Monday, July 25, 2011

July Up-date

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Monday July 25, 2011

Feature

We're Baaaccckkk

Sorry to have been out of touch for so long. We have been very busy here at LFM with plans for the 2011 race and also spending a little time on some long-term planning. Mercifully, there were no flip charts or white boards used or harmed in the latter. Really – we HAVE been busy!

We know that you'll all soon be looking for the up-dated Runners Guide. Please be patient as we finalize race weekend details. We will be reducing the content of the PRINTED Guide and moving most of that to our web site - in an attempt to reduce the amount of wasted paper material. In the meantime, the 2010 Guide has most of the information that you'll need in the next month or so.

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Course Changes

We are very excited to announce a couple of course changes. First, to allow all of you more room to line up, the Start will be moved to Cheyenne Ave. just north of Hwy 60. This is about 1/2 block from the traditional Start.

Second – at Concordia University we will circle more of the campus, allowing you to partake of the beautiful Lake Michigan vista on the east side of their campus. Trust me, this is a beautiful sight – one that you’ll still be able to appreciate at that early point in the race. And no – we won’t make you run up and down their lake path :).

Finally… all of this will require a minor relocation of the Finish Line. Even though we know how much you all enjoy running toward the lake at 25.5 miles and then (basically) having to double back on the seawall… we thought it was time for a little change. The new Finish will be on the east side of the lagoon north of the Veterans Memorial. This will provide a straight shot for your finish. We’ll be updating the course maps soon – so stay tuned.

For those who can’t wait… (and you know who you are Ch…) all mile marks from mile 8 south will be adjusted approximately a half mile north.

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On-line Store

We’ve finally opened our on-line store. At the moment, we have it set up with our In-Training shirts and our caps. We’ll be adding more items soon so check back often.

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Jennipede and Guinness World Record

If Milwaukee area runners happen to see a bunch of crazy “centipede runners” at the build-up runs, don’t worry. It is not a centipede but the JENNIPEDE – the group of LFM runners training to run our race and break the Guinness World Record for the most people running a marathon tethered by a rope. Actually, they intend to shatter the record set at the 2010 London Marathon and then broken there in 2011.

Seriously, this dedicated group of runners, led by the “Head Pede” Robin, are committed to raising funds for Jenny Crain’s continuing therapy. You may recall that Jenny (a member of our race committee) was hit by a car in August, 2007 while training for the Olympic Marathon Trials and sustained a traumatic brain injury. With continuing intense therapy, Jenny can (with assistance) walk a little more than a half mile. The funds raised in this effort will allow her to continue her very personal marathon. For more information about the Guinness attempt and for information about Jenny’s story follow the links.

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Pasta Dinner

There is still time to register for the American Cancer Society DetermiNATION Pasta Dinner. Details are on our web site.

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LFM Kids Run Returns

Our Lakefront Marathon Kids Run will return in 2011 – sponsored again by our friends at Body Basix. We have moved the Kids Run to Saturday afternoon at 3PM to allow all of our runner-parents to be part of this special event and to give these kids the attention they deserve.

The concept is pretty simple - the kids each run 25 miles in little increments between now and October 1 – on race day the kids run the last 1.2 miles of their own special marathon – through the official LFM Finish arch with music playing (just like your race) – and are presented with their very own Finisher medal and Finisher shirt. There is still time for kids to register – we start them out with a special running log with kid-focused nutrition and training tips and their special In-training shirt to encourage them as they work toward their marathon goal. Details are on our web site.

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Tell Us YOUR Story

You all have such special stories about why you're running LFM - your first marathon, in honor of a loved one, to rais money for a charity, to qualify for the Boston Marathon, or just because...

If you'd be willing to share your special story with us for use by our PR team, please tell us in an email or post it to our Facebook page. We all have marathon dreams - share yours with all of us!

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A Few Details...

There is still time for vendors to get in on our Health and Fitness Expo on Friday night and Saturday at the MSOE Kern Center. If you are interested in showcasing your business or know someone else who is please contact us ASAP. We also have opportunities to distribute promotional material in our goodie bags – just contact us.

Start time… What time does the race start this year, runners??? 7:30 – that’s right, 7:30. We moved the start time up 30 minutes to mitigate any heat issues and to reduce inconvenience of the residents on the course. What time? 7:30 – you got it.

Official Energy Gel. After several years of generous sponsorship, Hammer Nutrition has decided that they can no longer support races as short as a marathon. Lucky for us (and you) our friends at Body Basix have a yummy and effective gel. This is the gel that will be provided on the course at (approximately) Miles 7 and 20. You WILL want to try it out beforehand as we'd never recommend doing something new on race day. It is available in the Milwaukee area at Performance Running Outfitters, Attitude Sports & In-Step Running & Walking Centers. It is also available on-line. We will also provide linited supplies to the BLS Marathon Build-up Program.

Entry transfers, refunds & deferrals. I get LOTS of questions about this about now. Remember, we don’t allow the transfer or deferral of entries for any reason and do not refund your race fee if you can’t run. We know that stuff happens and not everyone will join us on race day and plan for that in setting our entry limit. If we allowed these changes, we’d just have to set our entry limit lower and I’d drive our Registration Captain crazy. IF you find that you can’t run, we’d (absolutely) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have you as a volunteer. Marathon runners make the best volunteers. We have lots of spots and options for volunteers – take a look at our on-line volunteer page.

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MIlwaukee Lakefront Marathon | www.milwaukeelakefrontmarathon.org/

Friday, April 8, 2011

April Up-date


Friday April 8, 2011

Feature

We're Baaack

We 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.

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Kids' Run Returns

Many 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.

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Pasta Dinner Details

Many 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.

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Cool New Sponsors

We 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.

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RRCA National Marathon Championship

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.

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Guinness Record for Jenny

Robin, 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.

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Volunteers - We need and LOVE Volunteers

Yep – 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.

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Boston Marathon Procedures

Almost 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.

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Tell Us YOUR Story

Here 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!

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