What's your ACTIVE? : 2010 : May

IronKids, Fishing & Tour of California

Posted by IMVoice May 24, 2010

DEMIAN DORRANCE, Sr. Systems Engineer, San Diego - What can I say? Before working at Active Network I thought Triathlon was some rare sport that only super-athletes could even attempt. Now that I work here, I've learned that anyone can tackle the challenge of a triathlon thanks to our ActiveX team. Having done one tri myself now, I really enjoyed watching my children race in the IronKids Triathlon San Diego as team "Active D". My 9-year-old daughter Stirling toughed out a rough swim leg to finish her first tri ever, and my 15-year-old son Gailen went all out in his second tri ever (he finished 7th in his age group and just missed qualifying for the IronKids National Championship by less than 2 minutes). Sunday was my Father's Day.

COREY BERNARDO, Creative/User Experience had a great weekend! He drove out to Big Bear Lake to catch Stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California. Spent a couple of days riding self supported. Along the way met some great friends like Andy Schleck, but couldn't seem to shake this darn gorilla. All in all, an epic couple of days of riding and a chance for some great brand exposure!

ERIC MA REPORT FROM CHINA: On Sunday, Paul Guo (Desktop Administrator), Eda Zhao (Development Tools Administrator), Colin Li (Foundation IT), Jimmie Jiang(BA, Foundation), Wayne Ran (Tester, Thriva) and Eric Ma (MRI team development, M+M) took a 70KM tour ride to BaiLuYuan, it was a tough ride in the strong sunshine, but the most adventurous part is to rush down to the Cherry Valley on a steeply slope road!

SKIP CLEAVER ran the Northfield Mountain USATF New England Trail Running Championships in Northfield, Massachusetts on Saturday, May 22. This was also the first of seven USATF - New England Mountain Circuit races in an 8-week period. It was hot and humid, but otherwise good weather for the 5.3-mile loop to the summit and back on a combination of double track and single track trails, very rugged and steep in many places. My time was 58:23, and our team, the Gate City Striders based in southern New Hampshire, finished third out of 12. Points are scored on a percentage of the winning time and accumulated over the series with 10-year age group awards. This is the only such Mountain Circuit in the USA with many present and past members of the National Team in the running. The World Mountain Running Trophy is in September. The Mount Cranmore Hill Climb, fourth race in the circuit, hosted the USA National Mountain Running Championships last year and also in 2007. This year the USA Mountain Championship will be the Mount Washington Road Race. It will run at the Mount Washington Auto Road on Saturday, June 19th. Mount Cranmore serves as the New England Mountain Running Championship this year.

Early Sunday morning, VINCE COTRONEO - IT, PHILLIP DUGGAN - QA, JOEL DEWITT - Implementation, SHANE CARLEY – Implementation, and MICHAEL MOTT – Product Management, all of the Bothell office braved the rain, wind, and cold to take a fishing trip to Mineral Lake in the footprint of Mt. Rainier. Despite the weather, everyone got bites and MICHAEL MOTT, PHILLIP DUGGAN, and VINCE COTRONEO were able to take home some trout for dinner! Next time, they’ll catch the big one!

SHANNON STEWERT, Sales Manager in San Diego and her sister ran in the Great Harvest Bread Company 5K this weekend in Charlotte, NC. This is one of a series of 5K's put on by a running store in Charlotte called Run For Your Life. This was my sister's very first 5K, she put up an impressive time of 22:36 and I finished at 27:13. Next up for the two of us is the AFC 1/2 marathon here in San Diego in August.

On Saturday, MICHELE CREPEAU ran the NYRR Brooklyn Half, 2:03:48, nice push by jay z "empire state of mind" at the finish on Coney Island boardwalk. This annual event is something she runs in honor of her Grandma Crepeau, who always used to share incredible stories about going to Coney Island as a kid.

DAVE ALBERGA reports his daughter KATE participated in her first triathlon the IronKids in San Diego. Notice Dad Dave biting his lip with nervousness in the photo behind Kate as she is about ready to start.

EVA GARDNER, Sr. HRIS Analyst reports the HR Department was out in force walking in the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s Take Steps be Heard Walk on Saturday in San Diego. Sheryl Roland and several of her four legged children, Erin Lang, Shirley Ng, Eve Gardner and Tim Thobe with C3 all walked the 2 ½ miles around NTC Park. It was a beautiful evening and everyone had a lot of fun walking and participating in the CCFA activities.

