I’ll claim preoccupation with what the surgeon might say when I meet with him on Tuesday, but the truth is that I don’t have a very good reason.

But that’s okay, because I’m giving away a few hundred dollars in prizes.

Here’s a recap of what you could have won, and I’ve given the first name of the winners (or in cases where they didn’t provide a first name the handle that they used even in the cases where I know their first name.)

1. A Run to Win Atayne Grind T Running Shirt (men’s or women’s) worth $39 – John through Twitter
2. A Run to Win Atayne Trash T (men’s or women’s) worth $24 – Erin through Newsletter Subscription
3. A digital download of my “How to Raise Money For Non-Profits” coaching session with Mike Brooks worth $17.95 – Stacy through Facebook Fan*
4. A digital download of my “How to Regain and Maintain Your Competitive Edge as You Age” coaching session with Tom Ryan worth $17.95 – “countryike” From YouTube Subscribers*
5. Digital access to my “Yoga For Runners” coaching session with Michael Gaige worth $24.95 – “dpeach” From Linking to the Site
6. A $20 gift certificate to Road ID – “highonrunning90″ From a Forum Post
7. A SOC Box Greeting Card System for bragging about your next race worth $49 – ChickJ From Commenting in the Contest Thread!*
8. A copy of Meb Keflezighi’s book, Run to Overcome worth $24.99 – Don through Newsletter Subscription

If there is an asterisk after the person’s name it means that I have not yet heard back if they accept the prize. Each winner was given the option to not accept the prize in which case I’ll pick a new winner; as I hear back I’ll remove the asterisk.

It took me long enough to figure out how to create the lists of folks and draw the names and draw the prizes that I’d already heard back from a few people before even publishing the results.

My old theme was designed over 5 years ago and hasn’t changed much since. Now, the site should be a bit easier to navigate, it should be easier to find what you are looking for, and little things such as the YouTube videos being too wide to fully fit onto the page are now a thing of the past!

In celebration of which, I’m going to be giving away a bunch of swag, so keep reading for details about how to enter.

To start, here’s a quick walkthrough that I just recorded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h_99YMtM9s

Download This Video: MP4 – MP3 – Watch on YouTube

Video Transcription

show

Giveaway Details

Here’s what I’m going to do. The contest will be very easy to enter, and there will be many ways to earn a chance at a prize. Next week, I will compile all the names and how many chances you have to win, and will randomly choose winners based on your number of entries. Prizes will also be rewarded at random.

I’ll update this post with new prizes throughout the week as I think of them, so just scroll down to see what you can (currently) win and then check back later to see what’s been added.

Entering the contest is easy, and to suit everybody’s style of browsing the internet I’ve provided many different ways. Don’t feel as though you need to do everything, though, it could be overwhelming!

Here’s how to enter the contest:

• Subscribe to my Newsletter: If you are already subscribed, then you are already entered in the contest. (That was easy, right?) If not, there is a newsletter signup form in the sidebar to the right and at the bottom of the screen, and not only will you be entered into the giveaway but I’ll also give you a free copy of my report, The 3 Components of an Effective Workout.
• Participate in the Community Forum: I’ve set up a more interactive community here at Run to Win, and I’d love to give it a kick-start! For every post you make in the forums, you’ll get an entry into the contest. Don’t spam, though, or your comments will be deleted and you may get kicked out. Comments that don’t add anything to the discussion such as “I agree with what you said” without offering anything else are also not eligible to serve as entries into the contest. Registration is free so just click the community button and start interacting!
• Follow me on the Social Websites: Already follow me or are a fan? Then you are already entered in the contest! Each of these will get you an entry into the contest:
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • Become a fan on Facebook
  • Subscribe to me on YouTube
• Mention This Contest On Your Website: If you link to this post and mention the new site design and the giveaway on your website, you’ll get another entry into the contest. Just leave a trackback or a comment below letting me know where to find your post.
• Let Me Know What You Think in the Comments: I’m a big fan of feedback; positive is better, but constructive is fine too. Do you like the new site design? Is there something I could do better? Just leave a comment below letting me know what you think and that’s good for another entry.
• Make a Purchase From My Store: Everything else is something you can do to enter the contest for free, but if you really want a lot of entries, I’ll give you 1 entry into the contest for every dollar you spend before the contest ends. I’ve got some great Run to Win running shirts.

So that’s how to enter, now what will you win?

Bear in mind that I’m going to keep adding to this list throughout the week, but here are the prizes so far:

1. A Run to Win Atayne Grind T Running Shirt (men’s or women’s) worth $39
2. A Run to Win Atayne Trash T (men’s or women’s) worth $24
3. A digital download of my “How to Raise Money For Non-Profits” coaching session with Mike Brooks worth $17.95.
4. A digital download of my “How to Regain and Maintain Your Competitive Edge as You Age” coaching session with Tom Ryan worth $17.95.
5. Digital access to my “Yoga For Runners” coaching session with Michael Gaige worth $24.95.
6. A $20 gift certificate to Road ID.
7. A SOC Box Greeting Card System for bragging about your next race worth $49.
8. A copy of Meb Keflezighi’s book, Run to Overcome worth $24.99.

