Paul Litwin's Blog

My marathon career started when I was 14 while a  freshman at Archbishop Molloy High School in NYC. I had run cross-country and  indoor track and there was a bit of gap before outdoor track was to start. My  brother Bill and some of his friends decided they were going to run in the  Earth Day Marathon that April in 1973. Bill, 2 years older than me, was  always up for a challenge and I said what the heck. Up to that point, I think  the longest I had ever run was maybe 9 miles but heck 26 didn't sound too  bad. I finished the race that windy, snowy April day in just under 4 hours,  swearing I would never run another marathon again.

I ran Earth Day 3 more  times in high school, running 3:24 as a sophmore, setting a PR of 3:09 in  1975 when I was in my junior, and DNF'ing because of a heel injury in my  senior year.

Just googled "Earth Day Marathon" and found this reference to the first Earth Day race I ran in 1973 in a June 26, 2007 article in Long Island Newsday by John Hanc (http://www.hamptonsmarathon.com/Stories/Documents/Newsday%20Article%206.26.07.doc):

... staged 34 years ago, in March, 1973, at the old Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury. It was called the Earth Day Marathon.
…
The Earth Day race was a spin-off of a race staged in prior years in Central Park (and before that in the Bronx) by the New York Road Runners. Held in the very early days of what would become known as the 1970s running boom, the race evinced the spirit of that time, and not only in its celebration of the then-nascent environmental movement.
 
The Earth Day Marathon, a loop course around the raceway (note: the author is wrong with this bit of history; the race started and finished at the raceway but then moved to 3 loops around Eisenhower Park), was tough and so were the competitors, as suggested by the words of founding race director Paul Fetscher: "Whatever kind of day it is, the weather will be a challenge," he told reporters, "and veteran die-hard runners will not shrink away from it, but fight it."
 
He was right. In conditions that the winner, Larry Frederick, would describe as "horrid," biting March winds reached 30 miles per hour, while temperatures sank to the freezing mark. Yet 400 runners battled through it, displaying determination if not great fashion sense.

… The marathon world, however, seems to be getting more and more crowded. When the Earth Day Marathon began, it was probably one of only 10 26.2-mile road races in the entire country...

Fast forward 28 years to 2003. After many years of off again, on again  running, I finally got serious about doing another marathon, having joined a  local running group (ChuckIt) run by Chuck Barlett in 2002. Unfortunately, my  first adult effort at Capitol City in Olympia blew up on me. I was cruising  in 3:22 pace through mile 17 when it all started to unravel; suffice it to  say I hit the wall (I prefer that metaphor to the more trendy "bonk") hard  but still managed to walk away (literally for several miles) with a 3:37. In 2004, I ran a bit more conservatively but still managed a visit with the wall and came in somewhere between 3:50 and 4:00. Two bad experiences in a row. Damn.

Right after that I started having severe pain in the ball of my left foot  right below the pinky toe. This continued to bother me for some time so I  laid of of running for a long while after getting an MRI, various other tests, therapies, orthotics, and treatment from various podiatrists, doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists. I  continued to lay off of running, eventually taking up biking. At one point  late in 2005 I started running again, but was quickly sidelined with  a similar injury in my right foot after a couple of months. At this point, I  decided to learn to swim and took up training for sprint triathlons in early 2006, running two in the summer of 2006 and three in the summer of 2007. (I can't say  enough good things about Mary Meyer Life Fitness in teaching me to swim and  getting me in great triathlon shape.)

So after a successful triathlon summer and remaining injury free, I decided  to set my signts on the Seattle Half Marathon. I started training again with  ChuckIt. Training went  pretty well and I ended up running a respectable 1:37 on the grueling  Seattle Half-Marathon course. The weather was great in 2007 but I  have to say that the course is a killer. There's just way too many hills but  I ran well, managing to hold a pretty steady 7:30 pace pretty much  the whole race.

At that point, Peter (my younger brother) said he was doing the Eugene  marathon in May. I felt good coming off of Seattle, so I decided to start  training for Eugene. 

