An enhanced weekend experience of activities features four races, more than 20 Cheer Zones,free Health & Fitness Expo, volunteer opportunities and family fun.

PHILADELPHIA (September 7, 2010) – In November, the City of Philadelphia will welcome more than 20,000 runners and over 50,000 spectators at the 2010 Philadelphia Marathon Race Weekend. Beginning Friday, November 19, and running through Sunday, November, 21, Race Weekend is the most action-packed series of events in the Marathon’s 17-year history, with extended health & expo hours, a new day for the Rothman Institute 8K, and an enhanced runners’ pasta party.

Races through the city streets, activities, and fun for the whole family will allow runners and spectators to get a taste of Philadelphia’s beauty, culture, history and hospitality. From a high-five with Mayor Michael A. Nutter at the starting line to a Philly Finish near the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway — and all the scenic miles in between– the Philadelphia Marathon guarantees runners and guests a great Race Weekend experience.

“We are excited to show our runners and visitors that we are striving to be marathoning’s best host city through an expanded schedule of activities,” said Mayor Nutter. “We think Philadelphia is definitely a premier destination city, with a scenic, runner-friendly course, enthusiastic spectators, more than 2,000 friendly volunteers, community involvement, special deals and discounts around the city and weekend-long activities for the entire family.”

Friday, November 19

The 2010 Philadelphia Marathon Race Weekend officially kicks off at noon with a free, two-day Health & Fitness Expo in the heart of Center City at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. All runners are required to pick up their race packets at the expo, which is open to the public to browse the more than 70 vendors’ booths showcasing the latest in running apparel. The expo also features health and fitness tips and provides helpful information on Philadelphia-area attractions. Expo hours have been extended this year to better accommodate visiting runners. The expo is open from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday, and from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 20.

Saturday, November 20

New in 2010 is the move of the Rothman Institute 8K, from Sunday to Saturday, with runners competing along the fast and scenic Martin Luther King Drive. The change allows runners who are competing in the marathon or half marathon on Sunday to consider competing in the 8K on Saturday. The move also opens spots for more runners and wheelchair contestants to compete in the Sunday races, while allowing families with runners participating in multiple races to cheer on each other.

The festivities continue with the Kids Fun Run that will start in a new location at 22nd Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near the Philadelphia Museum of Art at 10:30 a.m. The Kids Fun Run is a short distance, non-competitive event for future Marathon hopefuls, ages 4-12.

The Runner’s Pasta Party on Saturday evening, from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., features an all-you-can-eat carbo-loading meal including an array of pasta, sauces, salads and other goodies. Guests will be entertained by a strolling magician, a balloon artist and more. Held this year at a new location — the Spaghetti Warehouse, 1026 Spring Garden St. – shuttles will provide continuous service to and from the Health & Fitness Expo.

Sunday, November 21

On Sunday, a record number of athletes are expected to compete in the Philadelphia Marathon, Half Marathon (both at 7 a.m.), Wheelchair and, new this year, Handcycle (6:55 a.m.) races. The Philadelphia Museum of Art serves as a stunning backdrop for both the start and finish, while all races are run on scenic, athlete-friendly courses entirely within city limits.

During the race, runners will navigate their way through the “City of Neighborhoods,” which are both hip and historic. From the trendy neighborhoods of Old City and University City to American historical points at Independence Hall and the Betsy Ross House, runners will get a spectacular close-up view of this great American city. Landmark signs, strategically placed on the course, will signify landmarks such as Independence Hall, Boathouse Row, the Philadelphia Zoo and Please Touch Museum in Memorial Hall.

Both spectators and runners will enjoy the more than 20 Cheer Zones that are designated throughout the course. The Cheer Zones are unobstructed, transportation-accessible, fan-friendly locations, where fans cheer on runners and take in the excitement of the race. Some zones will include hot chocolate and pretzels, and are near cafes offering discounts and specials. Runners finish with the Philadelphia Museum of Art as their backdrop, and are rewarded with some much-deserved food including the famous Philadelphia soft pretzel at the finish-line hospitality tent.

