We're moving!

You may have noticed the launch of our new site a few months back. It's built on the Wordpress platform, and, for simplicity, we've built our blog into the framework of the site. So we've been running two blogs simultaneously since September. But the time has come to send all of you over to the other blog page. So please come join us, as I'll only be posting there in the future.

Thanks and see you there.

Peter

Design an LA Marathon T-shirt

Have you ever been to a local running race or marathon and thought, "I can design a better shirt than this!" Here's your chance. Enter our first-ever LA Marathon t-shirt design competition at 99designs.com for the chance to have your shirt printed and sold at the event. In addition, we're offering $295 cash to the winner of the contest. The competition is open now and we'll accept designs until January 31st. At that point we'll narrow the field to the best six designs and put it out to an online vote to determine the winner.

Here's the contest.

Get to work and give us your best shot!

Peter

Make the LA Marathon course your own

After Stacy, Ginger and Theresa's holiday run of the LA Marathon course, along with Jimmy Dean's 5,000 calorie course expedition, I've come to expect that our runners will start to take ownership of the route. So it comes as no surprise that two of my favorite bloggers and Twitterati, @chicrunner and @LARunr, have started running parts of the course while writing and tweeting about it. In my opinion, a measure of a brand's success is the extent to which customers co-opt and personalize that brand. I'm thrilled to see that starting to happen with the Marathon. Go forth and create your own LA Marathon, folks. I'm here to tell you that I will happily support, and promote, your endeavors. And if you should find yourself on Twitter, be sure and give a shout out to our two friends. Here's LARunner's blog post about the jaunt.

Peter

Coordinators kickoff meeting

With just over two months to go until the 25th Anniversary Los Angeles Marathon, we're now officially on Defcon 4 alert. Things are starting to happen very quickly, and deadlines are coming at us like bullets: Medals, participant shirts, ads, signs, citywide police & fire meetings, etc. A lot is going on, and much of that is captained by Race Director Nick Curl (resplendent in Hawaiian shirt above) and Director of Operations Stacy Embretson. Along with our Volunteer Coordinator Manon Levenberg, they organized today's coordinator kickoff meeting. We gathered in Westwood all of the coordinators who will be manning aid stations, organizing the start and finish areas, running the shuttle bus system and other important jobs. It was a gathering of many familiar faces--some of these folks have been with the LA Marathon since its inception--and a few new ones as well. The event does not happen without the hard work of these individuals.

We also had representatives from the City of Beverly Hills as well as the Veterans Administration, and I was able to catch up with them on things we're doing in each place. Nick took everyone through the many new developments in this year's event: the course, the 5K, the Expo...well, let's face it, everything is new! In any case, it was a productive afternoon, and we're now in the red zone approaching the race.

Peter

New Year's Resolution

LA Marathon HQ is up and running after the holiday break, and it's busier than ever as we get ready for the 2010 event. The race is only 75 days away and approaching like a freight train. Our New Year's resolution is to put on the best LA Marathon ever. What's yours? Are you going to run a PR this year? Get off the couch and run your first marathon? Use running as a way to affect positive change in your life and those around you? Think about it. However, if your plans include this year's LA Marathon, don't wait too long. The registrations are coming in at a record pace, and we're capping the field at 25,000. We hope the Marathon and running are both part of your New Year's resolution, and we look forward to seeing you all on the starting line on March 21st.

Peter

SRLA at the Rose Parade

The three-masted schooner making its way up Orange Grove Avenue

American Honda's Erik Wedin along with SRLA leader Milton Hom

On New Year's Day I took my family out to the Rose Parade and saw, for the first time in my life, what an amazing event that is. It's been a New Year tradition since 1890, and this year, for the first time, Students Run LA was featured in the parade. The three-masted Honda "Ship of Dreams" float highlighted SRLA as one of seven philanthropic partners that improves the lives of children. Milton Hom, an SRLA leader from LeConte Middle School, and student runner Hemashary Juarez were both on the float doing their best parade waves. What a great way to ring in the new year!

Peter

New Pavement for Sunset Strip Portion of Route

This must be some kind of sign. And yet another reason for 2010 LA Marathon participants to get excited. For the first time in 75 years, the Sunset Strip will be repaved. As we can attest, having run that stretch a couple times ourselves, the pavement is in sorry shape. How sweet will it be to run that section--Miles 12-14--on nice new asphalt? Read all about it here.

Peter