Philadelphia Marathon, 2009

Here are some photos and videos from our Marathon Excursion this past Sunday. I was running with my son Jody, and we stayed the night before with friends Dolly and Joe. I rate this experience as OUTSTANDING! I don't know how to make this slide show go slower, but you can click on it to go to picassa web albums.



As we came around the Art Museum towards the finish, I took this video. We were still a half a mile from the finishing line, but spectators were yelling our names, since the race organizors had the good sense to print our first names in huge letters on our number bibs. I had no gas left in my tank, but Dolly and I were side by side, and we were both bearing down with everything we could muster (at least I was. Dolly never let on if she was trying hard). To watch Picassa vidoes you click on them, then "back" to return to this blog post. Not sure I like that system.

From Philly Marathon

In this next video we were heading around the last corner and in to the finishing shutes. I was sooo happy, and sooo ready to be done. Dolly was constantly checking her Garmin and doing math calculations about our pace. You can even see her do it here, 200 yards from the finish, with the Art Museum steps in the background! Without Dolly's experience and encouragement all along the way, I would have been at least 10 minutes slower.

From Philly Marathon

Dolly's garmin recorded from very cool results. You can watch it here. Click the triangle and watch the race. Dolly's heartrate is in the lower right. She kept saying that it would take a higher heartrate to run the same speed as we got closer to the finish. She was correct, of course! My heart got to eleven some time on the way back from Manayunk. I especially remember mile 23 being one of the longest, grueling miles I ever ran.

I signed up to have our split times sent to my email. Here they are. Which one is not like the other one? ("NET" means that it's timed by your chip from when you actually cross the start line, not the actual clock time)

Alan Jacobs
@ 10K in 01:02:10 (NET). Pace: 10:00. Predicted: 4:22:18.
@ Half in 02:09:00 (NET). Pace: 9:50. Predicted: 4:18:00.
@ 30K in 03:03:24 (NET). Pace: 9:50. Predicted: 4:17:57.
@ Finish in 04:18:07 (NET). Pace: 9:50.

Dolly Dennery
@ 10K in 01:02:09 (NET). Pace: 10:00. Predicted: 4:22:13.
@ Half in 02:08:59 (NET). Pace: 9:50. Predicted: 4:17:58.
@ 30K in 03:03:24 (NET). Pace: 9:50. Predicted: 4:17:57.
@ Finish in 04:18:06 (NET). Pace: 9:50.

Jody Lopez-Jacobs
@ 10K in 00:48:35 (NET). Pace: 7:49. Predicted: 3:24:59.
@ Half in 01:43:16 (NET). Pace: 7:52. Predicted: 3:26:32.
@ 30K in 02:33:56 (NET). Pace: 8:15. Predicted: 3:36:30.
@ Finish in 03:58:45 (NET). Pace: 9:06.

I think Jody may have gone out too fast. But it's arguable that this gave him a great time, because he was blisteringly fast for the first 1/2 to 3/4.

In this final video we are freezing, and walking to the car. We are walking as fast as our bodies will let us! At one point, we needed to cross a busy street, and Jody just stood there, trying to figure out how he would ever accomplish it. Luckily, a lead car saw his predicament, and stopped to let him slither across.

From Philly Marathon

New Marathon Goal!

After more discussion with Jody, I am changing my goal to not lose more than two minutes per mile to Jody. All things considered, even this will be a challenge.

Philly Marathon

Jody and I will be running in the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday morning. As runners we are timed by little chips that we tie to our shoes, and there will be several split times recorded along the way. You can sign up here to have our times sent, in real time, to your email or as a text message to a cell phone.

Not that I think you care what we are doing, but it just sounded fun!

Jody's 21 and I'm almost 50. My goal is to give up less that a minute a mile to him. So that means finishing within 26 minutes of his time. This will be a real challenge, and there's only a slim chance I'll be able to pull it off! 45 minutes would probably be a lot more realistic.

Health Care Disappointment

I am very disillusioned by the House passing the Health Care Bill. Of course I have not read the massive bill myself, but people I believe and trust are saying this:

Is the House Care Bill better than nothing?

The short answer is "No". This bill continues to support the bureaucracy and incentives that make health care expensive and inefficient in the USA.

Sunday Brunch

I am delinquent in advertising the Hempfield Rotary Brunch, which is this Sunday. Everyone's invited! Tickets are available at the door, same price. I'll be a table cleaner-offer, and would love to see you there. Profits go to the Rotary organization.