Training over the next four months went well. I did my second 20 miler 5 weeks prior to the race and was planning to do another one 3 weeks out but at 4 weeks before the race my left foot started hurting again after a 13 miler. Same pain at same location as before. My physiscal therapist, Bruk at Real Rehab  (highly recommended) fashioned a quick orthotic to try and take some pressure  off the foot and I took a full week off, substituting hard workouts on the  eliptical trainer for running. Meanwhile, my confidence took a dive; still I  managed to stay smart and combined running with eliptical work so that I  didn't lose too much fitness for the race. After all, this happened during  the last month which was always the month of the taper.

I took the Friday before the race off and Suzanne, Anna, Matthew, and I drove  down to Eugene--technically I did all the driving but you get the point.  Saturday, we went to the expo and I got my number, went to Eugene's version  of the farmer's market and generally had a relaxing day. We hooked up with  Peter (my brother), Gerry (his friend), and Cassandra (Gerry's friend) for  dinner at the Oregon Electric Station. I had vegetable lasagna and lots of  bread but no beer to cap off a sucessful week of carbo loading.

After dinner, Gerry, Cassandra, Peter, and I visited Hayward field (the exulted center of the running universe where Steve Prefontaine, et al trained and raced) at the U of O. When we were done checking out the course and discussing the finer points of running and having to go potty during the race they dropped me off at my hotel.

Before going to sleep, I mapped out 3 points on the course (at miles 7, 17,  and the finish) with approximate times for Suzanne and the kids to meet me. I  went to bed and after a half hour or so of tossing and turning managed to get  a good 6 hours of sleep. 

More details on the race to come in a separate post...

I finished my sixth marathon yesterday, the Eugene Marathon, and missed qualifying for the next Boston marathon by a mere 15 seconds. My time: 3:36:14. The qualifying cutoff time for my age/gender group: 3:35:59. Bummer.

Overall, a great race. Perfect weather. Cool, not cold. No precipitation. A little wind in places but nothing too bad. One thing of note: while it was not a "hilly" course, there were enough rolling hills in the last seven or eight miles to make it tough. I would not call it a "flat" course.

My pace was pretty constant around 8:00 most of the race until the last 4 miles where I slowed down to about 9:00 a mile. The average pace was 8:16. The difference was that I took a 2 minute potty break around mile 7. In retrospect that made the difference.

Oh well.

Stay tuned for more complete posts on the race and leading up to the race to come...

From http://www.fastcompany.com/humor/

Dear Fellow Speaker,

With the Microsoft ASP.NET Connections conference in Orlando just around the corner, we would like to start planning the Fall 2008 show, and have it finalized by sometime in April.

Thus, I am extending you an invitation to submit abstracts for the Fall 2008 Microsoft ASP.NET Connections conference, to be held in Las Vegas, November 10-13, 2008.
                     
The conference focus should be twofold:
1. The conference needs to, of course, cover the latest alphas, betas, and CTPs of:
- ASP.NET AJAX
- ASP.NET Futures
- Silverlight
- MVC
- Entity Framework
- ADO.NET Data Services
- related ASP.NET and .NET technologies

2. The conference also needs to deliver content that attendees can use today in developing their ASP.NET applications using current released (NOT beta, alpha, or CTP) software. These topics might include:
- Web controls
- released version of ASP.NET AJAX and Toolkit
- released version of Silverlight
- Security
- data access
- Performance/Scalability
- Standards
- etc.

I'd like to see a mix of about 50% in shipping technologies and 50% on future (and possibly just released in November) technologies.

Note: You will not be able to speak at a DevConnections show if you are also presenting at a competitor’s show, in the same state, within 30 days of the DevConnections show. Official Microsoft events (e.g., TechEd, PDC, MIX, etc.) are NOT considered competing shows. To be more specific, if you wish to speak at Microsoft ASP.NET Connections or any other DevConnections show this Fall in Las Vegas, you are precluded from speaking at any competing conferences in the state of Nevada between October 10, 2008 and December 13, 2008.

