Happy Monday!

Hi everyone,

Karen pointed out today that the Hyannis races are already 75% sold out.  I know some of you have already signed up- good work!  If you want to participate but haven't registered, please do so now!

I also wanted to remind everyone that the first fundraising challenge is underway.  Whoever raises the most this week (I started counting on Sunday) will win some wonderful prizes from Polar.  I'll check in later in the week to let you know who is in the running.

I hope everyone's training is going well!

-Rebekah

Thursday Night Crossroads Pub Running Tradition- thanks Greg!

Us local runners might want to try to get together for a Thursday night run - I am game!


-Rebekah

From Greg:

One of the great marathon training traditions is the weekly Thursday night run from Crossroads Pub at 495 Beacon Street in Boston's Back Bay (intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Beacon Street). These runs are infinitely informal. No sign up, no rsvp, no mandatory course, no water stops. It's a lot of fun, and everyone is encouraged to come by. Some diehards "Do the Thursday" all year long.

Here's how it works. Meet at Crossroads after work. Change into your running clothes. Leave your stuff at the upstairs bar (be smart with your valuables, of course) and enjoy your run. Afterwards, return to Crossroads, change into dry clothes and have a beer or soft drink or two.

Important safety reminder: Wear reflective clothing because it will definitely be dark!

Crossroads Irish Pub is located on 495 Beacon Street on the corner of Beacon and Mass Ave.  You can also get there from the Greenline taking the Hynes Convention Center or Kenmore Square stops.

The Hills

Beginning in December, many people use Thursday night to run The Hills—the several hills that comprise Heartbreak Hill. To do so, take the T from the Hynes Convention center stop on Mass Ave. (Green Line D train, aka "Riverside") to Woodland stop and run back in on the course. You're basically picking up the course around mile 17, running the entire hill section and finishing at Crossroads. It's about a 9 mile run, providing valuable experience on the marathon's toughest section.

Timing for hill runners: Meet at Crossroads at 5:45 p.m., be ready to leave for the T at 5:50, and start the run in from Woodland around 6:30.

The course: from Woodland T parking lot, turn right and run Route 16 till you reach the Fire Station (approx 1/2 mile), take a right on Commonwealth Ave. (running the carriage road to your left), run to Cleveland Circle taking a right on Chestnut Hill Ave. and then a left on Beacon St., ending at Crossroads. It's about 5.5 miles to Cleveland Circle, and another 3.2 or so to Crossroads. If you're not sure about running the full distance, keep a T pass with you. After about 5 miles, you'll have numerous opportunities to hop on the Green Line.

Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler

Hi all!

In addition to the Hyannis race, I think the Martha's Vineyard 20 miler might be a fun group run. It is on February 19, the weekend before Hyannis. It is a great opportunity to do a 20 mile run under race conditions and with hydration / fuel support. I ran this last year and had a great time. You do have to take the ferry, but the 11am start allows for transportation time. If enough people come it could make for a great post-run party!

www.mv20miler.com

Some Exciting New Things : )

I.   New Balance Becomes the CYCLE Kids Marathon Team Sponsor.  As our sponsor, New Balance will be outfitting each of you with a new pair of running shoes.  There is a catch though- you have to reach your $2000 fundraising milestone before they will send them to you!  Take a look at the New Balance website and pick your favorite shoe- all shoes are fair game.  Email me your choice, your shoe size, and where the shoes should be shipped.  Feel free to take time to try on shoes at a local store before you email me a decision, no rush.  New Balance may be surprising us with more gear and accessories as your training journey unfolds- we'll see!

II.  First Team Fundraising Challenge.  It is time for our first team fundraising challenge!  The challenge will begin on Sunday 12/13 and last until midnight on Saturday 12/18.  I will keep track of each of your fundraising totals that week (Previous donations will not count for this challenge. Donations to your fundraising page as well any offline donations mailed to the office will be counted).  The top fundraiser will win a prize pack from Polar,  including a brand new Polar FT40 Watch/Heartrate Monitor, as well as a hat, water bottle, storage pouch, tote, and jump-rope.  Good luck!

III.  Welcome Karen!  A new team member joined us today- welcome Karen!  Karen is a local runner and is looking forward to training with Adriane, Alex, Justin, Jim, and Jen.  Please feel free to use the blog to figure out a team training schedule so that you all can run together.  Let me know if I can help in any way!

Thank you for all of your hard work- our team fundraising total is already at $3111.30.  We have a long way to go to beat last year's total of $70,000, but I know you can do it!  Having gotten to know each of you, I am confident that this year's team can reach $100,000.  

First team meeting a success!

Hi everyone,

Julie, Carolyn, and I so enjoyed meeting Adriane, Alex, Jen, Jim and Justin at the first team dinner last night!  For those of you who weren't able to make it, a few runners from last year's team came to share their experience, and Team Coach Mary Johanson introduced herself and her training plan (newly uploaded on the Important Docs page).  It was a lot of fun!

Greg Watson, a local tri-athlete and supporter of the team also came to the dinner and helped us think about planning runs and races as a team.  There are three particularly important runs for all of us to know about:

The first is the Hyannis Half Marathon (there is also a full marathon event for you super-ambitious runners).  This will take place on February 27, 2011 in Hyannis, MA.  Last year almost all of our runners ran in Hyannis and we had a great time traveling out there and back together- I hope we will be able to do it all again this year!  I think registration for this race is already open.  Let's get a dialogue started here on the blog so that we know who is interested in participating.  This could be a great time for out-of-towners to come meet their team mates!

The second and third are not quite planned yet.  There will be two long runs along the marathon course that are organized by the BAA- these have not yet been scheduled but they will likely take place in March.  As soon as the dates come out, I will pass the info along to you.

