, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook – Part 2 (Publishing Garmin Race info to Twitter and Facebook)

(Click on the screenshots if they aren't clear)
In my previous post, I shared details on how I update my blog automatically to include Garmin output from my races. In this post, I've listed the instructions on how I publish my Garmin info from my races to Twitter and Facebook (automatically).

Currently, every time I'm done with a race (and I download the Garmin output), My Twitter account is updated is..

And my facebook status is updated too..

Both of the above happens automatically once I download the Garmin output. Similar to my earlier post, this works off RSS feeds too. The earlier post contains the information on where to find the RSS feed link to your Garmin and how to set the privacy so only the "Races".

Updating Twitter with Race infoThis was done using twitterfeed – A very straightforward site/tool to retrieve new info from a RSS feed and 'tweet' that info. Step 1 was to enter the RSS address:

Step 2 was the 'fun' part. In the 'Post Prefix' field, enter whatever you want to say before the Garmin link appears on your tweet and facebook status. In my case, I entered 'My race info..'

Post suffix field must be set to end with "#fb". This is required to update facebook.


Final step is to enter and authenticate your twitter account. Once completed, any new races will automatically appear in twitter in the following format – "My race info..(Race name) (Garmin Link) #fb"


Updating Facebook with Race infoThis was done, using Facebook's "Selective Tweets" application. This is another straight forward app, which lets to update your facebook status automatically twitter. However, unlike some apps, this only updates facebook status with tweets that end with "#fb".








Once done, your Garmin race info flows automatically to facebook too :

So in a nutshell, after a race, all I do is download my Garmin output, update my Race name, 'unlock' that particular activity. The twitter update, my blog update and facebook update is all done automatically.

Facebook and Twitter does have a few RSS-related apps which lets you auto-tweet / update your status. However, every other app I tried had a considerable amount of time delay or was unreliable (Some of them took upto 24 hours to update). The above method of linked Garmin to > Twitter to > Facebook seemed to be the quickest and efficient.

This technique is not unique to Garmin RSS and can be used to any other similar functionalities too. I've also used the same to update twitter and facebook everytime I update my blog..








Enjoy :)

Linking Garmin Connect, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook – Part 1 (Updating my blog to include Garmin output from my races)

After a bit of trial and error & a lot of Googleing, I've finally managed to integrate Garmin Connect, Blogger, Twitter and Facebook together. I have now managed to do the following :

• Automatically update my blog to include Garmin output from (only) my races :
• List my latest tweets on my blog


• Automatically update Twitter and Facebook of any new blog entries

In this post, I'll try to explain how I managed to get the Garmin output of my Races to appear on my blog. I'm sure most of the above could be done without too much hassle and in very little time by someone who is tech savvy. But considering it took me a lot of Google'ing and a lot of trial & error, I thought it's only fair to share it in the hope it might help someone else..
Setting up Garmin Connect to display and Feed Garmin info only from your racesThis is the only initial setup that is required. This has been driven in the back end using RSS feeds from the Garmin connect site. The Garmin connect RSS feed can be obtained from the "Dashboard" tab in garmin connect:
Clicking on it will give you the link to your RSS feed - http://connect.garmin.com/feed/rss/activities?feedname=Garmin%20Connect%20-%20dineish&owner=dineish
Accessing this link will give you details of every single workout. However, I only wanted info of my races published – I really did not want to annoy my Twitter and Facebook friends by publishing every single workout of mine (I think I annoy the non-runners enough already). This was fixed by playing around with the security settings on Garmin connect. By default, all activities on Garmin are set to "Public" which allows sharing of the activities (which resulted in RSS feed having all activities).
I changed the default privacy to "PRIVATE". This can be done by clicking on SETTINGS > DEFAULT PRIVACY and selecting PRIVATE. This will ensure all activities are now locked.







All I have to do now is, every time I want info from a race published, I have to "unlock" just that particular activity. This can be done in the "Activities" tab by selecting "Quick Edit" .

This will give you the option to unlock the activities you wish to publish (under the privacy column). You can also add the description, activity type and event type as required on this screen.
Once done click on FINISH and TADA! Your RACE info is the only info on your RSS Feed link!!! (TIP – be VERRRYYY patient for the initial changes to be updated in the RSS feed. It could take upto a day or two at times)
Now that the RSS feed is displaying only the RACE info, things get a lot easier and we could set up the fun stuff.Burning your feed using feedburnerYou can use feedburner to "burn" your feed. This is supposed to help you with allowing users to subscribe and provides traffic analysis etc. etc. , but for me the most useful part was that it gave me a much shorter and nicer link to my garmin output feeds - http://feeds.feedburner.com/GarminConnect-Dineish
Automatically update my blog to include Garmin output from (only) my racesI used BuzzBoost in Feedburner for this. This can be done by using "Use as a widget" option. You can also use BuzzBoost to set up a similar widget to any site.

Buzzboost also gives a HTML script that you can copy and paste to any other blogging sites or your own web site.







This sets up a nice column on my blog containing info from my recent races...
In the next post, I'll share the instructions on how to automatically update twitter and facebook with my garmin output from my races and new blog entries..