For submitting abstracts, please use the following URL starting tomorrow: 
http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts

You can also use this site to submit abstracts for Visual Studio Connections, SQL Server Magazine Connections and the Data Access Track that is co-hosted by Microsoft ASP.NET Connections and Visual Studio Connections.

Note: if you have used this site before and have forgotten your password, you can have your secret word mailed to you. It's better to do this then to create a new account.

Please keep the abstracts under 200 words each and in one paragraph. No bulleted items and line breaks, and please use a spell-checker.

If you have an issue with the site, please let me know.

Please submit a minimum of 3 abstracts, but it would help your chances of being selected if you submitted 5 or 6 abstracts. We need to have all your abstracts submitted between Monday, March 10 and Wednesday, April 9. For those last minute submitters, we will stop accepting abstracts at Midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on April 9.

What you will get if selected:
- $500 per conference talk. (Additional compensation for pre/post conference workshops.)
- Coach airfare and hotel stay paid by the conference.
- Free admission to all of the co-located conferences
- Speaker party
- The adoration of attendees
- etc.

Good luck and thank you,

Paul Litwin
Microsoft ASP.NET Connections Chair

It's certainly easy to setup a site to require SSL. Just use IIS Manager and check the Require secure channel (SSL) checkbox on the Authentication and access control dialog on the Directory Security tab.

The problem with this, is what happens when someone hits your site using HTTP instead of HTTPS. They get a nasty error message that starts with:

The page must be viewed over a secure channel

The page you are trying to access is secured with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). 

While some users may be able to figure out that they forgot to use HTTPS, many will be confused.  The ideal situation is for IIS to just modify the protocol to HTTPS for the user. Too bad it does not.

Previously, I have solved this problem with a lame workaround of having users go to a dummy site that doesn't require HTTPS and then redirecting them to the real site. But like I said, this is lame. Recently, I needed to set this up for a new site and fortunately, I came across a blog post by Paul Wilson that comes up with what I consider an elegant solution.

The basic idea is this:

1. Require SSL for the site using the aforementioned dialog.

2. Create a subfolder (e.g, NonSSL) of the site that doesn't require SSL (again using the aforemenetioned dialog) and add a web.config file to the folder (or use the location element in the root web.config) that allows all users (if your site uses form authentication). You want add <allow users="?,*"/> to capture both non-authenicated users and authenticated users.

3. Add a page to the folder (e.g., /NonSSL/SSLRedirect.aspx) that simply uses Response.Redirect to redirect to the default page of the site using HTTPS.

4. Now go back to the root folder and select the Custom Errors tab of IIS Manager for the site. Choose to edit the 403:4 error type, which happens to be the error generated when viewing a resource requiring SSL over a non-secure channel. In fact, the previously excerpted error page says as much later on:

HTTP Error 403.4 - Forbidden: SSL is required to view this resource.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

Select Message type = URL and enter the URL that points to the page in step #3 (e.g., /NonSSL/SSLRedirect.aspx). If this is a virtual directory, you will need to add the virtual root name as in /vroot/NonSSL/SSLRedirect.aspx.

That's pretty much it. In his post, Paul Wilson mentions some scenarios that may require additional work. See his post for more details.

What's especially nice about this solution is it's done on the server, so you can still have your app work fine on your dev machine or your staging server since this solution does not affect the site when used on another machine that doesn't require SSL.

Paul

The next DevConnections show is rolling into Orlando in April. This should be a great show, including a couple of pre-conference workshops that Steve Walther and I will be presenting on ASP.NET AJAX.

Don't miss lots of other exciting sessions and the keynotes by Scott Guthrie and other Microsofties as well as the numerous third party sessions. One notable session: Steve, Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, and I will also be hosting a panel session entitled Server-Centric vs. Client-Centric AJAX Programming on Tuesday, April 22nd at 11:30.

Hope to see you all there.

Paul

I am presenting two sessions at the Seattle Code Camp, Saturday Jan 26 - Sunday Jan 27,

Both of my talks are on Sunday. An ASP.NET Ajax talk at 9:15 AM and a Programming Reporting Services talk at 3 PM.

