You do the math!

You may have seen a similar image flashing in the right hand menu for the last month or so and wondered what the hell is this; so allow me to explain. A while back I was contacted by the Wilderness Running Company promoting themselves. I had seen their adverts in Trail Running Magazine, and this prompted to go to their website, a dialog was entered into and they asked if would be interested in writing some trail reports for their City Guides section of their website, always willing to share the beauty of my local mountains and with my pending assault on the Backbone Trail I jumped at the chance.

Then more recently I received another email inquiring as the whether I would be interested in reviewing some of the items that the carry in stock. Now if you know anything about me you'll know that I am a complete kit magpie; if it's shiny I want one! And so I jumped at the chance and one I got, in fact, one of each of the following:

Bridgedale Socks (Multisport, Trailhead, and Bamboo Lo)
Drymax Socks (Trail Running and Lite Trail Running; to follow)
Darn Tough Socks (Run-Bike Merino Wool-Cushion and the Run-Bike Merino Wool-Mesh)
Sugoi Socks (R&R Compression Knee High)
RecoFit Compression Calf Sleeves

They've a sock promotion going on in July and August, but I also got a pair of Oboz Ignition II trail shoes!

Now before you sigh and say sellout let me tell you a little about the company; they're a fairly new company, so they need all the help they can get. Like me, their focus is on trail running, like me, they like ultras but they are expanding to marathons and trail races in general. They provide online City Guides for trail running, an Owners Journal about new kit and ongoing tests, there's an affiliate program and oh yeah they have top notch product reviewers, (no not me) Donald from Running and Rambling is on board and he just finished the Western States 100 race!

And so c'mon what not to like, well how about sharing some of the love you ask; well okay, use the code Quad10 when you place your order and you qualify for 10% discount on your order and orders over $50 after the discount will also qualify for free shipping (in the lower-48). Click on the image above, the one in the side menu or here to place your order; don't click on the sock links or it won't work.

So far I am three pairs in so stand by for a sockreviewathon!

California needs your help!

California is in the crapper…financially it is a broken state, with a budget deficit of $24.3 billion dollar; yes that’s a billion! Teachers are being let go, Government employees are being put on furlough...it is to be frank a disaster!

To try and address the balance CA Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has recommended cutting $70 million from his state's parks budget. If this move passes, it would result in the closure of 220 of the state's 279 parks! I’ll spare you all the details but needless to say for some one like me this could spell disaster, indeed the State Parks provides tens of thousands of acres of recreational land to not only runners, but hikers, mountain bikers, families who picnic, children on field trips…the list goes on.

The parks were under threat last year and were spared; several studies have shown that their closure will actually potentially add to the deficit with the loss of income from parking, donations etc. The Parks under threat are illustrated on the map as you can see the knife is sharp and may cut deep. The list includes; mountains, desert, lakes, beaches, woodland, there is in fact no environment that is spared

My running club; The Trail Runners Club, who, I have to admit I have been remiss about running with since moving, will be holding a Rally to generate local support for this issue, the event will be held at Will Rodgers State Park in Pacific Palisades this Sunday June 21st, there is an organized run starting around 7:00am for two hours followed by refreshments etc at 9:00am, all are welcome, bring your family, friends and a big sign. If you are local I urge you to attend and show your support.

Many of you will be too far afield to attend, however if you are located in California I ask you to put pen to paper to express your opposition to this proposal, to make things easier there are several pro forma letters that only require you to add you name address and a stamp, these are available to download online via drop.io. you can find them here. In fact even if you are further out of state or even out of the country I ask that you bring pressure to bear on the state legislature.

There are several sites dedicated to this cause, California State Park Foundation is leading the charge and also has a strong following on Facebook, please visit them for more information about their proposed license plate visitors fee which would make the Parks virtually self funding even turn a profit!

Your support will be appreciated by not only me but by many.

