User:Zhurnaly

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Mark Zimmermann

Born September 29, 1952 (1952-09-29) (age 55)
Occupation Ultrarunner - Physicist - Bureaucrat

Hi! --- I'm Mark Zimmermann ... easiest way to contact me is via my journal ZhurnalyWiki on zhurnaly.com ... email to z (at) his (dot) com may work too.

Contents

[edit] Long Slow Runs

[edit] Ultras

  • Bull Run Run 50 miler — 2008, 2007
  • Seneca Creek Greenway Trail 50k — 2008
  • Hinte-Anderson Trail Run (HAT Run - 50k) — 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004
  • JFK 50 miler — 2006
  • Tussey Mountainback 50 miler — 2004

[edit] Marathons

  • Washington's Birthday Marathon — 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004
  • Mad Dog Zimmarathon — 2007*, 2006*, 2004*
  • Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon — 2007, 2006, 2005
  • Wineglass Marathon — 2006
  • Parks Marathon — 2005
  • Montgomery County Marathon in the Parks — 2006*, 2003, 2002
  • Marine Corps Marathon — 2004, 2002

* = unofficial!

Typical times: ~5-6 hours for a marathon ... ~8 hours for a 50k ... ~12-13 hours for a 50 miler ...

[edit] Bio Background

Who, me? I grew up in central Texas ... worked part-time shelving books in various libraries, serving food in a drive-in movie theater, and building pick-up covers/campers in my Father's shop ... graduated from John H. Reagan High School in Austin ... and went to the University of Texas and to Rice University for undergraduate studies in physics. I then attended Caltech for grad school, entering in 1974 and receiving my Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1980.

I now live in the Washington DC area and have worked for the U.S. Federal Government for the past couple of decades. My hobbies include distance running (a few marathons and ultramarathons in recent years, and am a member of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club), chess (I'm a United States Chess Federation life member, postal and over-the-board ratings marginally Class A after much struggle), and numismatics (especially coins of 1852, a century older than I am). I'm a life member of the American Numismatic Association and am active in the Montgomery County Coin Club. Some years ago I edited and annotated a free edition of the works of William Shakespeare for Apple Macintosh Hypercard users. I'm a radio amateur Extra class, callsign N6WX, rather inactive at the moment.

I am trying to learn how to write better. I'm also trying to learn a wee bit of mathematics, computer science, art, literature, history, and philosophy. I'm a sometime fan of Marcus Aurelius, Johann Sebastian Bach, Arnold Bennett, Daniel Dennett, Martin Gardner, Henry Hazlitt, Douglas Hofstadter, John Stuart Mill, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Vernor Vinge, goofy humor, classical liberalism/libertarianism, Stoicism, independent study, justice, libraries, juggling, and numerous other things.

My wife, Paulette Dickerson, is an artist and musician, heavily involved in helping libraries; she's a past chairperson of the Montgomery County Library Board. We've been married since 1978 and are a happily multiracial ("black" & "white", some might say) family. We do a lot with our children --- Merle, Gray, and Robin --- who have been having fun learning independently throughout their educational careers (homeschooled K-12) and who are now attending the University of Maryland.

I'm excited about mind augmentation tools of all sorts --- e.g., real-time high-bandwidth large-scale free-text information retrieval. Some time back I wrote prototype software to let people work and play with multi-megabyte collections of unstructured text. I'm also getting into Wiki --- "the simplest collaborative environment that could possibly work". Wiki seems likely to be an extraordinarily productive framework for experiments in writing and thinking. I like that.

[edit] My Religion

(from Chapter 39 of Middlemarch, by "George Eliot")

'Oh, my life is very simple,' said Dorothea, her lips curling with an exquisite smile, which irradiated her melancholy. 'I am always at Lowick.'

'That is a dreadful imprisonment,' said Will, impetuously.

'No, don't think that,' said Dorothea. 'I have no longings.'

He did not speak, but she replied to some change in his expression. 'I mean, for myself. Except that I should like not to have so much more than my share without doing anything for others. But I have a belief of my own, and it comforts me.'

'What is that?' said Will, rather jealous of the belief.

'That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil — widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.'

'That is a beautiful mysticism — it is a —'

'Please not to call it by any name,' said Dorothea, putting out her hands entreatingly. 'You will say it is Persian, or something else geographical. It is my life. I have found it out, and cannot part with it. I have always been finding out my religion since I was a little girl. I used to pray so much — now I hardly ever pray. I try not to have desires merely for myself, because they may not be good for others, and I have too much already. I only told you, that you might know quite well how my days go at Lowick.'

'God bless you for telling me!' said Will, ardently, and rather wondering at himself. They were looking at each other like two fond children who were talking confidentially of birds.

'What is your religion?' said Dorothea. 'I mean — not what you know about religion, but the belief that helps you most?'


^z = Mark