Marathoning’s best host city welcomes more than 20,000 runners to Philadelphia for a family-friendly series of events over Philadelphia Marathon Race Weekend, November 20-22, 2010. Produced and hosted by the City of Philadelphia, Marathon Race Weekend features four races in a city “born to run” — the 17th annual Philadelphia Marathon, Philadelphia Half Marathon, Rothman Institute 8K, and a Kids Fun Run. Other activities to welcome runners, families, friends, spectators, businesses and residents include a free two-day Health & Fitness Expo; a free course map complete with city discounts and promotions; more than 20 spectator cheer zones; and an pre-race pasta party. Runners pass many of Philadelphia’s famous attractions on the swift and scenic USATF-certified course, which is a Boston qualifier. Take the first step to experiencing 26.2 miles of fun, beauty, history and excitement by visiting www.philadelphiamarathon.com.

Rule number one of cross season: have a plan and plan to change it.  With next weekend sparking the start of the 2010 cyclocross season, it’s a little late for planning, but if you don’t have a plan yet, its better late than never.  Cross season here in the Mid-Atlantic is a block of 3 months with double races every weekend. And with up to 6 races to attend some weekends, you have some choices that need to be made.

Goals are the key to setting up your cross season.  Do an exercise and take 5 minutes to just sit down and write out a paragraph of what you want out of your cross season. Just write what comes to your mind, even if its “blah, blah, blah”. After 5 minutes is up, highlight all the main points and try to group them into similar categories. This will help to bring some structure to selecting your goals.  It’s a starting point of sorts.

Pick out two different kinds of goals: concrete and abstract.  Design achievable, yet ambitious goals for both categories out of those highlights you found from the writing exercise.   I can’t tell you what kind of goals to chose, as it is a very personal process for everyone.  Goals are what motivate you to train during the week. Goals are what help you make that decision to grab a water bottle and spend the evening elevating your legs instead of making an appearance at the party down the street.  Whether you know it or not, you have goals already. A goal is a synonym for a dream: we all have dreams, and it is those dreams that make us do what we do, suffer as much as we suffer, and fuels us to succeed.

Never ask someone to do something that you would not do yourself- words to live by.  And in spirit of that philosophy, I’ll share my goals for the 2010 cyclocross season.  Hopefully you can gain some kind of insight into what you’d like your own goals to be.  I’m a category 1 UCI licensed Cyclocross racer.  That means I race against the likes of Ryan Trebon, Tim Johnson, Jamie Driscoll, and about 100 other exceptionally talented elite racers.  Those couple guys get paychecks: I don’t.  But I also happen to be a U23.  Some days the difference in a few finishing places is the difference between a tank full of gas to get me back home and another day of racking up debt on a credit card.  The concrete goals for this season is to earn my first UCI Point of my professional career and a top 10 placing in the U23 race at Nationals in Bend, Oregon.  UCI points are pretty hard to come by and put you into the international rankings, and a top 10 at nationals is just as hard to accomplish.  Both however get me one step closer to my eventual dream of racing at the world championships in Europe with the national team. My abstract goal, just as challenging, is to be happy with how I race every race.  That’s the tuffey, and that’s the drive that will push me for the next three months (with any luck, four months).  Being happy with how I race is certainly an abstract concept but is mainly summed up by giving it everything I have- every time, and never giving up, never backing down. Falling short of my concrete goals is bound to happen, it’s so circumstantial (a lesson reinforced time and time again), but to fall short of my abstract goals leaves a hollow feeling of failure and self doubt.

So get a plan together, get your bikes together, and go give it the ole college try. I’ll see you Saturday at the first round of the MAC series and the first round of the PACX series at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center in Trexlertown, PA.  Go get motivated.

In June of 1993, while competing in a triathlon in Orange County, California, MacLaren was on his bike when a van went through a closed intersection, hit the back of the bike and propelled him into a pole. When he arrived at the hospital he was told that he was a quadriplegic and would never move again from the waist down. 

Bob Babbitt, Jeffrey Essakow and Rick Kozlowski, three of his many friends from the sport of triathlon, created a triathlon in San Diego after the accident to buy Jim a vehicle that he could drive with his hands. The goal was to raise $25,000 and they ended up raising $48,000 through the first ever San Diego Triathlon Challenge. “At that event,” remembers Babbitt, “a number of other amputee athletes came up to us to thank us for what we did for Jim, but to also let us know that there were so many other athletes out there that needed help. Insurance would cover a walking  leg, but anything having to do with sport was considered a luxury item.” 

