Quarto Blog
quarto
R
running
Introduction
When I first started my blog in 2005, I primary programed in Python and so my blog was written using reStructuredText, which was the favored documentation format for Python. In the last decade or so, I’ve largely switched over to R, and I’m finding it a pain to write new blog posts because they all wind up going through a Quarto -> pandoc -> rst process that often corrupts the content.
Quarto has a website format for blogs, so this marks the transition from my old RST-formatted blog, to the new one that uses Quarto. My old blog will remain at https://swingley.dev/blog in order to preserve old links, etc., and this one will be hosted at https://swingley.dev/blog2
Here’s an example of why this is better.
New Year’s Day run up Ester Dome
It’s a New Year’s Day tradition to run up Ester Dome. I don’t know when this tradition started, but I’ve participated the last couple years, and here an there before that. It’s something I sort of look forward to for the camraderie, but also dread a bit because running up Ester Dome from the Ann’s Greenhouse pullout is a lot of uphill, and often worse, a lot of downhill.
This morning I got up, plugged in the Dakota, ate breakfast, and got ready to go. When I went out to the truck, the battery was basically dead. It turned the engine over twice, then quit. I already had all my clothes on, hand and foot warmers opened and warming, so I figured I’d just run to Ann’s instead of driving. If I ran really fast, I just might be able to make it there before everyone started running.
I did run really fast, but saw everyone leave a couple hundred feet before I got there. I managed to chase down just about everyone, and had a very pleasant run up the hill. On the way down the toe warmer in my left shoe started getting too hot, and I had to stop to remove it. And the run home from Ann’s was a chilly one after soaking my shirts under my windbreaker.
Here’s a map and elevation diagram for the run:
- Minimum/maximum elevation: 581 / 2,364 feet
- Total ascent/descent: 1,877 / 1,877 feet
I hadn’t planned on running more than a half marathon to start off 2024, but I’m glad I did it.