Run to Win

There were 6 official entries in my first Twitter Running Story Contest. The rules were simple: Post a link to a Twitter page that told a story about running or walking in exactly 140 characters.

Here are the official entries in the order in which they were received:
(Click here to continue reading…)

The contest to win a free copy of my book ends on Friday at 6:00 EDT. That is also the deadline for the parent contest over at Copyblogger. The prizes over there have expanded quite a bit, so be sure to submit your story to both places. First prize has been bumped up to an 8GB iPod, with the 4GB iPod moving to second place and 50 custom postcards appearing in 3^rd place (amongst other prizes.)

So get creative, write a story in exactly 140 characters, and then click here to link to your story so that you can be entered into the contest! There are 6 submissions so far, so you have a good chance of winning a copy of my book. If you don’t enter, though, you will not have any chance to win.

If you were allotted 140 characters, including punctuation and spaces, could you tell an interesting story?

That’s the challenge that was thrown down by Brian Clark at CopyBlogger, a website devoted to improving your writing.

Can you tell a story in exactly 140 characters?

That’s the idea behind the first ever @copyblogger Twitter writing contest.

It should be a great exercise and a lot of fun. Being constrained to exactly 140 characters will spark your creative juices and force you to focus stringently on word choice, sentence structure, and even punctuation.

The rules for his contest are simple. You need to use Twitter to write your story, it must be exactly 140 characters long, and it must be interesting. The best story wins a 4 GB iPod Nano. Not only that, but I’m going to sweeten the deal by offering a digital copy of my book to the best running related story!

In order to be eligible for a copy of my book about Marathon Preparation and Recovery, your story must have something to do with running or walking. It can be related to a race, to training, to walking on a nature trail, or even to watching somebody else run or walk. You must also leave a link to your Twitter story in the comments below. If you want to be eligible for the iPod, you should also leave a link in the comments over at CopyBlogger, of course. There is only 1 entry per person allowed, so make it a good one. That being said, you don’t need to enter the same story into his contest and into mine, since mine has a content restraint.

Here is an example (and my entry into Brian’s contest):
http://twitter.com/BlaineMoore/statuses/815241805

I passed 1st place at mile 19. I mustn’t let anyone catch me. I am getting so tired. There’s the finish line! The course record is now mine.

By the way, if you sign up to Twitter and want to follow me, you can do so at http://twitter.com/BlaineMoore.

(New to Twitter and not sure what to do or how to use it? Click here for some simple, step by step directions.)

So start getting creative, writing your 140 character stories, and leaving a link here so that I can read them all! The deadline is this Friday, May 23^rd, 2008 at 6:00 EDT.

This past weekend, I held a contest to win 180 music downloads from the eMusic.com website.

The contest is now officially over, and if you entered then you had between a 5% and 10% chance of winning (depending upon whether you were one of the few people to both comment and link to the contest). The winner was the fourth commenter, Patrick, who now has 4 days to respond to the email that I sent him and claim his prize.

Thanks to everybody who participated, and I will try to do another promotion soon. I enjoy doing these contests…

There is less than a day left before I hold a drawing for the eMusic.com gift card…If you are interested in entering the contest, be sure to leave a comment on the contest article: http://news.runtowin.com/2007/10/05/180-free-music-downloads.html

It has been a while since I have given anything away, so this weekend I am going to give away a gift card for 180 music downloads at eMusic.com. I bought the gift card with the intention of giving it to my brother, but he got a job on a cruise ship and does not really have a need for it right now as he spends 5 months at a time in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.


The winner of this contest will get the code from the gift card in an email, and if the winner wants it then I am willing to mail the card to any address in the continental US. The gift card must be redeemed by the end of the month, and is good for 15 mp3 downloads per month over the course of a year.

To enter the contest, leave a comment below or write about the contest on your own website and leave a trackback. One normal comment per person, and one trackback per website is allowed if you want extra chances to win. You have until Tuesday, October 9^th to enter, when I will close the comments and announce the winner by random drawing.

Any comment will do, but if you don’t mind, I would prefer that you leave a question or a suggestion for something that you would like me to discuss here on the website. Doing so will not improve your chances of winning, but I am just curious about how well I am doing and what sorts of areas I need to pay more attention to. Is there anything that you think deserves more attention that is getting ignored by the running community? Do you have a specific question that you think that I could answer?

Contest rules and disclaimers:

1. There is one gift card that is being given away, and the code will be emailed to the winner. On request, I am willing to mail it as well within the continental United States. Delivery is not guaranteed but I will make a best effort to get it to the winner before the card expires on October 31, 2007.
2. I will be the complete and final judge. I can change the rules on a whim. The winner will be chosen by random drawing.
3. It is the winner’s responsibility to ensure that they are eligible to use the eMusic download service.
4. One entry per person is allowed, as well as one entry per website. Subsequent entries from any given person will be ignored.
5. If you win and do not get back to me within 4 days, then I reserve the right to give the prize to somebody else.
6. I will make my best effort to contact the winner, but a valid email address must be left on comments. If a trackback wins, then I will do my best to find a contact link on the web page linking to here, but if I do not see one then you will have to look back at this site to see if you have won.
7. Local laws, rules, and regulations apply. No purchase is necessary.

If you are interested in checking out the eMusic service, then click here to get a 2 week free trial that allows for 25 mp3 downloads.

Please Note: If you have never discussed an article here before, then your comment will be held in moderation. It may take a short time for it to appear on the site.

Update: The winner has been announced! It is Patrick.

All last week I ran a contest to win a copy of “Coast to Coast”. There were 8 entrants. The winner of the book, by random drawing, was Brendan Fitzgerald. His story was about the Penn Relays:
(Click here to continue reading…)

There are two days left before entries close to win a free copy of Coast to Coast. It is really easy to enter; just write any story about running on the contest page for a chance to win.