From Jim’s second tragedy, the Challenged Athletes Foundation was born and in the 17 years since, CAF has raised over $28,000,000 to help disabled athletes stay in the game of life by providing grants to help purchase the equipment they need to stay in the game of life through sport.

“CAF is Jimmy’s legacy,” continues Babbitt.  “I’m proud to say that, through the athletes that we help every day, his impact will live on forever.”

Photo by P. Engleman

With a very successful turn out last year, and some great Labor Day Weekend weather on tap, the Philadelphia Naked Bike Ride (PNBR) will take off from an undisclosed location at dusk on Sunday, September 5th. The organizers are expecting well over 1000 folks in various states of undress, body paint, masks, etc to ride through the streets to bring attention to the fragility of bike riders on the city streets.

The ride last year went off without a hitch, and had no issues from the police who were very cooperative and supportive of the ride. There was a police trail and police closed intersections along the route. Although this is not a sanctioned event of any kind, you should wear a helmet and be prepared to deal with any issues that may arise while naked in public.

If you want to find the location of the ride, be sure to sign up for the facebook group, and join the listserve for PNBR

The 2009 Team USA squad in Gold Coast, Australia. (USA Triathlon)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – More than 330 of the United States’ top age group triathletes will represent Team USA on Sept. 11-12 at the 2010 ITU Age Group Olympic-Distance and Sprint World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

This pair of races is just two of the many events that will be held over the span of five days in Budapest, which also will host the ITU World Championship Series Grand Final on Sept. 11-12. More than 400 Americans are scheduled to be in action over the course of the week, which also features the aquathlon world championships, as well as paratriathlon, junior and under-23 events. Visit usatriathlon.org for full coverage of each event.

The Saturday, Sept. 11 ITU Age Group Sprint World Championship consists of a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike and a 5-kilometer run, and more than 130 Americans are slated to compete. Among this group are six athletes that either captured age group national titles at the 2009 USA Triathlon Sprint National Championship or earned a medal at the 2009 ITU Age Group Sprint World Championships in Gold Coast, Australia:

· Donald Ardell (St. Petersburg, Fla., 2009 men’s 70-74 national and world champion)
· Margaret Bomberg (Chico, Calif., 2009 women’s 70-74 world champion)
· Betsy Henderson (Roanoke, Va., 2009 women’s 55-59 world bronze medalist)
· Peter Hoyt (Costa Mesa, Calif., 2009 men’s 60-64 national champion)
· Brad Leonard (Missoula, Mont., 2009 men’s 75-79 world champion)
· Tom Taylor (Inverness, Calif., 2009 men’s 75-79 national champion)

Following the sprint event, nearly 300 U.S. athletes are expected to compete in the Sunday, Sept. 12 ITU Age Group Olympic-Distance World Championship, which is comprised of a 1.5 swim, a 40k bike and a 10k run. A total of 15 athletes that won Olympic-distance national titles in 2009 or medaled at last year’s Olympic-distance world championships are slated to be in action in Budapest:

· Elizabeth Brackett (Chicago, Ill., 2009 women’s 65-69 world champion)
· Susan Bradley-Cox (Lexington, Ky., 2009 women’s 70-74 world champion)
· Roger Brockenbrough (Pittsburgh, Pa., 2009 men’s 75-79 world champion)
· Gary Burnett (Monrovia, Calif., 2009 men’s 70-74 world silver medalist)
· Doug Clark (Morristown, N.J., 2009 men’s 40-44 national champion, world silver medalist)
· Ann Davidson (Portland, Ore., 2009 women’s 45-49 world bronze medalist)
· Kirk Framke (Denver, Colo., 2009 men’s 35-39 national champion)
· Helen Geoffrion (Santa Monica, Calif., 2009 women’s 70-74 bronze medalist)
· Molly Hayes (Bozeman, Mont., 2009 women’s 75-79 world silver medalist)
· Lois Leon (Warwick, N.Y., 2009 women’s 65-69 world silver medalist)
· Karen McKeachie (Ann Arbor, Mich., 2009 women’s 55-59 national champion)
· Karlton Naylor (Fayetteville, Ark., 2009 men’s 70-74 bronze medalist)
· Robert Plant (Woodside, Calif., 2009 men’s 65-69 national champion, world bronze medalist)
· David Roadhouse (Wilmette, Ill., 2009 men’s 65-69 world champion)
· Jennifer Walz (Savannah, Ga., 2009 women’s under-19 national champion)