Chuan reports from China:

Chuan and Jex attended the second season of 2010 Chengdu Mountain Cycling Match at Sunday.

This was a nice place for the match. The race track was surrounded by an orchard. The view was very nice.

There were more than 500 cyclers attended this match.

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Diamond Ring and Helmet Cam

Posted by IMVoice May 17, 2010

JULIE HALLADAY, Conversion Manager for Educate and her fiancé participated in the Charles Koll Diamond Dash in Balboa Park in San Diego. It was a high tech scavenger hunt played solely through text message and an iPhone app that lead us all around the park where we had to answer questions through out various locations to receive points for every correct answer. The grand prize was a 15k diamond ring. We were selected to participate (along with 1,000 other people!!) after submitting our story about our stolen engagement ring situation. We ran, biked and razor scooted all over that place and even had to belt out “Love Shack” in order to receive a clue. Unfortunately, the iPhone really let us down yesterday and the battery died after 2 hours leaving us out of the running for the ring. Overall a great time with the fiancé and got some great exercise covering a lot of ground from the Zoo to the Prado to Sefton Plaza to the World Beat Center and so on! I think I’ve figured out the perfect strategy to win….so next year, it’s on! J

ANDY BUCHANAN, Technical Sales Engineer from the Bothell Office played in a USSSA Church Men’s Softball Tournament on Saturday. Starting at 9 a.m. we went on to play 6 games over the course of the next 12 hours and ended up finishing 2^nd out of 10 teams. We ended up losing the championship game in the bottom of the last inning. Couldn’t have asked for better weather in the Northwest – it was sunny all day around 75 degrees.

JIM GARFIELD (M&M) WITH HIS HELMET CAM joined local throngs in competing in the Encinitas Triathlon this past weekend. Cheered on by Active’s own MIKE REILLY, who shared M.C. duties with renowned past professional Greg Welch, Jim set a blazing...er…smoldering pace. Using the GOPRO video system, Jim was able to capture a fair bit of the race on headcam. The link below should lead you to the 4 min piece which is very cool but got cut off at the beginning of the bike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1l05fd-OU

CHRISTINE ALBERGA participated in the Encinitas Triathlon with a friend who was doing her first ever triathlon. The Alberga kids and Dad were watching Mommy do her thing.

DEMIAN DORRANCE, Sr. Systems Engineer, San Diego - Water, water, and more water… On Saturday my son and I kicked off our tri training for the Solana Beach Triathlon with Arch Fuston and the ActiveX crew at Glorietta Bay in Coronado where we had a good training swim in the bay and a nice 14 mile bike ride. We took Mike Reilly’s advice, and tacked on a short run after the bike to start getting our legs used to the transition of running after every bike ride. Later that day it was back into the water to start teaching my daughter some basic swim strokes since she might try out for a local swim team.

On Sunday morning our whole family headed for La Jolla Shores, where my son and I met up with Active’s own Alex Afandi for a much needed offshore swim lesson. A half dozen shore starts improved our surf entry, and a swim out from shore with tips from Alex gave us good ideas to work on. Alex is a very experienced ocean lifeguard, and is available for group lessons as part of his fundraising campaign for the ActiveX Charity Challenge.

On Saturday, SIJEN OLTHOF, SUSAN DOAN (& SON TREVOR), MICHAEL MOTT, NICK BATTAGLIA, and PAUL HOMER of the Bothell office represented Active at the 5^th Annual UW Bothell 5k Run-Walk. We provided encouragement along the course as marshals and enjoyed the scenic campus of UW Bothell and Cascadia Community College.”

LYNN JAZMIN, Business Analyst ran/walked the Coronado Bay Bridge on Sunday. It was good times with great friends and great views. This was my second year doing it, being 7 months pregnant and pushing a 2 year old the first year. So I ditched the sitter again this year and decided to run with the kiddies. I always thought those ladies with the double jogging strollers were crazy but this year I was one of them! “Watch out, momma’s coming through!”