Rotary international is on the verge if eradicating Polio, which you can learn about here.

Andrea and Sharon in Seattle 10/2009!

Sharon and Andrea, her law partner headed to Seattle to attend a liberal, radical, civil rights attorney comference! I don't think they had any fun~!

Rainy Fall

Health Care Dwight Michael

At the same rally where I spoke (see the post below), I also heard a doctor, Dwight Michael, talk. Here is his speech:

Speech for healthcare4allpa rally on Tuesday 10 20 2009
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what i see?
My name is Dwight Michael. I am a family physician from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and I have been working in the trenches of primary care for the last 24 + years.
I take care of patients from the womb to the tomb.
I was born and raised a conservative republican in Hanover, PA, and through my adult life, I have espoused most republican ideas.
I am a small business owner, struggling to pay escalating premiums for health insurance for the employees of our practice, for policies that cost more and more, and yet leave the individual with higher co-pays, deductibles, excluded services, and caps on total coverage.
I have travelled on a revealing journey over the last 18 months. This journey began when one of my patients suggested that I take a look at healthcare4allpa’s website because of my comment to her that I was increasingly demoralized by the growing meddling of the private health insurance industry in my relationship with my patients.
As I learned more, I realized that the Pennsylvania family and business health security act would allow me to practice by one set of rules, based on clinical excellence, proven standards of care, versus what currently, often ends up as the least costly option. The insurance industry’s rules, which change plan to plan, improve the bottom line of the profit-first, private, health insurance industry.
Hb 1660 would markedly reduce the present administrative costs of healthcare to the system and to the providers of healthcare in our state.
Hb 1660 would provide unbelievably thorough healthcare, without co-pays, deductibles, or premiums, for practically all of the patient’s needs, for every Pennsylvanian, at a cost to practically all of us that would be much less than what we currently pay.
Hb 1660 would allow me and fellow physicians to stop wasting our time just trying to jump over all of the obstacles placed in the way of good care by multiple insurance plans, just so the payer can improve its profit. With this bill, we could now focus our time on actually taking care of our patients.
(jobs)
Hb 1660 takes care of displaced workers. This bill provides 2 years of salary payments as well as costs for retraining for any displaced worker from the private health insurance industry. In Pennsylvania alone, not only do we rehire those displaced, this bill would stimulate an additional 45,000 new jobs.
I truly believe that the passage of hb 1660 /sb 400 would provide the dawning of a new era in Pennsylvania, an era in which we all benefit from affordable, accessible, high-quality healthcare for all Pennsylvanians and we quickly become the envy of our entire nation.
Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?"

Dwight sang the "Is any body out there" part.

Health Care Two Minutes

A few weeks ago I talked at a health care rally in Harrisburg. There were way too many speakers, so we all talked fast. I did this in about 2 minutes 5 seconds"

"My name is Alan Jacobs, I am the Senior Manager of Information technology at Isaac's Deli, Inc., headquartered in Lancaster. We operate 20 Isaac's Deli Restaurants in Central PA. We have 600 employees, and 150 covered under our health plan. We offer benefits to employees working 25 hours or more per week, which makes me very proud.
As an employer, I see the massive bureaucratic overhead caused by our health care funding system. The insurance game is a paper-pusher's paradise! Administration and overhead eats up 50 cents of every health care dollar.
And there are huge soft costs to an employer – time spent by the executive team to deal with the annual contracts, an HR department to take care of administration and COBRA, and strangely a Workers Comp contract that handles health care in a totally different way. But none of this has reduced costs or improved care.
This system, in which insurance companies compete to reduce costs for employers, isn't working. Our costs are double per person compared to other developed nations, and our health outcomes are worse.
Pennsylvania companies are competing in a global marketplace, in a battle that’s happening on the shelves at Home Depot and in the isles of Wagmans. There is health care cost in each of the products you in these stores, whether the products come from Costa Rica, Canada or Pennsylvania.
A single payer solution is our best chance to get rid of the administrative waste, get our workforce health and productive, and bring some economy to our health care funding system.
And this is the final play of our system: you get sick, you lose your job because you can’t work, you lose your health insurance, you can’t pay your health care bills and you go in to bankruptcy. It’s expensive, it’s brutal, and it’s wrong.

Alan Jacobs, Senior Manager of IT and Administration
Isaac's Deli, Inc., 354 N Prince St, Lancaster, PA 17603
717.394.0623
www.isaacsdeli.com