 |
| Friday April 8, 2011 FeatureWe're BaaackWe know that it has been a while since you’ve heard from us…that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been thinking about all of our runner friends and haven’t been busy with plans for the 2011 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. As you can see, we have actually been VERY busy! First and foremost, we are approaching our 2011 entrant limit of 3050. As we’d planned, we think that the increase in our entry limit will give our runners just a little more time to decide – but not much more, really… We are now approaching the point when a LOT of runners commit to the race so don’t be lulled into that “there are 300 slots left” thing. Those last slots go very quickly. We really do hope that sometime before race day you will be just sick and tired of the reminders about our changed start time. We just want to make sure that you get to the Start on time and unharried. So…remember the RACE STARTS AT 7:30 AM – 7:30 AM – 7:30 AM. What time? 7:30 AM.    Other storiesKids' Run ReturnsMany of you have written to tell us how much you and your family enjoyed being a part of the Kids Run in 2010. We have to tell you that emails we get from parents about how much the run meant to their kids and their family bring tears to our eyes – we know that this event is absolutely the right thing for LFM, our runners, and our runner families. We can’t wait until we see some of these kids running the race as adults… Won't that be cool? We will be bringing the Kids Run back again in 2011 – but with a small and important change. We have moved it to Saturday afternoon in the 3:00 or 3:30 range. That will allow marathon parents to share the run with their kids, provide the kids with all of the special attention they deserve, and will allow more kids to participate. YIPPIE!!! The generous folks at BodyBasix will again sponsor this event and will provide the very special training logs that they provided in 2010. The kids really liked the logs and we think that it provides a way for them to be heartened to see each mile they tick off to completion of their own very special marathon. Entry information will be posted soon on our web site. Also, for the Milwaukee area parents and Kids Run supporters - our Badgerland Striders Kids Programming Director and our Kids Run Director will be speaking at the April BLS meeting on Wednesday April 20 at 7:00 at the Pettit Center. If you are interested in kids running, make plans to attend, hear what we are doing for kids, and to get involved with this important part of LFM and BLS. Pasta Dinner DetailsMany of you have asked about the pasta dinner. The American Cancer Society DetermiNATION program will again put the dinner on for us. Ticket information was not available when many of you registered but is available now. You can buy your ticket as part of your registration or can register directly with ACS. It is important to note that the venue for the dinner has changed to the Plankinton Arcade within the Grand Avenue Mall. This will allow them to offer a quality dinner at a much more reasonable cost to you. Cool New SponsorsWe are happy to announce a couple of very special new sponsors. I can’t tell you the number of requests we have had for chocolate milk at the Finish – you may remember the mention of it in an earlier e-blast. Well…as it happens one of our runners actually works for Nestle and “voila” chocolate milk for all of you. It was not really exactly THAT easy but runner Kelleen made it happen for all of you big time. THAT is one of the many things that makes LFM so special. We also have a great sponsor for our changing tents at the Finish – a company called PaperShower . They have a great product (your RD has now placed two orders, personally) that makes it quick and easy to clean up after a race or workout. They will be stocking the tents with their product for your use after the race. We are very excited to help showcase their product and to provide something special for our runners. We are also working on a few other goodies but nothing that we can announce at this point. RRCA National Marathon Championship We are so happy to remind you that LFM has again been designated as the Road Runners Club of America 2011 National Marathon Championship. This is a testament to the work of the Badgerland Striders Running Club (our owners) and to the work of all of our LFM volunteers working together to make this a fist-class marathon. We will also serve as the Wisconsin USATF Marathon Championship, another great honor for our race. Guinness Record for JennyRobin, our friend at BodyBasix has been busy. In addition to sponsoring the Kids Run, he is also the guy who came up with the idea for a Guinness World Record attempt to benefit Jenny Crain. He is organizing a small army to run LFM – tethered via rope – to set the record for the most number of people to run a marathon, all tied together. The current record is 37 set at the London Marathon in 2010 – he intends to SMASH that. Many of you know Jenny’s story …an elite athlete training to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials, hit by a car while training, a traumatic brain injury and other injuries, and (now) almost four years of recovery. Jenny works hard every day at therapy and at home and continues to make progress – working harder at this than she ever trained for a marathon. The funds generated by this attempt will be used for her continued therapy. Volunteers - We need and LOVE VolunteersYep – we’re starting our call for volunteers already. We know that many of our runners volunteer prior to race day and hope that many of you will be able to do that again. We also need a small (actually kinda big) army of volunteers on race day. This is a great way to see the race “up close” and to give back to the running community – just remember how many course sentries you run past every year in races and how many waster stops you pass. Contact Alice for more information about volunteer slots and how you can help. We'll be posting the link to our on-line volunteer sign-up soon. In the meantime, please save the date... We also always have openings for Coordinator and Captain positions. These positions require a greater commitment but offer you the opportunity to be part of the race decisions as well as part of our runners’ “Marathon Dreams”. Contact Alice if you’d be interested in one of those positions. And, we also have a program to involve charitable volunteers. If you have a group of 20-40 people who can commit to race weekend we can provide you with a donation to your organization or free expo space in exchange for volunteer time. This is a great way to enhance your visibility and a fun volunteer experience. Boston Marathon ProceduresAlmost 20% of our 2010 runners reported that they qualified for the Boston Marathon. We hope that many of you were able to get into the 2011 race and that you have a great race on April 18. We are sure that many of you are aware of the changes in their registration procedures and qualifying times. If you are not aware of the changes, we suggest that you review them on the BAA site. Also - we do send our results to the BAA as soon as they are final. You don't need a confirmation from LFM in order to register - they simply verify it against our results file. Tell Us YOUR StoryHere at LFM we figure that we are in the “dream business”. Yep – the dream business. We think that we are lucky enough to be in a position to help you make your marathon dreams come true. Yeah, it might sound hokey but it is true. Each of you comes to the Start with an idea, a dream for your race. To run your first marathon (we are honored); to run with your dad, your mom, your SO, your kid; to qualify for Boston; to run your “x th” state; even to make a few new running friends. We’re honored that you trust us with your marathon dreams and we’d like to hear about them. How about you all post them on our Facebook page so that we can share in them? It will be fun and it will inspire us all! |