JAKE COONEY did the Windermere Marathon in Spokane. This was my 4^th marathon and (by far) a personal worst. I didn’t feel worthy of wearing the Active singlet. But I did finish despite just about everything ceasing up. This time I was a little too focused on filming movies with co-workers rather than training. I’m doing the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll in 6 weeks and my goal is to qualify for Boston. Time to ramp up the training!

It was a VERY Active weekend for my daughter Natasha and me (LIZ HARRELL, Director, Project Management – San Diego)

Saturday morning was a Swim/Bike brick workout with the ActiveX crew that’s training for the Solana Beach Tri. Pic is of Natasha “capping” fellow Xers before the swim.

Sunday we ran across the Coronado Bridge with Active peeps and a close friend of mine (Violet – in the pink top). Violet started running just a few months ago using the Couch to 5K Program.

Active Peeps in San Diego - Jessica Wexler (Sr. Business Analyst), Jamie Williams (Data Warehouse Architect), Kat Keivens (Online Account Coordinator)

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Vancouver Sun Run in Grand Style

Posted by IMVoice May 10, 2010

LISA BALDWIN reports 39 Burnaby staff and friends took part in the 26^th Annual Vancouver Sun Run on Mother’s Day along with 50,000 other people. The Sun Run is the 2^nd largest timed 10K race in the world. It was a gorgeous day, and everyone was cheering you to keep on going. The mothers were inspiring and it was a great day overall for a Sun Run.

RESULTS:

5. 8:55:22 The Active Network Team ( 53:33)

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

1 44:19 Julius Dagot 21 (1:04:45) Michelle Ngai

2 49:35 Paul Cheung 22 (1:08:17) Leanne Ao-yeung*

3 50:50 Rod Sheeter 23 (1:09:51) Jack Su*

4 52:58 Jennifer Saalfeld 24 (1:15:14) Bruce Qi*

5 53:58 John Kadota 25 (1:16:09) Xi Lin

6 54:41 Ryan Carniato 26 (1:17:38) Lisa Baldwin*

7 55:40 Myo Thein 27 (1:23:43) Andrew Chau

8 57:14 Inderpal Dhaliwal 28 (1:24:07) Wenhu Guan

9 58:03 Darren Jensen 29 (1:24:09) Wayne Zhu

10 58:04 Lorna Jensen 30 (1:24:56) Benham Vahabpour

11 ( 58:10) Matthew Hoffmann 31 (1:26:45) Doreen Xue

12 ( 58:37) Taal Bastien* 32 (1:28:21) Juliana Tow

13 ( 58:41) Lauren Eder 33 (1:28:22) Benjamin Wong

14 ( 59:31) Jamie Haaf 34 (1:29:00) Tamara Lee*

15 (1:00:27) Ryan Lyster* 35 (1:38:25) Trish Nguyen

16 (1:01:43) Yuliya Minevska* 36 (1:46:48) Raymond Lei

17 (1:02:27) Martha Cox 37 (1:48:40) Wenjing Li

18 (1:03:12) Yu Li 38 (1:48:44) Nicholas Tan

19 (1:03:36) Janette Kim 39 (1:48:44) Paul Tan

20 (1:03:42) Myreen Lacsamana

*First time 10K participant

My first post ever by RODNEY VAN WINCKEL at Yosemite with his daughter Jamie. The falls are roaring this year! Plus Rodney with his Girls 15's Power League team at the Northern California Regional Volleyball Championships in San Mateo, CA. We took 5th out of 32 teams at the two day tournament and had a great time! Daughter Keri is #2 in the photo.

TODD PREECE’S daughter Carmen ran her 1st 5k this weekend in the "Give Your Heart to Monarch 5k" on Saturday where she ran with her group from Girls on the Run. Dad is super proud obviously. Todd intended to be a spectator but decided at the last minute to toss on shoes and run it too. He was shocked when he ended up walking away with 2nd Place overall and took home the event's silver medal.

MICHELLE AND JANEAN NATION (Account Manager, Team Sports) for the AFLAC Iron Girl 5k at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. We enjoyed the perfect weather, lots of laughs and running into several of the other Active women out at the event. Our favorite things were the souvenir ducks and spotting all the mother-daughter teams of all ages participating together … so inspiring!

ALEX AFANDI finished a re-qualification race for US Lifesaving Association. The race was 1200 yards in Huntington Beach with 42 competitors. Good conditions which allowed for much improved times from last year. The top finisher got done in 12:34 and the last finisher got done in 19:51. See you at the beach.

