marathon

I have been training consecutively for 20 weeks in preparation for the ING New York City marathon.

My RunWell tracker reports that I have logged 491 miles.

I never would have donated as much food as I have to this date - 678 non-perishable food items - unless I were training for a marathon.

I decided to express my excitement for my upcoming race by making a significant donation of non-perishable goods. Below is a photo of a 15 lbs bag of rice, several industrial-sized cans of fruits and vegetables and Halloween candy that I dropped off at my local food pantry.

And I like round numbers.

So I'm going to top off my 'piling on the pounds' tally to 800.

8 days and counting to race day!

 #cbusmarathon (Columbus Marathon 2009) successfully made it into the top Twitter Trending Topics this Sunday, October 18, 2009.

I wasn't able to log into Twitter.com (I didn't even get a fail-whale, bizarre...) - so I used trendistic.com - to see if #cbusmarathon made it into the rankings.

Congrats to TweetMyTime! And to all the runners who made it happen!

As anyone who is training for a fall marathon will tell you - this month, as Runner's World calls it, is a monster.

Our mileage is kicked into high gear - we need sleep, proper nutrition, and we are crossing all our fingers and toes that we don't get plagued by an injury.

My own recent calf/hamstring injury forced me to back off of heavy training for a week. In doing so, I think I've recovered sufficiently to run in the marathon come Nov 1 - whew!

(click to enlarge image)

So this Saturday I decided it was high time my feet received a little pampering for all their hard work.

I went for a pedicure. Check out the fun blue nail polish color I picked out!

After the nail stylist learned I would be running in the New York City Marathon she said that blue was a good choice for a marathoner - the polish would be a great cover for any damaged or bruised nails!

14 days and counting!

Last night Active.com sent out an apology to all users who signed up for Runner Tracking at the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. As I reported on my blog on race day the e-mail runner tracking system delayed reporting runner's data - sometimes by over an hour.

For an example of the delay I experienced tracking Sammy Wanjiru - click here and here.

Below is the e-mail that was sent out.

Dear Runner Tracking Registrant, 

Active.com is aware of and has looked into the malfunction within the electronic runner tracking system that caused many updates to populate later than anticipated during Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon. For this inconvenience, we sincerely apologize. 

In reviewing the situation we found the issue was the result of technical difficulties with the Active.com system that caused significant delays in reception of messages by registered users. Active.com has identified the cause of the problem and has taken measures to ensure it does not happen again. 

It is important to note that the issue was in no way affiliated with Verizon Wireless, the sponsor of the Marathon Runner Tracking program, or the technology they provided to the event. 

Active.com has been part of the running community for more than a decade and nothing is more important to us than the events and runners. Our mission is to enable people to find events that improve their quality of life and then facilitate their participation. When we fall short of that goal, we not only let the event and runners down, we let ourselves down.

Again, please accept our sincere apology. We greatly value the running community that trusts Active to provide reliable technology and services. We are committed to making sure your next experience utilizing this service is as seamless as possible.

Sincerely, 
Dave Alberga
CEO - The Active Network