Thank you to everyone who has started their fundraising on Razoo- the pages look great!

Please remember, I'm here for any questions- call or email any time! 617-661-0908, rmueller@cyclekids.org.

Don't forget to comment or post your thoughts on Hyannis!

Rebekah

Likes 4 Bikes

Specialized has been doing a Facebook promotion. For every 1000 "Likes" they get on their Facebook page, they will donate a bike to CYCLE Kids. The promotion has recently been extended through the end of the year.

We think this would be a good fundraising tool for you, because it shows that CYCLE Kids is backed by national sponsors such as Specialized.

Just click the pic below and "Like" iamspecialized.com !

Here we go!

Thank you so much for a lovely dinner last night! It was great to meet everyone. I am more motivated than ever to start training and fundraising. I hope everyone has a nice holiday season. I will be back in early January and ready for some group runs.

Thanks again!

Latest news from Jim

Hello! We didn't race in a turkey trot this year, but my entire family ran in the Cow Chip XC on Saturday Nov 27th. It was a fun run through fields and woods in Trumbull, CT. It was just under 4 miles. Some people dressed in "Cow attire", and it was a great event on a utterly perfect morning!

Nice club run this morning. 8 miles. Lots of talk about recent marathons, NYC, Philly.. Told the group about Cycle Kids and my running on the team! Everyone was happy to hear the news, as I had been telling them about it in past weeks. No one coughed up any dough but they did seem receptive. We have a club party soon and I plan on a mass-e-mailing to members soon.

I just heard that I placed AG 3rd in a summer long distance race series of 4 races, including 2 half's and a 20k! It was a hard summer to race in with the heat. It took a toll on me. You can see my races at my Athlinks site. I over-trained this summer, but learned from that.

Right now I;m enjoying some yoga and ramping up my weight training, before I start to put in more serious longer mileage later. My next race is on Sunday, the famous Christopher Martins New Haven 5k, run for Children! http://www.jbsports.com/cmchrisrun.htm All 4 Mydosh's are racing!

I'm new to this blogging thing, so I hope this is all not too much info - There is a lot more going on, but later on that.... Jim

How To Post

Hello all!

Everyone should have received an email inviting them to be an author for the marathon blog. Signing up for this will allow you to directly post on the blog, rather than just leave comments. Since so many of our team members are not local, we think this is a good way for everyone to keep in touch and follow each other's training. This will also be a good fundraising tool for you.

If you don't have a google password, such as one connected with youtube or gmail, you may have to register your email. After registering your email, you should be brought to a page that looks like this:

If you click the blue box that says "New Post", you should be brought to a page like this:

This page allows you to write your post. You can use the buttons to add pictures, links, and videos. Once you're finished, you can either publish the post or click "Save Now", which will save it as a draft and allow you to go back and edit the post later. 

If you didn't receive the invitation email or have any questions about how to post, please feel free to email us at socialmedia@cyclekids.org.

Can't wait to read all of your posts!

Welcome 2011 CYCLE Kids Boston Marathon Team!

Thank you for choosing to be a member of the CYCLE Kids team!  Your hard work in training fundraising is truly going to make a difference in the lives of our students.  You are going to be role models for those kids, and the funds you raise will enable CYCLE Kids to give our program to more schools, giving hundreds more children the knowledge and tools they need to live happy and healthy lives!

I've really enjoyed talking to you all on the phone.  I think we have a team of wonderful, dedicated, generous people and I am excited to meet you all and to work with you over the next few months.  Please contact me ANY TIME if you have questions about the team- setting up your page, fundraising ideas, training concerns- anything at all!  I'm always available by email at rmueller@cyclekids.org and my number is 617-661-0908.

We will use this blog to communicate about team events and deadlines, to schedule team runs, to ask our coach (Mary Johanson) training questions, and to get to know each other!

Please take a look at the important documents we have uploaded.  There is a team guide that summarizes the most important information you will need.  There are also sample fundraising letters and letterhead for you to use, more information about the organization, training tips and schedules, and even posters for those of you who want to host fundraising events.

Team Meeting and Dinner!
All of you local runners should try to be at our first team meeting/dinner on Monday, December 6th at 6:30pm.  Carolyn Bailey, a CYCLE Kids board member and devoted supporter of our marathon teams, has offered up her lovely home at 62 Foster Street in Cambridge, MA 02138.  Team dinners at her house are always a ton of fun and we hope you can all make it to meet each other, meet your coach Mary, and to meet the CYCLE Kids gang.  Please RSVP as soon as possible.  A special thanks to Jim Mydosh who is making a 3 hour drive from CT so that he can be with us on Monday!

Fundraising
If you have not done so already, please set up your Razoo.com page.  I am here to help if you have any trouble.
Note: There has been some confusion with one of the fields you need to fill out when you create your page.  Please type your full name in the "Designation" box- this is how Razoo tells CYCLE Kids which runner the donation was made for.  If you have something other than your name in there now, please change it!  I apologize for any confusion- this is our first year with the site so we will all be learning to use it together!
I am also waiting on bios from many of you- email them to me when you have a chance and I will update the blog with your information.  Please also send a picture- some of you were only asked to send a bio (sorry!)- I realized that I can put up a picture as well so send them along!  I lifted some of your Razoo photos- please let me know if you would like me to use something different.

Last but not least, I want to recognize two fundraising all stars- Bob Frazer and Scott Freed have been working hard and have each raised over $1000 already- great work!  Make sure to share your secrets for success with your team mates!

Once we are all up and fundraising on Razoo, I will recognize all-stars weekly.  There will be some fun contests in the near future with prizes like a year's supply of water from Poland Spring and items from Polar Heart Rate Monitors and Thule.

Again- thank you for choosing CYCLE Kids and good luck with your training and fundraising!

-Rebekah