Normal service will be resumed shortly…

Technical difficulties; read my pc at home dieing, has prevented me from getting online with any real purpose up subsequently delayed multiple posts include the second part of the MyTach GPS watch review, a review of my 3 course dinner made with a Vita-Mix blender both sent to me By the manufacturers (thank-you) and a shoe report on the Go Lite trail shoes I picked up in January.

Additionally all my review photos were on the pc, I don’t move them to external hard drives until I've used them, anyway hopefully all my data will be recoverable, I actually think it’s the power unit that’s died. I am left cobbling stuff together at work or fumbling around on my wife’s Mac.

This Sunday is the PCTR Malibu Creek 50k, it’s a tune up race for me and really only a supported long run, it’s been raining this week and while I don’t want it hot I don’t want it soggy and boggy, I am not 100% sure of the course, it’s two laps, but if it is where I think it is there are sections where you run alongside a creek which has been known to flood and there are at least two stream crossings; add to that there are sections of running on rock which if wet will be as slippery as snot! Fun times!

I am looking to finish sub 6:30, I ran the approx reverse route last year for one lap and it took me just under three hours and this time the way round I think will be tougher? It's a longer climb and a more technical decent which will be made all the more fun if it's wet and/or muddy!

Anyway it’s a Blogger/Twitter/RunCastTV meet up, Billy (LARunner), and Sara (Docs to Crocs..) who I know via blog and in person through the TRC will be crushing their first ultra, Danica (chicrunner) who I know via blog and Twitter is running the 25k and Autism Runner from RunCastTV is running the 50k, a veritable Social Media event!

Expect lots of photos, videos and race reports!

Don't touch that dial!

For those of you who listen to podcasts and have listened to Phedippidations you may have heard mention or even tuned into the Runners Round Table podcast. RRT is unique in as much as you can listen to it either live as it is recorded or download later to listen to at your leisure, there is also a live chat room that feeds into the recording. The round table element comes in a there are usually between five and tem people “at the table” discussing a specific topic; recent ones include; Disney Marathon and RunCastTV.

For people on Mountain and Pacific Time and all points west it becomes a bit tricky to participate due to the fact that it usually happens while everyone is at work (you know, that thing that allows you to buy new shoes, pay race fees and put your children through school!), so next week there is going to be a spin off from the West Coast and yours truly (that’s me!) is one of the hosts, my other co-horts from the world of blogging, podcasting and the new obsession Twitter(ing) will include: The Ultradad, KelownaGurl, erin337 and solorunner.

The show airs live at 8pm PST and will available for download some time thereafter.

To get to the show go to Talkshoe and look for the Runners Round Table, you don’t have to register to get into the chatroom but if you don’t you’ll just be a “guest” and we won't know who you are, you can ask questions and tell us what a fantastic (or not) job we’re doing!

Back issues if the Runner Round Table can be downloaded through iTunes from this link.

Talking of iTunes The Quadrathon Podcast has been approved by Apple and now has its own feed here which will allow you to put me on your iPod, if you’re reading this in a browser you can click on the player in the side bar and listen right now, Episode 2 is available and Episode 3 is coming soon. Show notes can be found here, feedback and comments etc are very welcome.

Hope to see you at the round table next week!

Running the numbers

I am covering several bases with this post, firstly it addresses my own analysis of my actual mileage vs. my training plan in an attempt to identify where I went wrong (again!) and ended up injured (again!) and secondly it hopefully provides some insight for any would be runner on how not to do it and thirdly Runner's Lounge Take it and Run Thursday this week is about Training Plans so that just seemed like great timing.

Being that I am in Los Angeles I'll give you some backstory as they call it around here. When I started training for my first Marathon last year I had been running consistently for the three years prior, I had run before that but had had a hiatus where I spent several years mountain biking. I never really kept tabs on my mileage but it averaged around 25 miles a week over three or four runs. I set myself the target of completing it in 3:30 or less, I had no real appreciation of if this was fast or not but it sounded like a challenge.

