This, That and The Other Thing

Just when I think it's going to be a slow news day, all this stuff seems to pop up out of the blue. Here goes ...

I forgot to mention that Christy Marvin talked to me in the women's shower room at Whistlestop. She ran an awesome 2:58, good enough for 2nd place overall. She also won the Rochester Half Marathon in August. She is obviously running very well!!

Through the grapevine, I've learned that there is a new marathon in 2010. Mankato Marathon on 10/23. From someone on the planning committee: "There will be a full, a ½ marathon and a 10K all on Sunday. The course is shaping up nicely with some manageable hills but nothing too difficult."

Running Room is carrying a new flavor of Sport Beans: Berry. Also, they have the new resealable packaging. Yeah!! Speaking of Running Room, here's the latest from Dan:

Rewards Promotion
Are you a rewards club member? If not, if you sign up between now and November 30th your name will be put into a drawing to win one of two $2500 shopping sprees at the Running Room!!! It’s free! For every $500 you spend, you will get a $10 gift certificate back as a reward. You’ll also be one of the first to know about upcoming sales and promotions! Don’t delay, sign up today!


Garmin 310XT rebate

If you purchase a Garmin 310xt with or without a heart rate monitor between now and December 31, 2009, you can get a $50 rebate check! Yep, $50 back! Talk to any of your helpful Running Room team members to find out more!


New Clinics starting next week!

Ready to get motivated and stay motivated through the winter? Join one of our clinics today! We will help you learn to run, keep you running or get you in shape to run a winter half marathon! We’d love to see you join us for any of the following clinics! They are $49.99 and you will not be disappointed! The Learn to Run and 5K clinics will prepare you for this years Resolution Run! The 10k and half marathon have several events for you to choose from! Here is the list of upcoming clinics:


Learn to Run Tuesdays at 6:30 starting October 27. Brenda Fyles and Cherie Jensen instructors.
5K Running Saturdays at 9:00 am starting October 24
10K Running Tuesdays at 6:00 pm starting October 27
Half Marathon Thursday s at 6pm starting October 29

As you can see, we still need instructors for some of these clinics! If you or someone you know would be interested in teaching a clinic, please contact Dan at the store: Rochester@runningroom.com

I posted my pumpkin bread recipe on my Recipe Blog. It'll be on the menu for the Saturday Breakfast Run. I've got about 30 coming so far. Hip, hip, hooray! The more the merrier I say. There might be a couple coming all the way from St. Cloud, too!! Also on the menu: cinnamon rolls, egg bake, oatmeal or steel cut oats (I think I'll do Rick Hlebain's steel cut oats crock pot recipe...sounds much easier than my last minute oatmeal recipe. Mine uses apple cider for half the liquid, and has diced pears, Craisins, cinnamon, vanilla and toasted pecans in it. I think I'll merge the two), fresh fruit, cookies (of course!), coffee, juice, ... you know the drill. :-)

Did you run TC10 or TCM? Watch yourself cross the finish line on the KARE11 video I did!!

From Andrew Becker: About 7500 runners ran the Living History Farms race in Des Moines, IA last year. (This is a down and dirty race, BTW. DON'T wear new shoes or nice clothes!) You can register online Here's some info on the Living History Farm. Thanks for sharing, Andrew!

Online registration for the 2nd annual Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer Half Marathon and 5K is now available at active.com. It will be headquartered out at the Heinz Center so there will be LOTS of room. And it will be a new course.

Chicago Marathon (nightmare!) passed along by Paul Christian:

Disqualified runners' times to be reinstated
October 12, 2009 1:02 PM
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Problems with the electronic chip timing system at the 15-kilometer mark in Sunday's Bank of America Chicago Marathon led to 56 disqualifications that race organizers will reverse today.

Howard Kambara, who handles registration and result verification for the marathon, said revised results reinstating anyone disqualified by the technical glitch would be posted on the marathon's web site by 2
p.m.

The race has a policy of disqualifying anyone who failed to record a time at two or more of the 11 checkpoints on the 26.2-mile course. That is done to prevent runners from cutting part of the course to get
a faster time.

Those runners whose times were not recorded at two consecutive checkpoints that included the one at 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) will have their disqualifications immediately overturned.

Paul Farmer, the marathon's information technology director, said evidence points to a malfunction in one of the antennas in a timing mat at 15 kilometers. Approximately 4,000 of the 34,792 starters did not have a time recorded there.

There are eight mats at each timing site. Each mat contains four antennas to transmit data. Farmer said it appeared one or more of the antennas in a mat at the far left of the timing area were not working
properly.

"The system is not infallible," race director Carey Pinkowski said. Pinkowski said in the past runners failed to have their interval times properly recorded by making impromptu bathroom stops off the course and returning to the course in a way that misses the timing mat.

If the system were working correctly everywhere, Farmer said, it is "unlikely" someone would fail to be recorded at two or more points unless they were trying to cheat.

Pinkowski said the marathon has a policy of reviewing all disputes over such disqualifications before publishing the book with its final results. Any runners who feel they have been incorrectly disqualified
after the revised results go online should call 312-904-9800 or email office@chicagomarathon.com.

The Chicago marathon has used an electronic chip timing system, ChampionChip, since the 1998 race.

Marathon organizers have been wary of cheaters since it was found that Rosie Ruiz, the first woman finisher in the 1980 Boston Marathon with a record time, had jumped from the crowd onto the course somewhere
near the end of the race.
-- Philip Hersh

Well, we had a small crowd at Beetles tonight, but that's OK. I'll hope for a few more next month. I was only able to stay for a few minutes as I had a class at 6:30. (BTW: I saw runner Carlo Biondolillo teaching an Italian language class at Northrop this evening. :-) Next month it'll be November 10, Beetles on 2nd, 6:00 PM. See you there! (Pictured below, Roger Heil, Larry Pederson, Ignacio Escobedo.

Mike Schmitt, Sonja Kranz, Randy Quint.

All of them except Larry can make the breakfast run on Saturday. Yes!

Thought for the day: "If you have accomplished all that you planned for your life, you have not planned enough!"

Ciao!