So, by my counting, that comes to a grand prize of $217.84 worth prizes so far…

The contest will run from Monday, November 22, 2010 through Sunday, November 28, 2010. Next week, In the next couple of weeks, I will begin drawing names from each category and will draw for awarding prizes. For physical products, shipping is included to anywhere in the 48 contiguous United States, and we’ll work something out if you live elsewhere.

No purchase is necessary to enter the contest (per the methods of entering up above) and the contest is not valid where prohibited by local laws. Winners will receive an email notifying them that they won, so be sure you use a valid email address or are willing to respond to me if I contact you through a social media site (in the case where that’s where you’ve won.)

I’m the sole judge and the rules may change at any time without notice.

So with all that out of the way…what do you think of the new site?

Hopefully you’ve been following my 1 More Mile for Sunshine challenge, because I’ve been so busy running that I kept forgetting to email you about this week’s contest.

I got a pair of Recovery Socks to test out a couple weeks back, and have been wearing them almost every night. They are probably one of the reasons that I feel so good even though I am now running more miles in a week than I ever have in my life (one more college statistic I’ve now broken!)

I’ve got a quick review up on the website, and another simple contest (just leave a comment on the post) where you can try to win 1 of 2 pairs that I’m giving away:
http://www.1moremileforsunshine.com/249/win-a-free-pair-of-recovery-socks

You have until Sunday night to enter.

Good luck!

“Do you offer private coaching?”

Until now, the answer has always been, “I will, but not at the moment.”

For those local to Southern Maine, I help out with the coaching at Maine Running Company for those that don’t mind being in a group, but other than a couple of close friends I haven’t offered private 1 on 1 attention up to this point.

Well, this week I’ve finally gotten the biggest hassle out of the way (insurance) and will be offering a program at the beginning of November.

Now, this opportunity is only going to be open to a small number of people. I’ll have some more details and a video available for you on Monday (November 2nd) that should answer any questions that you have.

If you are interested in private coaching, then enter your name and email address to sign up for the early bird notification list:

Once you click on the submit button above you’ll receive a confirmation email. Click the link in the confirmation email, and you will be notified first when the coaching program opens!

In the meantime, run safe and stay healthy!

Regards,
– Blaine

P.S. If you have any specific questions about what you’d want in a private coach, just leave a comment below and let me know and I’ll try to address your question on Monday.

The service that I use to publish my feed that you can subscribe to got bought a year or two ago and has had some internal changes that have been made and weren’t being clearly communicated to the users, so I didn’t make all of the updates I was supposed to.

It is fixed now, though, so you should receive your regular updates again. If you’d like to subscribe to the site, you can do so by clicking here or entering your email address below:

Last year, I won the marathon in 2:43:27, which was pretty exciting.

Going into the race this year, I have 3 goals.

1. Break the course record.
2. Set the course record.
3. Run faster than 2:37:00.

If you haven’t made a guess yet, you can get full details here:
http://news.runtowin.com/2009/04/30/guess-how-long-it-will-take-me-to-run-the-cox-sports-marathon.html

On another note, I will probably get an update on the site late today with how Mike Brooks did during his 10 day race and whether he was able to run the last 31 miles to reach his goal of 500 miles or not. His back was hurting him pretty bad the last I heard from him. I won’t be able to get the audio update onto the site until tomorrow evening, though.

This weekend, I decided to celebrate the holiday with a couple of giveaways through my email newsletter. If you aren’t familiar with Patriot’s Day, it is a distinctly New England holiday, specifically for Maine and Massachusetts (which used to be the same state.) The holiday celebrates the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the Revolutionary War. Every year, the Boston Marathon is held on the 3^rd Monday of April and almost everybody in the area gets the day off from work and school and comes out to watch the race.

Because it isn’t as important a holiday outside of New England, I decided to limit my giveaways to prizes that are only really relevant to folks that live in this area.

The first prize was for a gift certificate to Loco Running, a local shoe manufacturer based in Newmarket, New Hampshire. This gift certificate is good for 50% off any pair of shoes from them. They are good folk, and do a lot to support running in the area.

There were 16 total entrants in the contest for the gift certificate.

The second giveaway was for a subscription to New England Runner, which is probably my favorite magazine. Every time an issue arrives in my mailbox I immediately flip through the entire magazine looking for pictures of folks I know, and then read it cover to cover within the next few days.

They do a really good job covering all of the major events in the greater New England/New York area, and have some good tip-based and athlete profile articles mixed in with the race results. I always get excited when one of my teammates is featured or is an Athlete of the Month.

There were twice as many people interested in winning the subscription to New England Runner.

If you have a similar local magazine in your area, I recommend you check out an issue or two and see if it is a magazine you want to support.

I had a little trouble getting the screen capture program to work at first, so ignore the little flub at the start of this video:

So congratulations to our two winners!

If you’d like to participate in future giveaways or receive running tips and marathon advice, then please subscribe to my running tips newsletter (I’m still giving away my report on the 3 components of an effective workout if you subscribe today!) Just enter your name and email address here to sign up for the newsletter:

The phone call is absolutely free (your carrier may charge you but I won’t) and I’ll be grilling Mike on how he raises as much money as he does by running for charities. If you’ve ever run for others or considered doing so, you are going to want to be on this call.

More information:
http://news.runtowin.com/2009/03/18/have-you-ever-run-for-a-charity.html