In preparation did I choose my plan after great deliberation and research, after a review of the literature of the great marathon runners and planners, Lydiard, Galloway, Noakes or Daniels and after long consultation with coaches and other marathon runners? Well no, I found one in a freebie magazine and thought “huh, this’ll do”. Of course as any new disciple of something does I immersed myself, consuming Runners World each month before breakfast and plowing through the literature, nutrition, shoes, clothing, GPS I read about it all. I did however stick to my plan…well I mean I kept using the same one. The plan itself was aimed at a newbie runner and took them from zero(ish) miles to a marathon over the course of 26 weeks.

Mistake #1; I was already ahead of the curve and should have started 4-6 weeks or so into the plan.

Along the way I picked up a Nike+ chip primarily as a means to measure my mileage, I was running a lot on beach paths and was unable to get an accurate read on the distances, from there I discovered the Nike+ forums and the challenges that people created there and jumped in feet first.

Mistake #2; I veered away from my plan, running on my rest days.

My target marathon was to be San Francisco in early July, along the way I built in several half marathons and even a full marathon as a training run despite the fact the longest training run on my plan was only 22 miles.

Mistake #3; exceeding the training mileage and extending my long runs even further.

I ran the San Diego Rock’n’Roll Marathon in early June as a training run and finished in 3:45:09, nearly fifteen minutes faster than my target time of 4:00, I thought I was set, 3:30 was in my sights and I had tone, it was a done deal, you could take it to the bank. The day before I was due to leave for San Francisco, my son was sick, not just a "brought it home from school have a runny nose sick" but full blown sky high temperature on the phone to the Doctors and monitor him closely sick. It’s at this point that everything else goes to the sidelines, I spent an hour on the phone canceling flights and hotels and cuddled up with him on the couch for the rest of the weekend, of course 48 hours later he’s a right as rain and tearing the place up in his usual manner. It was totally the right decision but it was also six months of training gone up in smoke. I signed up for a local 50k at the end of August and it was during mid July that my miles caught up with me. I had run over 1100 miles in 28 weeks and my IT Band had had enough, basically it stopped working, point blank refused to function. Not just on one knee but both along with one hip. I DNS'd for the second time in as many months.

I’ll save you the recovery story, it’s documented here, but the short version is that 10 weeks of physiotherapy put me back on the straight and narrow.

This brings me to this training cycle I find myself 18 weeks into a 20 week plan and once again I am faced with an IT Band issue. In an attempt to detect a pattern I looked at my running log comparing this year to last, and yes there is one, providing you squint and tilt your head 30 degrees to the left you can just make out the profile of some nice hills!

Next I looked at my actual running this year vs. my plan. This brings me to Mistake #4; think macro. I was actually under the impression that I was within 90% of my plan 75% of the time, that is for a big race like a 50k my mileage before and after would drop but for three out of fours weeks I was within an acceptable margin…wrong! Check out the graph and you’ll see that I was off by a mile or two or ten! A picture really is worth a thousand words. The early zero was when I was ill and the last two are projected.

So as you can see four classic mistakes leading up to what I am almost sure will be a DNS for next weeks race, I have yet to vocalize that decision but in my mind it's almost made.

In conclusion I hope that this post helps someone in their planning and that they can learn from the mistakes I have made, I certainly have!

An early nine and a late night...

I managed an early 9 miles Thursday morning care of the baby who decided that 4am was a good time for an early breakfast. By the time I had done the necessary I figured I might was well lace’m up and head out the door for a quick run, nothing too fast and nothing too far. The sky was grey and flat and the sunrise was unforgettably forgettable. I notched off the first 8 miles at a 8:39 pace and slowed down to cool down for the last mile with the customary walk up the hill to finish. Lots of stretching and both quads felt pretty good.