On Sunday, KRISTA GARCIA, MEGAN DUVALL, MIKE READE AND JAMIE WILLIAMS of the San Diego office did a nice 18-mile run in preparation for the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon on 6/6. Kristi took off running like she had someplace to be (she did) and Mike kept up along side her. Jamie and Megan set a more leisurely pace but eventually caught up with Mike on the big Birch Aquarium hill in the La Jolla / Torrey Pines area. They went from the Mission Bay Rollercoaster to midway up the Birch Aquarium hill and back again. It was not the nicest weather for Mother’s Day, but for running it was almost perfect!! We started the run near Mission Beach Roller Coster.

MATTHEW HENRY (Interaction Designer for ActiveWorks: Swimming) ran the 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis on Saturday with his dad and sister and some 35,000 other people. It was a cold and windy race, but the wind helped him and his family round turn four and cross the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway midway through the race. He and his sister crossed together at 2:05 and his dad made it in at 2:19. Special thanks to William Bassler for designing the ActiveWorks shirt that was worn around the expo. Only would have been a better weekend if Danica Patrick had shown up with that car!

TIM MCMAHON out of Chicago went to Vancouver. It was an unbelievable 26^th running of the Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday. The weather couldn’t have been better for running and the course is just out of this world. Unfortunately my time of 47:48 definitely brought me back down to earth.

TOBY GUILLETTE, Social Media Specialist in San Diego, went mountain biking on the 12 Hours of Temecula course Saturday morning as recon for the June 12th race where I'll be racing on a 3-man team.

SKIP CLEAVER ran the Harvard Pilgrim Big Lake Half Marathon in Alton, New Hampshire on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee on Saturday, May 8. There was a cold rain and strong wind throughout the race and the day. There were about 1,000 participants. My time was 2:08:07 on a very challenging, hilly course.

JIM GARFIELD (M&M) joined Chris Mansolillo, Exercise TV President and Paul Vincent of Training Adventure on double ride weekend following part of the new course for the Tour Of California. The Tour runs May 16-23 and travels throughout some of the most scenic areas of the state!

JUSTIN LEUNG reports from Burnaby “The Active Assassins (Active’s Roller Hockey Team in Burnaby) bounced back from a 0-2-0 start to the season to win 2 straight including a decisive 7-2 victory on Sunday. Chris Hall led the way with a hat-trick adding 2 assists for a 5 point night.”

ERIC MA REPORT FROM CHINA: Active China 2009 Stars, 32 people including all managers from both Xi’an and Chengdu office, took a wonderful 4-day trip to Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region last week. Some of them just travelled more than 30 spots during the trip, according from Eric Ma’s foursquare check ins. 4-hour trip on Li River on day 2, An exciting water fight on Yulong River in Yangshuo! See Matthew Cox is so much enjoyed rafting.

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Active China Has Fun & Arch with a Good Message

Posted by IMVoice May 4, 2010

REPORT BY ERIC MA FROM CHINA: M+M China team (MRI, A2, Active Trainer & eTeamz) had a great team event with ALAN COLE and BELINDA LU on Xi’an City Wall on Friday. It was the Alan’s first trip to China office, and also was the first time to have all China team members in M+M gathered for an event, 4 funny activities scheduled started from afternoon: Egg Tower Building, Cycling Relay, 100m Sprint with Balloon, Cooking Competition. Luckily we watched the folk-custom show from the Wall!

Pictures of Egg Tower Building – This is def a collaborating activity, we eventually have 5 products by groups. Cycling Relay was so funny, because a female team beat the strong male team. Clap with teammate means you could turn back to get your next teammate on the race. The third game 100m Sprint with Balloon, which required two players do a 100 sprint carrying a balloon without limb touch. Team China.

ALAN COLE added this about his China visit. The Media + Marketing team in Xian lines up for a friendly bike relay on The City Wall. A mere three seconds separated the winner from third place. Alan Cole was visiting the team and was fortunate enough to participate in the race. Great event M+M Team Xian!

CRAIG MASLOWSKI was a part of the Escondido, CA Renaissance Fair. This was my first time fighting in full armor. It was not choreographed and the strikes were real. We fought to the yield. My sore muscles can attest that this is indeed one heck of a workout.

