Tim Trowbridge's Blog

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I recently finished writing a mathematics chapter for an ACT test-prep book for one of my clients and a mathematics solutions manual for another of my clients. The client for whom I wrote the ACT test-prep chapter really like what I did, so I’m going to be listed as a co-author of the book and my bio will appear in the book as follows:

Tim Trowbridge graduated with summa cum laude honors from Hawaii Loa College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics. He taught in Japan as a participant in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, and he has written and edited parts of various mathematics textbooks for several major educational publishers.
This is a first for me. It will be interesting to see if the book will come up on Amazon.com when doing a search for my name. That will be the ultimate test!

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

I’ve had a few people ask me if I beat Lance Armstrong in the Boston Marathon. Just for the record, I did not beat Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong finished in 2:50, while I finished in 3:18. However, the difference between my time and Lance Armstrong’s time (twenty-eight minutes) is less than the difference between Lance Armstrong’s time and the winner’s time (forty-three minutes). Therefore, it could be argued that I’m closer to Lance Armstrong than Lance Armstrong is to the winner. That’s what I’m telling everybody, anyway (every chance I get). Click here for an article about Lance Armstrong’s Boston experience. Also, the women’s finish was the closest in history. Click here to watch – it’s unbelievable!

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Yesterday I finished the Boston Marathon in 3:18. The weather was a little bit hot for me, but overall, I’m pleased with the results. I think that I was in very good shape going into the race, but because it was a little bit hot and because Boston is a difficult course, I didn’t quite get to the 3:15 that I needed to re-qualify. However, I’m definitely not disappointed – that really is one tough course! Here are my results:

Bib: 6095
Name: Trowbridge, Timothy K.
Age: 37
M/F: M
City: Gahanna
State: OH
Country: USA
5k: 0:23:16
10k: 0:47:01
15k: 1:10:33
20k: 1:33:50
Half: 1:38:53
25k: 1:56:56
30k: 2:20:45
35k: 2:44:48
40k: 3:08:04
Pace: 0:07:34
Official Time: 3:18:06
Overall: 3868
Gender: 3510
Division: 2144

Also, going through security at the airport yesterday in Boston, I met the woman who finished second in the 2008 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. Her name is Magdalena Lewy Boulet, and she’s an immigrant from Poland. I told her she was great and ran a very courageous race. She was very friendly and modest. I’ll be cheering her on in the Olympics.

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Today I watched the 2008 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in person. Deena Kastor won, which means that she and the second and third place finishers will represent the USA in Beijing. Read about it here. Some other runners from the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group and I were at the finish line and saw Deena Kastor and the second-place finisher draped in American flags as they cheered on the third-place finisher, who is now their new teammate, as she finished. Also, we saw Deena Kastor draped in an American flag, running a victory lap and signing autographs after she had just run 26.2 miles. It was a good time. Tomorrow is the Boston Marathon.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I recently saw the movie 21, since I had previously read the book that it is based on, Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. The book is definitely better. Also, I leave this Saturday morning for Boston. I’m flying United Airlines from Columbus to Boston, and I’m returning on American Airlines on Monday evening after the Boston Marathon. Hopefully, I don’t have any problems with cancelled flights. A few people from the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group had flights on Skybus, which recently went out of business, so they’re driving up to Boston. I’d much prefer to fly.

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Yesterday I had a very good pain-free long run. I usually do my long runs with the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group, but yesterday I ran all by myself. I’m not used to keeping track of the miles (someone else usually does that), but I know that I ran at least twelve miles, and maybe as many as sixteen. The important thing, though, is that my Achilles tendon felt just fine. I was very worried there for a few days, because it looked like many months of work might go down the drain due to injury. However, I’m now confident that I’m ready for the Boston Marathon. Now that I’m done obsessing about my aches and pains, I can start obsessing about the weather.

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Friday, April 04, 2008

Well, it looks like I may have jinxed myself with my last post. Just when I thought everything was going great with my training for the Boston Marathon, this week I’ve been having problems with my Achilles tendon. Therefore, I’m definitely not running twenty miles tomorrow – in fact, I’m not running at all tomorrow. I’m going to take a few days off from running in hope that my Achilles tendon will feel better. Maybe I’ll do a twelve-miler in the middle of next week if everything goes OK. On the bright side, my hip feels great, but unfortunately, that’s meaningless if my Achilles tendon is hurting.

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