Thursday night, my wife and I headed off to see the premiere of Dean Karnazes' film; UltraMarathonMan. It was pouring with rain and LA traffic being what it is we arrived 45 minutes late! However all was not lost and it looked like we only missed the first 10-15 minutes or so as he was only (only ha!) on marathon #5. The movie was, I have to say great, and putting aside all the controversy over the man, the accomplishment in itself is pretty staggering. The scenery was beautiful from the rain soaked streets of Atlanta to the trails of North Dakota to the skyscrapers of Manhattan. The cinematography was inspired with the cameramen running alongside, behind and in front to capture the images and conversations as the runners ran and the soundtrack drew you into the mood. The message is strong, and without getting into it, but to note in these days of obesity, diabetes and heart disease getting out there and running a mile, ten, 26.2 or more can and will make a difference not only to yourself but as an inspiration to others. The film unfortunately does not have a distributor so who knows when it will be on the silver screen near you, but when comes, go!

This is the trailer.

That was the year that was...

As my bio states I have always been a runner sometimes off and sometimes on. The recent ‘on’ has been going since 2004, when after moving back from NYC to Los Angeles I decided that I really did need to loose those 45lbs gained in the big apple! So I laced up my shoes and headed out, 15 minutes in one direction and turn around, by the end of 2006 I had dropped 55lbs and was running 25 miles a week and could often be seen pushing my son in the stroller for our “long run” run on a Sunday morning along the beach path.

Well it was one year ago today that I set my sights on a 3:30 marathon; alas it was not to be. The closest I got was a 3:45:09, close but no cigar. However like the horizon as the year moved so did the goals, while I still harbor a desire for a 3:30 or better yet a Boston Qualifier (3:20) those targets, have for the moment, been replaced with lengthier ones.

The birth of this blog, in February, was as a result of a Nike+ challenge created by a fellow runner (Nike+ ID Snowcrash) called the Quadrathlon, four events; 1 mile, 5k, 10k and most miles accumulated during the month, with a scoring system designed to calculate the overall winner, the challenge is still going strong and celebrates its one year anniversary in January 2008. This blogs original purpose was as somewhere to post the results, however, it soon became my personal cathartic vehicle on my running adventures which are contained within these electronic ones and ohs.

So the summary for the year. I will spare you the high and low lights in any great length, but here’s a quick list, all of which are written about in excruciating detail in this blog:

• Ran a sub 100 minute Half Marathon; 1:37:32 Wine Country Half Marathon
• Completed first Marathon; 3:45:09 San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Finished first Ultra-Marathon PCTR Pt Mugu 50k 6:54:07
• Missed both my ‘A’ race; San Francisco Marathon and ‘B1’ race; Bulldog 50k
• Ran and biked the equivalent of traveling across the continental United States; 1650 miles ran, 710 biked, total 2360
• Was injured for ten weeks with ITB syndrome
• Turned 40 and experienced the joy of the birth of our second son
• Learned more about running, cross training, stretching, nutrition, hydration and running gadgets than I knew existed!
• Made a ton of new virtual friends, many of which welcomed me and some I welcomed into the world of early mornings, late nights, intervals, fartleks, Garmin data, RSS feeds, splits, pace, results, successes and disappointments that we all run towards

Looking forward to 2008, my goals are simple to state but difficult to achieve but I know that my RBFs and the communities that I visit as well as my family and friends will be there to support me (and no doubt sometimes question my sanity) as I attempt them.

So as this year draws to a close, as they always do, I wish each and everyone of you a successful 2008 may your goals be achieved and your horizons a little closer.

Turning outside things in...

It’s funny how external things always affect you internally.

WARNING, the following contains a whole diatribe that pertains to Nike+ and the 1999 movie Fight Club staring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, if you do not know or have no desire to know what either is you can skip the next two paragraphs.