JIM GARFIELD raced the 30^th Anniversary Escape from Alcatraz this Sunday. Active alum JANNA STEWART and Active M&M’r SHANNON IBERGER added their support. A stunning sunny day water a chilly 55’...but not cold enough not to take a quick picture! This year saw many invited past Champions and legends in the sport racing in this special 30^th anniversary edition. Keep your eye out on the Active.com fan page on Face Book for special exclusive interviews with Chris McCormack, Michellie Jones and this year’s champ Leanda Cave. DOES JIM EVER HAVE HIS PICTURE TAKEN WITH GUYS, I THINK NOT!

ALLISON REUTTER & DANA MCKEITHEN went to cheer on Jim Garfield at Escape from Alcatraz this past Sunday in San Francisco. It was a great event and a beautiful day in the city.

WHAT’S WITH THE SF HAT DANA?

LISA BALDWIN participated in the 8K event as part of the 2010 BMO Vancouver Marathon. A typical Vancouver morning with lots of rain and drizzle wasn’t enough to stop 13,000 people from running that morning. I managed to finish ahead of my estimated finishing time which was a win in my eyes. It was incredibly inspiring and motivating to watch 4,000 marathoners and 8000 half marathoners set off on their race as well…who knows, maybe next year I’ll do the half…

Mark Lister (Documentation – Burnaby) ran the Vancouver Marathon on Sunday. I had been battling some tendinitis leading up to the race but I hoped I would hold together. After a good first half (1:19:50), I felt pretty sore and was forced to slow down. I crossed the finish line a wounded Weekend Warrior, in 3:01, well off my target of 2:40. I now look forward to several weeks of rest and rehabilitation.

JEREMY SPITZBERG, REGINA HURICKS, JAMES SOLA, AIREY BARINGER and TAWNYA BORDALO from the San Diego office had a great time on Sunday completing a Swim/Bike brick! There were two open water swim groups, 500 or 1000 meters followed by a 19 mile bike ride OR fast 10K. It seemed to be longer with the strong headwind though! Jeremy even topped off the ride with a mile run! The group is training for San Diego International in June and Solana Beach in July. Great work everyone!

CARMEL CINCO, Software Consultant competed in her first knock-down tournament on Saturday in the Women’s 19 and over lightweight division. Having sparred in the dojo during regular training, there’s nothing like 100% full-contact fighting…and I have the bruises to prove it! Although I lost my fight, I learned so much and am looking forward to the next tournament. My goal this time around was just to get into the ring and not get knocked-out…which I thankfully achieved J Next goal…win my first fight. I’m the blue belt in the photos.

NICK STEVENS on a recent, unexpectedly muddy Sunday, Joe Hamlet and I rode up from Lefthand Canyon, through Heil Ranch, down Picture Rock Trail, and into Lyons, CO for some fried grits and Dales Pale Ale. It was excellent and I highly recommend it.

ARCH FUSTON reports from high atop the announcer’s booth, watching an Ironman unfold gives you an interesting perspective, and not just from a viewing angle. OUR VERY OWN MARK WARBLE FINISHED ST. GEORGE IN 14 HOURS AND CHANGE, WAY TO GO MARK!

I was fortunate to work with MIKE REILLY at Ironman St. George this past weekend, and spent much of the day in the tower, monitoring the race, gathering Intel on the athletes as they approached the finish line. What I found was anything but trivial facts. What I found was purpose.

Ironman comes to those that choose to accept it for many, many purposes. Last night, I learned some do it for the purpose of grief therapy, addiction recovery, marriage counseling, personal fulfillment, you name it and Ironman covers it. We witnessed two finish line marriage proposals, rolling tributes to a fallen warrior, criers’, chest pounders, screamers, profound relief, and utter, utter joy. Joy so elevated, so raw and sincere, you want to rip you own clothes off and run buck through the crowds celebrating THEIR accomplishment! It is an absolutely unbelievable thing to watch.

Now most reading this might think they can't even begin to relate. Think again. You would be amazed at who tackles an Ironman. The majority of finishers were 34 to 56 years old, and for quite a few, this was their first! And these are not all uber athletes. These are REAL people that have a purpose, and the desire to answer that purpose. It is a beautiful thing to watch, too.