Run to Win

Tomorrow evening is the Boston Indoor Games, a great event put on down at the Reggie Lewis Center every year. If you are planning on being there, then keep an eye out for me as I’ll be there with both my still and my video camera!

The Games will not be televised live, but will be on ESPN on Sunday from 4:00-6:00. If you haven’t made your picks yet, you have until 4:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday to choose who you think is going to score in tomorrow’s meet.

I am very excited about the meet. When making my picks, I saw that Kevin Sullivan is racing in the mile, so I had to make that pick despite thinking that he probably isn’t going to be able to beat Alan Webb.

Kara Goucher should put in a good 3000m as she gets herself into shape for the Boston Marathon, her goal race for 2009 and which has not been won by an American (man or woman) since 1985.

I’m also looking forward to watching Shalane Flanagan in the 5k and Galen Rupp in the 3k.

I also noticed today that the USATF Indoor Championships are also in Boston this year, so I am going to have to see if I can arrange my schedule to let me get down there again at the end of the month.

See you there!

It’s that time of year again! The Visa Championship Series starts tonight with the Millrose Games and continues next week with the Boston Indoor Games. I can’t get to New York today, but will be in Boston next week.

The Millrose games will be televised live on ESPN2 tonight from 7-8:30 p.m. It will also be televised tomorrow on NBC, January 31 from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. ET. If you’d like to play along with Fantasy Track, then you have until 5:40 p.m. tonight to make your picks.

Here are the details on how that works:

How it works

Fans create their ultimate track and field team each week by going to www.visachampionshipseries.com and selecting the athletes they believe will compete well at that week’s meet.

Each Visa Championship Series meet is “virtually” scored, with 10 points going to the first-place athlete in each event, 8 points to the second-place athlete, 6 points to the third-place athlete and so on down to sixth place. The selected athletes score points for your team.

During the 2008 indoor season, after the conclusion of the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Jim Dunaway’s team from Austin, Texas, had scored the most points during the Indoor Visa Championship Series. He won a grand prize trip for two to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, courtesy of Visa. David Donley won the overall second-place prize, a $250 Visa Gift Card and Nike gift bag, including but not limited to a Nike/USATF spike bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap. Anthony DeSain won the third-place prize, a $100 Visa gift card and Nike gift bag.

2009 Indoor Pick-N-Win Fantasy Game

Grand Prize: One Grand Prize winner will be awarded a $2,000 Visa Gift Card and a Nike gift bag, including but not limited to, a Nike/USATF bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap. Approximate Retail Value: $2,100.

Second Place Prize: One Second Place Prize winner will be awarded a $250.00 Visa Gift Card and a Nike gift bag, including but not limited to, a Nike/USATF spike bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap. Approximate Retail Value: $350.

Third Place Prize: One Third Place Prize winner will be awarded a $100.00 Visa Gift Card and a Nike gift bag, including but not limited to, a Nike/USATF spike bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap. Approximate Retail Value: $200.

Three Weekly Prizes: Each game week, a Nike gift bag containing a Nike/USATF spike bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap, valued at $100, will be awarded. Weekly Prize winners will be determined by the top score achieved during the appropriate week from among all eligible entries (excluding the Grand Prize winners) received by the online deadline.

Pick-N-Win Fantasy Game New Features

• Invite a Friend: From the Pick-N-Win website, players have the ability to email a friend the Fantasy Game link and invite them to participate.
• News Page: Athlete scratches and additions to start lists will be updated on the news page.
• Facebook: From the Pick-N-Win site, players can click on the Facebook link and go to the USATF Facebook page to discuss strategies with other players and interact with their competition.

You can find all these items at
http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/VisaChampionshipSeries/play/

Fantasy Game timeline:

• The game kicks off with the historic 102nd Millrose Games (Jan. 30) and continues through the Reebok Boston Indoor Games (Feb. 7), Tyson Invitational (Feb. 13), and the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-Mar. 1).
• The first deadline for players to make their final 102nd Millrose Games picks is Friday, Jan. 30th at 5:40 p.m. ET. The game will conclude on Feb. 28 at 11:55 a.m. ET.