Everything can be found on the Code Camp site, including the schedule and a description of the sessions.

The conference is at DigiPen in Redmond and is entirely free but you need to register.

Thank you Chris Kinsman and the other volunteers and sponsors for putting on this amazing developer-fueled event!

Paul

Visual Studio 2008 is a done deal. It's just a matter of releasing the various versions to the people.

Right now, you can download a copy of any of the express versions (VIsual Web Developer Express, Visual C# Express, Visual Basic Express, or Visual C++ Express) from the Express Downloads page. These are the real deal, not some late beta copy.

Have fun.

Paul

Yesterday I was biking home in the dark. (Boy, it gets dark before 5 PM these days.) I was on the Burke-Gilman trail, a popular trail that cuts through the heart of Seattle. Anyway, I'm cruising along in the dark in a section of the trail that is quite poorly lit and hit a large root that has buckeled the asphalt quite unexpectedly. (This section of the trail by the Fremont Bridge has just recently reopened after being closed for 2 years.) Anyway, I had to react kind of quickly and ended up braking a little too hard (it happened so quickly). The rear end of the bike flipped over the handle bars and I landed right on my head. I got up with only slight injuries. (Two riders who were riding behind me stopped to help which was very much appeciated.) I messed up my rear derailer but otherwise my bike and I ended up okay and I was able to ride it the remaining 3 miles to home.

I was on trail which is normally considered safe (as oppoed to on the road) but still ended up hitting the ground hard (at about 15 miles an hour) on my head. Had I not been wearing a helmet I probably would have ended up in the hospital.

The moral of the story: buy and wear a helmet everytime you ride! I have noticed a lot of Seattle-area cyclists riding their bikes of late without helmets. This is a very bad idea. I am so glad I was wearing mine or I might not be here to write this entry.

Paul

I have posted the updated samples from my three sessions at last week's extremely successful Microsoft ASP.NET Connections show in Las Vegas (part of DevConnections which had more than 5100 attendees!)

The sessions:

• Pre-conference workshop (co-presented with Stephen Walther) on ASP.NET AJAX.
• Data Controls Tips and Tricks
• Programming SQL Server Reporting Services

You can find the samples (as well as other, older samples from prior talks) at my downloads page.

I just had to do it again: choose 27 sessions (plus a few workshops) from 188 submitted abstracts. Had to go from 38 speakers to 13. I don't think I can emphasize enough how difficult it is to make the cut. No matter what I do, I end up disappointing a lot of people (25 to be exact). Of course, it's nice to have the conference's confidence to let me do the choosing, but that doesn't make it any easier.

For those wondering what the final picks are, hang on for a few more days while we fine tune things  (in other words, I may change my mind over the next couple of days).

 Paul

This from Steve Dybing at Microsoft:

We know many of you have been testing the Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 VPC images, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx.  It has been brought to our attention that the current Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 VPC images will expire on November 1, 2007, rather than March 15, 2008 as originally announced.  It is strongly encouraged that you take all necessary steps before November 1, 2007 to back up all your projects and move your Team Foundation Server data to an alternate location.  For instructions on moving your TFS data please refer to the article Moving Team Foundation Server, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404879(vs.90).aspx, located on the MSDN Library.

 A short list of questions and answers:

Q. Will my data be available after November 1, 2007?

A. This is still being researched, however, currently the understanding is that customers will NOT be able to access their data after November 1^st unless the data is moved to an alternate installation location.

Q. Can I reset my system date to re-enable the OS image?

A. Again there is still research being done, however, from the current understanding of the problem resetting the system date back DOES NOT re-enable the OS image.

Full details at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx

Shirley Brothers (DevConnections Goddess) just emailed me to tell me we are 78 people short of 5,000 attendees for the upcoming DevConnections conferences in Las Vegas. Once again, this will be a dynamite show in Sin City.