I am in, well was – I just won it, a Nike+ challenge with kangator, the premise, a product of the warped mind of PMag; the challenge host, is along the lines of Fight Club, that is, you challenge another member and you fight or in our case you run, or well, you don’t but then you will typically loose, anyway I digress. Kangator had previously challenged me but I was allowed to tap out; stomach flu was raging; Fight Club Rule #4, of course I have actually broken rules #1 and 2 by just writing this, confused, just rent the movie and all will be revealed. Anyway I digress, so I re-challenged kangator, to "The Heinz-man Trophy"; the first to run 57 miles, this was a crude and, I thought, obvious play on Heisman Trophy and Heinz’, as in beans and soup, 57 varieties. Kangator proved to be a worthy competitor, he laid down over 26 miles in the first two days, I responded with 25 followed by an additional 13 by day four, at this point my eldest son, who is three years old decided that my iPod USB cable seemed of particular interest to him and made off with it and then conveniently forget where he had hidden it, this meant that I was unable to sync my iPod with the Nike+ site, a tad frustrating as by day six kangator had notched up 46 miles and was within sight of the 57 miles finish line. Day seven was a rest day for us both and it was looking like it was going to be a sprint finish on long run Sunday.

The arrival of our second son two weeks ago has had an accumulative affect on the amount of sleep I am getting; read "not a lot" and I find my energy levels are generally pretty low. The lack of sleep was taking its toll; I was tired; by the end of the challenge I would have run 150% (59 miles) the number of hours sleep (40 or so) I had got in the same amount of time. The tiredness was evident in my forth run, on Thursday; my hamstrings were tight and I felt lethargic in the closing miles, however Thursday’s upside was while looking for my son’s bedtime story book de’ jour I found my iPod cable, good news. Now to get around to the first sentence of this post, to recap I was tired, did I say that already? And I needed to run 8 miles before Sunday east coast time, we, as a family got home from a day out at the Santa Barbara Zoo around 8pm and we, my wife and I, went through the all signing all dancing performance of getting our eldest in bed, fortunately he was tired so resistance was minimal. I was not really looking forward to running late, Santa Barbara had been shrouded in fog and was cold, remember cold is relative in Southern California, the thermometer in my car said 56F, however by the time we had got home the good news was that the temperature had increased to 71F, much better and more good news. A quick check on my email; Hi, my name is SLB and I am an email addict, revealed that a project lead that I thought had gone stone cold was actually blazing away! More good news, not wanting to waste this run of good luck and the uplift in my emotional barometer and of course not to be outrun by kangator and bettered by the three hour timezone difference, kangator is in NJ, I laced up my shoes and headed out the door to run off the remaining 8 miles needed for victory. I set of on my usual route which allows me to run on autopilot and has me at mile 2.5 before you can say “crap, I forgot to start my Forerunner” I pushed on feeling, well actually pretty good, my glutes had been feeling tight over the last week but tonight everything was aligned, (well not the stars, according to my lottery ticket; maybe next week), and I was happily cranking out 8:45 or so miles and everything felt great, I reached the turnaround point at mile 5 and headed back home, I walked back up the hill, as is my modus operandi to the house and synced my iPod, the rest, as they say, is history. So the moral of the story is to make hay while the sun shines…that is don’t ignore the signs, if they’re telling you to go, then go!

On another Nike+ note the much awaited Q2K7 Quadrathlon hats and visors arrived from HeadSweats, they look great and they will, as anyone who has worn a HeadSweat product, I expect perform flawlessly. October’s Quadrathlon drew to a close, the winners will be announced soon once all the miles and points have been tallied.

OK that’s enough Nike+ tale telling. Time for a quick summary of last month.

My total mileage was 106 miles, some 37 or so miles less than the month before, however when you take into account that I had the stomach flu for 9 days and then we were dissuaded from running due poor air quality; a result of the many wildfires that really only left me 22 days for running, if you work out the month on that number of days and pro rate it for the month that would actually have been 149 miles which is more in the ball park that I need to be, although this will be increasing as my training plan will obviously increase my mileage over the coming months it still maintains my base.

