This was a nice 8k Thanksgiving day run in downtown Greenville, SC. The course ran thru downtown, along the Reedy River, around Unity Park, and back to downtown.

I wore my turkey costume. :)





Finish time of just over 31 minutes.



Results: https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/69...erpage:100

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8161952498

Flatwoods 5k is a nice event held at Austin Cary Forest, just a few minutes from Gainesville, FL.

I enjoy the rare occasion when I am able to win a race!



Ran in Topo Runventure 4 trail shoes on this 100% limerock road course.



The race was held on October 29, 2022.

Finish time was 19:18 (6:13 per mile).

Race Results: https://results.raceroster.com/v2/en-...?subEvent=

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8037125327


Apparently I never posted a report from the last time I won this race back in 2013 so here is a photo:



In 2013 I finished in 18:27 (5:57 per mile).

Had fun at the Gate2Gate Trail Run. I ran the 25k.


Photo Credit: Robert Evans


Photo Credit: Robert Evans


Photo Credit: Robert Evans


Photo Credit: Robert Evans

Finished with a time of 1:52:34.

Ran this race in Topo Runventure 4 trail shoes. Earned Masters Male Champion which included a nice award:



The race was held on October 22, 2022. Race Results: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event...?did=89260

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8002446467

I ran into a problem the other day that items in a Grafana Panel Library were greyed out and I couldn't add them to a dashboard.

tldr; The underlying cause is that panels of visualization type “Graph (old)” are not able to be added to a dashboard from the Panel Library.

I have done a bit of work getting my company's PostgreSQL database servers monitored with prometheus and grafana. I put together a combined DBA dashboard that has my most-used metrics gathered all together... this includes metrics from postgres, pgbouncer, and the host systems.

I have had this little open space in my DBA Dashboard for a few months and had not yet decided what graph I wanted to put there. I finally decided I wanted to include another graph from Node Exporter.



The first step is to add an existing panel of interest to the Panel Library. From there, it is straightforward to Add panel from library.

However, when I tried to add the panel from the Panel Library, most of the available panels were greyed out.



I tried various google searches like Items in Grafana Panel Library are Greyed Out or Cannot Add Panel from Library and didn't find a solution, hence the reason I am writing this blog post.

I tried Importing the latest version of the Node Exporter Dashboard from grafana.com but that did not fix the issue either.

The underlying cause is that panels containing deprecated visualization types such as “Graph (old)” are not able to be added to a dashboard from the Panel Library. It looks like Grafana is trying to kill off the deprecations and after some minor version upgrade (I could not track down the specifics) appears to be preventing that capability.

Hovering over a panel in the Panel Library will show the visualization type.

To resolve, edit the source panel and click the Migrate button. Then save the panel. At that point the panel will be of "Time series" visualization type and can be added to a dashboard from the Panel Library.






I didn't find a description of this exact behavior in the release notes.

Upgrade to at least Grafana 9.2 in order to gain the ability to Delete deprecated panels.

After finally getting over some Plantar fasciitis that had me doing a lot of cycling including making poor decisions like signing up for the long course of the Pinnacle Punsher, I am back into regular running and building my fitness.

The Paris Mountain Half Marathon is a challenging course! The route covered almost every trail in the park with very little repeat and a number of sections that aren't generally considered "runnable" due to the rocks, roots, and steepness. And I was ready for it!



The weather was perfect with temps in the 50s.

This race used old-school timing chips.



I run at Paris Mountain State Park almost every time I am in the Greenville area so I knew what the course was going to be like ahead of time. I made a race plan and feel like I executed very well.

From the start there is a short stretch of uphill pavement which is good to spread out the field a little bit. Then there is a pretty steep downhill through the main parking lot, across the road, and onto the stone stairs. This is a tricky part of the course due to the speed and the number of people around and the un-evenness of the stairs. After navigating the stairs there is a flat section and another tricky downhill to cross the bridge below the dam. I wanted to get out quick to avoid getting stuck behind a train of people on the climbs but not so fast that I would blow up. I settled into 6th place thinking I'd be holding that for a while, but by the time I got to the photographer I had moved up to 5th place.





I felt good about my 5th place position and let the runners in front of me go. I took the opportunity to take my first Gu gel.

Then the climbing began. I didn't see anyone in front of me again until the second section of Sulpher Springs Trail, the "hike only" section, which is the steep part above the dam. I caught up with one runner and tucked in behind. Then we both caught up to another runner. The trail here is very technical and very steep but I felt like we were going a little slow. Once we got to a wide spot I made my way past both runners and suddenly I was in 3rd place!

After that very hard climb there is a nice gradual downhill on Sulpher Springs to catch one's breath. At some point I looked back and could see a runner not too far behind. I picked it up a little bit but stayed under control. Then we turned onto Brissy Ridge and began to climb back up the mountain. When I got to the top of Firetower I saw that I had gained on the 2nd place guy. The whole way down the side of the mountain from Firetower to the North Lake I tried my best to catch 2nd place. He continued to be just ahead around the next switchback and while I closed some distance it was clear he did not want to be caught! Eventually I realized I was pushing too hard and needed to ease back... I still had half of the race to run! The gap increased a little but my breathing returned to something manageable.

Then we started around the lake. This section is relatively flat and less technical. I thought again maybe I could catch 2nd place. The next time I started to get closer, much to my surprise.... the 2nd place runner stopped and stepped off the trail and motioned for me to pass!

I was now in 2nd place!

I continued around the lake and across the dam. Knowing that the path across the dam was a nice smooth surface, here is where I took my second Gu gel. I also took a look over my shoulder to see if anyone was back there and sure enough, yet another pursuer.

Thus began the hard climb from the lake back up the mountain and some of the steepest and most technical sections on the course. I walked just a few of these sections but kept pushing up up up knowing I'd have a lot of downhill to get to the finish. After hitting Sulpher Springs again and the long series of switchbacks, I didn't see anyone behind me the rest of the way to the finish line.

I earned 2nd Place overall with a sub-2-hour finish (1:57:14).




I raced in my shiny new Upstate Running Club singlet. The Inov-8 TrailTalon 235 were a great choice for racing fast on this course. Picture includes race t-shirt, finisher medal, and 2nd place award:






The Paris Mountain Half Marathon trail race was held on October 8, 2022. Results:
https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/43...erpage:100

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7930840292

For the 2022 Southeast Gravel Falling Creek Pinnacle Punisher, I decided to do the Long course ~ 65 miles.

Finished in 4:32:40.79. Sitting on a bike for over 4 hours is hard! My body really didn't want to be in the riding position any longer (back and neck and then the whole body felt bad by the end).






This was a tough race!





I finished next to last in my age group. Biking is very different than running.

The Falling Creek Pinnacle Punisher was held on August 27, 2022. Results:
https://southeastgravel.com/pages/202...ek-results

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7710756334