If you haven't heard, there will be nine shows co-hosted at the same conference center. Register for one and attend all seven, including:

• Microsoft ASP.NET Connections (which I chair)
• Visual Studio Connections
• SQL Server Magazine Connections
• Architect Connections
• SharePoint Connections
• Mobile Connections
• Micrsoft Exchange Connections
• Windows Connections
• Office Connections

All attendees will receive a copy of Visual Studio 2008 (probably PRO versions but I don't know for sure) + beta copies of SQL Server Katmai and Windows Server 2008.

Of course besides the sessions, there will be lots of parties and the usual gambling, shows, etc outside of the convention hall.

Also, Microsoft is hosting a jam session to promote a new social networking site for IT Pros. Check out the details at  Who Are You Jam Session. The party is on Nov 6th, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

I invite you to submit abstracts for the Spring 2008 Microsoft ASP.NET Connections conference, to be held in Orlando, April 20-24th. Abstracs are due by Oct 26th, 2008.

The conference will take place shortly after the VS 2008 release, and will focus on the tools and techniques for using ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 (which should be released by the end of this year).

The conference will focus on the new release, including:

- ASP.NET AJAX and the Toolkit

- Silverlight

- Linq and data access

- Web services

- etc.

While the majority of content should focus on the new release, we are reserving about 1/4 of the content for talks that cover ASP.NET 2.0/VS 2005.

For submitting session, please use this URL:

http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts

Abstracts will NOT be accepted by any other means. You must use the above url!

Note: if you have used the abstract submission site before and have forgotten your password, you can have your secret word mailed to you. It's better to do this then to create a new account.

Please keep the abstracts under 200 words each and in one paragraph. No bulleted items and line breaks, and please use a spell-checker.

If you have an issue with the site, please let me know right away.

Please submit a minimum of 3 abstracts, but it would help your chances of being selected if you submitted 5 or 6 abstracts. We need to have all your abstracts by October 26th. If you miss this deadline, you will virtually ensure that you will NOT be selected.

What you will get if selected:

$500 per conference talk. (Additional compensation for pre/post conference workshops.) Coach airfare and hotel stay paid by the conference.

Finally, please read the following from DevConnections President Shirley about competing conferences:

=========================================================================

I would like to thank each and every one of our Connections speakers for helping us make this event so successful. Last year in Vegas we had just over 4,700 attendees; we hope to do that or better this fall. By the end of September we had over 3,000 registrations for our Fall show.

A successful show happens when you have a combination of things come together: great speakers, good venue, great partners, fun events, and ongoing relationship building. I hope we can all continue to work together to make Connections the very best event outside of Tech Ed, for years to come. As a more successful show, our competitors are trying to compete by moving their shows closer to our dates and in some cases, to the same cities.

It’s very disheartening for me to see our speakers presenting similar topics at competing shows that are scheduled so close to our own shows. So I want to make a small change in how we handle speakers. Essentially, I don’t want to schedule a speaker at a Connections show who is also presenting at one of our competitor’s shows, in the same state, within 30 days of a Connections show. Many of you have known me for years and you know that I would never discourage a speaker from doing something that is good for his/her career and company. I have never asked a speaker not to speak for a competitor and I am NOT saying that now. I am saying that if another show sits within 30 days of ours in the same state, that the speaker should choose to speak at one or the other conference, but not both. If for whatever reason a speaker does not choose Connections during that time period, there will NOT be hard feelings and they can speak for one of our shows at another time.

I want Connections conferences to be different and unique in the minds of our attendees, our sponsors, and our speakers. I have given this a lot of thought and I think the best way to produce our Connections shows is not to have any of our speakers presenting at our show and at a competitor’s show a few weeks earlier or later in the same place.

Shirley.

=========================================================================

Thanks,

Paul Litwin

Microsoft ASP.NET Connections Chair

I just tried to chat with a tech support person about restoring from a Ghost image and this is what I got:

Nice use of include files in asp classic that is only about 6-7 years old! And of course this message was seen repeatedly. Nice recovery for a site from a billion dollar company. Go Symantec!

Paul