Looking forward, I am still undecided about the 30k or 50k on the 18^th, the consensus so far is to go for it, thanks to everyone who answered, there is, unfortunately no prize. I will make a decision by the end of the weekend/early next week. My participation in Iron Wil’s Through the3 Wall Challenge has been all over the place, we’re about to start week 5 and I have made some progress, the stomach flu forced my to unwillingly drop 6lbs, but despite my best efforts my actual weight has changed very little and my body fat has only moved around 1%. I did manage to find the bargain of the year in the multi-gym market, a bench complete with options for a lat fly and quad curl and 80lbs worth of weights for less than $100, this will help me maintain the work put in at Blake PT on my quads and hamstrings; essential if I am really going to stick to the trail side of things.

So I start another month, a third of the way through the final quarter of 2007, with lots of targets; most of them moving, as is often the case, hopefully I can hit some of them before the year closes out?

Answers on a postcard!

Oh what to do. This seems to be the week of open letter advice quests; both RunnerGirl and Relenting Runner both asked questions of their readers so in the “if you can’t beat them join them style” here we go. But first the prelude.

As you may have read last weeks half marathon trail race was canceled due to poor air quality leaving me with nothing much on the agenda race-wise; I have the Calabasas Classic 5 + 10k, I was going to run both for a total of 9.3 miles, on November 11 and the XTerra Topanga Turkey Trot 15k on the 25^th. I was cruising along the information superhighway when I crashed into Cal Ultra Runners, oh how very cool, a site geographically specific to me and other “nut jobs” as a friend of mine put it “who want to run a weeks worth of mileage in a day”, and lo-and-behold I found the Pacific Coast Trail Runners who have a race on November 18^th around Point Mugu, where I was on October 6^th. They have various flavors; 9k, 18k, 30k and 50k, now in mileage terms that’s 5.59, 11.18, 18.64 and 31.07 - catchy distances! Anyway this is where the dilemma unfolds, do I run the 30k or the 50k. I am not in a training plan at the moment, I have delayed the start of my 50m plan until the mid November, based on what happened this year I want to avoid the possible repeat of over-training and I would sooner go into the race a couple of weeks under trained than over-trained. So with that in mind I really have been running distances that feel comfortable. Coming off the back end of my ITB issues I got my long run up to around 20 miles before having the stomach flu and then avoiding exercise due to poor air quality from the wildfires, recent distances have been around the 12-14 mile mark three or so times a week with no real problems. I am confident that the 30k is doable but the lure of the 50k is great especially after missing the Bulldog 50k in August also what appeals is the following from the PCTR website:

...."PCTR events are designed to encourage the enjoyment of trail running and emphasize personal achievement."

So it's sort of a race, kind of, which means no real pressure. Based on my previous times projected finish for the 30k would be a 3-3:30 and for the 50k a 5-6:00 this may seem long but there is a significant elevation gain 3200' and 5490' respectively and it is a trail not road run. They, PCTR, are offering support stations but I am not sure about drop bags. I am so tempted…what would you do? Answers on a postcard...well actually in the comments section please!

P.S. My Nike+ buddy Monk_Monkey is running her first 50 miler this Saturday; the ORCC Autumn Leaves Run, so I am sending all my good luck to the Pacific Northwest this weekend, I know she'll do great!

Southern California Wildfires

It may not have escaped you notice that Southern California is currently under siege from over a dozen wildfires. The San Fernando Valley, and in particular the Northern end where I live, is surrounded to the East by the fires in Canyon Country and to the West by the fires in Malibu; home of my grad school alma mater; Pepperdine University. Despite living within a half mile of Victory Trailhead, which has been closed and is an access point into the Santa Monica Mountains, we have be spared any damage, we are however now victims of the resulting smoke. The sky to the East is obliterated with a thick black layer of smoke which turns the sky umber orange as the sun sets. The photo you see here I took from just down our street. Several local schools have been closed due to the high level of air pollution and the smoke is acting as a layer of insulation and is blanketing the heat in, as I write this at 8:30pm the thermometer on our porch reads 89F.

