Did you get picked for the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon at Grandma’s for June 16th? Did you get picked for the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon at Gr

I have received notices that even before anyone has received an email this week congratulating them on being selected in the lottery for the GB Half Marathon, that some entrants have received an email from the credit card company letting them know about their payment being processed. If you can’t remember the email you used during registration, you can check with your credit card company for a charge from “MarathonGuide.com / Web Marketing Associates” for $80.40. If you have been charged, then you’re in.

All runners chosen (and even those not chosen) will receive an email this week (February 27th) letting them know if they are in or out. Good Luck to everyone that entered.

Nike HTM Flyknit

Normally, I have a hard time getting excited about a running shoe before it comes out, but the details behind the new shoe covers by Nike has got my attention. A weight of 160 grams? The idea that a shoe will have both a form (more pliable and flexible) and function (less weight) is something that any runner from the 5K to Ultra Marathoner would love. If this shoe holds up for 3-6 months of training and can cut its previous model’s weight in half, Nike will be selling these like Apple sells iPhones.

I understand that many of our USA’s Athletes are already training in the Nike prototypes. The rest of us have to wait until July to get our hands on the models for running so that Nike can sell these with their sponsorship of the Olympic Games.

For more information, check the attached link:
http://bit.ly/y8IK7Y

Twin Cities Marathon Price Increase Starts Tomorrow

Are you thinking of running the Twin Cities Marathon on October 7th, 2012? If you are, you have until tonight at midnight to save $10 off the increase set for tomorrow to $105. To enter right now before the price increase, click the following link and get registered.
http://bit.ly/Aub61Z

2012 Disney 5K

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to "RunDisney", Ive found the best way to save a buck from running either the Half Marathon or the Marathon.

After running the Half Marathon in January, 2011, we thought about running it again before a planned cruise leaving Port Canaveral, Florida.  Because of the cost of the cruise, $150 for a race hits the budget kind of hard.  The 5K still costs $50, which isn't cheap for a 5K.  In fact, they bill it as a family fun run, but seriously, how many families can afford that?  Come to think of it, there weren't many kids at the starting line for it.

The 5K has the 'wave' format so that it isn't a madhouse at the start.  The three waves are based on the following time splits; Under 7 minutes per mile, 7-9 MPM, and 9:01 MPM and above.

If you looking at a great cheap option to the other longer races, I would highly recommend this one.  You are only allowed to go through Epcot, but the photo stops with the characters, the support from the staff and the recovery food/drinks at the end of the race were Grade A.  The only deficient points for the race is the medal and timing of the race.  You are not timed at this race and no one can look it up on their website when you finish.  Youonly have your race number as proof you even ran this one, and who knows, you couldve slept in as far as that proof goes.  The 'medal' is soft rubber and does look cheap.  But again, it does prove you ran it.

You will need to take a extra day of work off since it is run on a Friday morning.  Also, you have to be on the grounds by 5:30 am, which means a before 5 am wake up call to be there by that time.  But the earliness of the race allows ample time to get back, shower and get to the parks before they open.  So my overall rating was A- for those of you interested in a very fun 5K race.   

Steve Jobs and what works

Finished reading "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson and found it a good read into the mind of Apple's creative genius. While Job's batting average was pretty good on knowing what would work, I found an interesting tidbit on how other products just fell into his lap. Jobs didn't see how the iPod Nano would be a great success. But Jobs wasn't an athlete in training like the rest of us. When you're running a 20 miler in training, the ability to take a 1000 digital song player has great application. Same for running a 5K for a PR and wanting to eliminate any excess weight for a Sony Walkman or hand held radio. The runners at Apple had to talk Jobs into pursuing the Nano. And as it turned out, its success geared one of the values of all of Apple future products when you think about it. Smaller, faster, more capacity, and more functions with each year/version of the product. Another benefit that running has added to person-kind. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New, or should I say, old iPod Nano Update?

I am trying to figure out how Apple is making money on their latest iPod Nano updates. Yes I know they dropped the price on the seventh-generation Nano [that would be the 2011 version – meaning the one that came out last week] to $129 for 8GB of storage or $149 for 16GB, compared to $149 or $179, respectively, last year. But if you own the sixth-generation Nano like I do, there is no reason to go out and buy the new Nano. If you are in the same situation as me, you’ve already got a sixth-generation iPod Nano; I’ve got great news for you. All you need to do is a simple software update, available when syncing your Nano with iTunes, and you now have a 7th generation Nano.

As I reported earlier in the summer, the software version 1.1 was a great improvement with the ability to hold down the on/off switch to make sure that the Nano would be put to sleep, thereby saving your battery from being runned down by an inadvertent Nano not being paused correctly. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s new in version 1.2 of the software.
-The Nano now displays only a single, much larger icon at a time. Before with Nano software versions 1.0 and 1.1, you had 17 different app-like icons: Playlists, Now Playing, Artists, Genius Mixes, Radio, Podcasts, Photos, Settings, Songs, Albums, Genres, Composers, Fitness, Clock, Audiobooks, iTunes U and Voice Memos. With the new Nano software 1.2, you have 11 or fewer: Now Playing, Music, Radio, Fitness, Clock, Photos, Audiobooks, Podcasts, iTunes U, Voice Memos, and Settings. You now access the Genius Mixes, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, and Composers and Compilations.
(You still have the option of using the smaller icon faces on your Nano; you can access this feature in the settings function.)
-New wallpaper and watch faces if you want to use the Nano as a watch in your non-running mode. There are 18 different clock faces: nine analog, four digital, one analog/digital, two Disney analog (Mickey and Minnie Mouse), and two Muppets analog (Kermit and Animal). Most clock faces also display the current date.
-No need for the shoe sensor and white plug-in for your Nano. With the new software, the Nano can now has a built-in accelerometer for the Nike+iPod sensor so you don’t even need a Nike+iPod sensor in your shoe. In other words, you can now use Nike+iPod with any shoe brand and without having to spend more money for the sensor and dongle. Wonder how they got Nike to sign off on that?
All-in-all, to say that I’m extremely pleased with what Apple did with this software update is an understatement. I know they took a lot of grief about not making a structural design change with the new iPhone 4S, but in the case of the Nano, I can’t criticize them in the fact that they didn’t make a design change to force their customers to buy a Nano for the new features. I feel that this is a big reward for being a customer of an Apple product and I cheer their willingness to give us this freebee.

Do You Know How Much To Drink?

WebMD had an interesting 15 question poll on how much water to drink. A lot of the questions were on using water while exercising. Even after all the articles that I've picked up, I still just scored 11 out of 15 in the poll for 73%.

Give it a whirl and let me know how you do. http://bit.ly/qEAgRD