Additionally, Hayes captured the 2009 women’s 75-59 sprint world championship, and Leonard was a bronze medalist in the men’s 75-79 age group at the 2009 Olympic-distance world championships. Celeste Callahan (Colorado Springs, Colo.) was an Olympic-distance bronze medalist at worlds a year ago, but will compete in the sprint-distance event this year.

The 2010 edition of Team USA for these events qualified at the 2009 USA Triathlon Age Group and Sprint National Championships. Athletes will have the chance to earn a spot on the Team USA roster for 2011 at the 2010 USAT Age Group and Sprint National Championships, which are slated for Sept. 25-26 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

For more than 30 athletes, the Olympic-distance or sprint event will be the back end of a Budapest double, as they also are scheduled to compete in the Wednesday, Sept. 8 ITU Aquathlon World Championships. Click here for a complete schedule of events from ITU.

Rain or Shine
Check our website at www.thevelodrome.com to register r call 610-395-7000 x 223 for additional information and vendor rates.

Admission: $8 (kids 12 and under FREE)
GREAT FOOD AND BEER
DEALS, DEALS, DEALS
END OF SEASON SPECIALS

Bike Philly is a morning of relaxed biking on certified car-free Philadelphia streets. Bring friends to celebrate with thousands of bicyclists of all ages. This once a year event is family-friendly, featuring a car-free 10 and 20 mile loop and a challenging 35 mile option on shared roads.

Enjoy the historic beauty of Philadelphia on two wheels and support the Bicycle Coalition’s efforts to make the city more livable and sustainable.

Bicyclists of all skill levels are welcome. Bike Philly rolls rain or shine.

Late registration prices end midnight August 31st. Last minute registration available until September 11th. Register early and save! www.bikephilly.org

Your registration includes:
• Free snacks and water at rest stops along the way
• Mechanics to help with bike problems
• Volunteers to cheer you on your way
• Music, food and fun at the finish line festival

Bike Philly benefits the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the Police Athletic League.

Is there any other option?

Yes. TerraCycle, one of the earliest innovators in upcycling (taking something and making a higher level use for it, if possible using it in its original form) come up with an alternative. First with Clif Bar, then with Kashi, Bear Naked, and Odwalla: Collect the used packaging and other hard to recycle materials and turn it into new products ranging from shower curtains to backpacks.

As an eco-friendly start up company many of our employees are outdoor enthusiasts themselves,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, an avid road biker. “When we first started to collect and upcycle used packaging, everyone wanted to launch a program for granola wrappers! They were sick and tired of seeing wrappers on the trails they were running and biking on!”

How? They have what are called “Brigades,” which are free collection programs where people like yourself can collect and send in, postage paid, all those energy bar wrappers and granola packaging you’ve got, earning 2 cents per item towards the school or charity of your choice.

To date, TerraCycle has received over 4,200 shipments of packaging collected by consumers who have been looking for an alternative to throwing them away. In all, just over 7 million pieces of packaging have been diverted from landfill via the TerraCycle Granola Brigades!

Many times people do it as a group. Your running buddies? Your bike race team? Any way you do it, you’ll be helping keep the local environment around you cleaner, while making a global impact, keeping that trash out of the ocean, and teaching others who see the products that get made out of what you’ve collected the importance of recycling and reuse.

And it gets better.

Now the energy bar Brigade will accept any wrapper or bag from granola, energy bars, trail mixes etc regardless of the brand! So, drop your excuses and start taking action. You can sign up here. In the time since it started, 1.6 million energy bar wrappers have been collected, and with the even more open criteria for what TerraCycle will take, that figure will probably rise dramatically.