On the subject of air pollution I received an email from the Race Director of this weekend’s half marathon, Number 2 in the Xtrerra SoCal Trail Series at Boney Mountain, giving me a heads-up that they may have to postpone the race until air quality improves, they will make an announcement Thursday at noon. The short term weather forecasts that the Santa Ana winds will die down in the next 24 hours allowing the cooler ocean air to come inland and reduce the temperatures, they are forecasting possible rain at the weekend which will obviously help the firefighters and home owners in the affected and threatened areas. It will remain to be seen how quickly the smoke dissipates. Here's a satellite picture from Monday showing the smoke's footprint along the west coast.

Overall the devastation is hard to comprehend, due to the geological landscaping and the southland’s concerns over earthquakes most houses are built with a timber frame and nearly all are sided in timber, changes to building code that require materials to be used that have a higher fire retardant characteristics are due to come into effect but not until 2008 and 2009; too late for so many. As of writing this there are 18 fires ranging from Santa Barbara south to the Mexican border, San Diego and its surrounding areas are particularly affected, and as far East as Lake Arrowhead, over 800,000 people have been evacuated including mawz76 a fellow Nike+ runner from Fallbrook. Over 1000 homes have been burnt and at the last count the total acreage on fire exceeds 430,000, to put that in perspective a football field (including the in zones) is roughly an acre. Current estimates show at least half a billion dollars in damage and President Bush has declared a state of emergency in California, releasing much needed financial assistance to the state. Wondermom24, again a Nike+ runner is surrounded on three sides in La Mirada and likens the orange atmosphere to something from a sci-fi movie. Jessica in Orange County (OC) and a runner with the OCTR has seen several of her local trails go up in flame. Addy has friends and family in OC and is keeping a nervous eye on the news. There are another two months left in this year's fire season before Winter and we can start to think about the real possibility of rain in any substantial volume or on a regular basis, of course with so much devastation to the vegetation the next concern will be soil erosion and mudslides. The fires are so widespread it is hard to not know someone who has been affected; this part of the world is beautiful in many ways but can be so cruel in others.

My thoughts and best wishes go out to those affected and the brave souls who stand on the fire-line.

"Think Global, Run Local?"

The World Wide Web, and the Internet have drawn people all over the world together, and dissolved barriers to communication and isolation. Runners, are by nature, social creatures who seek to share their experiences on the road, compete with each other, and establish friendships that transcend their individual beliefs, cultures and localities.

The sole purpose of the Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon is to remove the barriers to camaraderie, with the intention that like minded athletes who harbor this passion for running, could share a single experience of competing in a world wide event.

The Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon is a free, non-commercial event where everyone is invited to register, train and run with us in the spirit of friendship.

This unprecedented event is for runners of all abilities. New runners who are just starting out are invited to sign up, train and run a five kilometer event called "Kick the Couch 5k" with new runners all over the world who may never have thought it possible to rise off the couch and experience an active way of life.

Through the WorldWideHalfwebsite you will be able to register for the event (Half Marathon or Five Kilometer races), choose and follow an online training schedule through BuckeyeOutdoors and run your choice of an official road race, or your own personally organized event on or about the weekend of October 13th and 14th.

As you participate, you will feel that you are part of a community of friends all over the globe, who will support you, encourage you, and are sharing this experience with you as you run your event locally.

Join us in this exciting and real global event. We look forward for you to share your piece of the world.

The Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon (13.1 miles / 21.1 Kilometers) and Kick the Couch 5k Race ( 3.1 miles).

So who is Steve Runner and what is Phedippidations?

Steve Runner is a husband, father, engineer, baseball fan and distance runner. He has run ninety-three road races including fifteen marathons.

Phedippidations is a free, weekly Internet Radio PodCast made available for listening during weekend long runs. It is distributed exclusively by PodShow. You can subscribe to it through iTunes, other Podcast aggregators or download it from Steve Runner's website.