We all live lives beyond the trail, track and pool, and TerraCycle seems to have a Brigade for that, too. From wine corks to Sharpie pens, it seems to be on a mission to eliminate waste, letting nothing stop it! And people seem to agree with them. More than 10 million people so far.

Here are a few options to keep your hair where it’s supposed to be – out of the way. (Special thanks to these companies, who gave me free samples to test. Not that they’d want them back after I ran them through the proverbial ringer. Do you know how much us runners sweat?)

Pilayo Zippy Headband by Athleta
My favorite of the bunch. The nylon/lycra/spandex blend of the ban keeps it stretchy – good since rumor has it that I might have a larger than normal head. It also has a very thin, just-tacky-enough grip tape on the inside of the headband so it doesn’t run around your head while you’re running. Sorry guys – this one’s for girls only, unless you like a flower on the side of your headband. www.athleta.com, $12

Little Thunderbolt Headband by Shabby AppleThis is the headband most likely to make the transition from road running to daily wear (after being washed, of course). The spandex Little Thunderbolt is made of two strands, a half inch wide each, anchored together by a rectangular base. It’s a cute headband if you don’t like wider styles. I tested a green and white headband – the green color stayed vibrant after a dozen runs and dozen washes.
www.shabbyapple.com, $9

Locust Pose Headband by Shabby AppleI admit it: I wear this one less for working out and more for, well, a headband. The 2.5 inch-wide band – without the tacky tape like Athleta’s Pilayo Zippy Headband – doesn’t work for me while running, though I can see this working for lower impact sports. Still, I dig the red with white stitching stripe. I’ll be wearing it to Phillies games this season.www.shabbyapple.com, $9

Hair Styler by Whirl-a-style
This looks like a great product: a thick strap that takes all your hair, wraps it into a tight bun and clicks into place, using that strap rather than a thin hair band or bobby pins to keep everything together. But I can’t get the dang thing to work. I can get it to click into place, but stray hair sticks out all over the place, and chunks of hair slip out before being sucked into the bun. I guarantee this is operator error – that, or my hair is too thick or too layered. I don’t know how I’d feel about running with my hair all woun up into one place that tightly, though if I had a job that didn’t allow me to wear sweatpants to work every day, I’d try to figure this out so I’d have an easy work hair style. www.whirlastyle.com, $7.95

Goody Ouchless Elastics
These hair ties are what most of us probably use (yes, guys, too). I have these little bands all over my house and, as my mom complains, a few are hers too. The point of “ouchless” is no metal, but can I be honest? I liked the metal. Goody hair bands used to be secured with a very small metal piece, and, yes, even though I sometimes caught my hair in that metal, those bands lasted much lounger than the metal-less Ouchless variety. These are functional, yes, and the best hair bands out there, but they stretch out faster than the metal kind (I still have one metal band left. Yes, it’s still good, and I wear it on special race occasions). Try to get the 27-pack with a storage ring. It might keep me from having hair bands all over my house. www.Goody.com (and just about every drug store known to man), $1.99-$2.99

Project 2012’s Jillian Petersen (St. Louis, Mo.) and Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) each finished second to give USAT’s National Team Program four athletes on the podium.

Haskins covered the Olympic-distance course (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 2 seconds to outdistance the field of 15 professional women by more than 3 minutes. Petersen was second in 2:05:08, and Laurel Wassner (New York, N.Y.) finished third in 2:07:36. Haskins was 18 seconds back coming out of the water but logged the day’s quickest bike and run splits en route to the victory.

Mark Fretta won the Chicago Triathlon Sunday. (Paul Phillips/Competitive Image)

Fretta posted a time of 1:52:22 to edge Collington, who finished in 1:53:05, by 33 seconds. Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic was third in 1:53:54. Cameron Dye (Boulder, Colo.) posted the day’s top splits on the swim and bike, and Collington held the day’s fastest run, but the consistent Fretta earned the win in a field of 23 professional men.

2010 Chicago Triathlon – click here for full results
Women’s Results
1. Sarah Haskins (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 2:02:02
2. Jillian Petersen (St. Louis, Mo.), 2:05:08
3. Laurel Wassner (New York, N.Y.), 2:07:36

Men’s Results
1. Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.), 1:52:22
2. Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.), 1:53:05
3. Filip Ospaly (CZE), 1:53:54