There is a lot happening this week in the world of running, so today I have a quick round up for you rather than providing a series of short articles on each one.

Trevor Graham found guilty of lying to investigators

Things are not looking good for Trevor Graham, a track coach who has had multiple athletes admit or found guilty of cheating. He has so far been found convicted of lying to federal investigators about his interactions with a known steroid dealer and his facilitation of providing drugs to his athletes. The jury was not able to come to a consensus about 2 other charges against him.
(Source: ESPN)

California Dreamin’ Racing Series

The San Francisco, Long Beach and Surf City marathons in California have teamed up in a combined marketing effort to create the California Dreamin’ Racing Series, which will have a “competition within a competition” for competitors that want to run either the full or half marathons in each of the 3 races from this August through next February. There will be separate prizes and awards, and each finisher of all 3 races will receive a jacket and a large finishers medal with the logos of the 3 races. It is acting as a miniature Grand Prix type of race series.
(More Info: Press Release (pdf) – Home Page)

ING New York City Marathon Lottery closes on Sunday

Still considering paying the exorbitant fees to run a marathon in New York City? Well, if you want a chance to get through the lottery then Sunday is your last day to put your name in the hat. Guaranteed entry applications had to be in on May 1^st, so there is no way to get a spot in the marathon now without passing through the lottery. I enjoyed running the race, but the fees are just too high for me to consider running it again, unfortunately.
(Click here to apply)

Fantasy Track Meets » This Weekend

There are two track meets this weekend that will be counted towards your fantasy teams if you are participating. The IAAF meet in Berlin on Sunday will kick off the series at the international level, and the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday is the 2^nd event in the USATF Visa Championship Series outdoor meets (it is actually the 3^rd meet in the Series but only the 2^nd fantasy meet.)
(Click Here for more information – Set up your teams: IAAF – USATF)

Fitness for Moms Carnival

I have been featured in the latest edition of the Fitness for Moms Carnival, which includes a short description of my article about how to find people to run with. The latest edition casts a spotlight on various articles about health, mothers, and working out.
(More Info: Go Workout Mom)

Summer Track Meets

Summer is almost upon us, which means that the high school and college track meets are just about done wrapping up and there will be time for us old fogies to get out there and burn up the track! The USATF lists over 200 open and masters track meets in the country over the next 3 months, and there are a series of 5 races being put on by the Maine chapter of the USATF. See if there are any near you and then dust off your track spikes! Looking at the dates for the Maine races, I don’t think that it is very likely that I’ll be competing too much this year. I already have commitments for all of the Wednesday night races and I will likely be running a different race the weekend of the championship meet.
(More Info: USATF Event Search – Maine » Summer Series (pdf) – Track Championships (pdf))

http://www.meusatf.org/

Last year, the IAAF put on a fantasy track & field league for the Osaka world championships. This past Winter, the USATF put on an event for the Visa Championship Series of races. I really enjoyed taking part in both leagues last year.

Well, this Summer the fun begins again. Both the USATF and the IAAF are providing an outdoor Fantasy Track series.

The USATF is going to center around it’s popular Visa Championship Series of races again, with the first meet happening this weekend at the Adidas Track Classic. There are two deadlines for making your picks. The 800m and the 5000m events are tomorrow night (Saturday) so those picks need to be made by 10:55 PM Eastern Time tomorrow. All other picks need to be made by 1:55 PM EDT on Sunday. A cool new twist on this season is that you can see who the favorites are based on who has already picked which athletes to win in each event. The entrant list sorts each athlete by their fantasy popularity.

The IAAF Fantasy Track game will begin with the June 1^st meet at the Golden League meet in Germany. The rules are a little different than they were for the Osaka games or for the USATF games. Rather than picking the athletes in individual events, or choosing a full complement of athletes with a maximum of 1 athlete from each country, you choose 4 captains that follow you from meet to meet and then you choose 5 additional athletes for each meet. If you choose athletes who score in the top 8 of their events, you score points.

Both leagues are free to join, although you are of course welcome to wager locally with your friends. Speaking of which – is anybody interested in a little friendly competition? Time is short for the start of the first USATF meet, but we could certainly get something together for the additional meets in the season and for the entire IAAF season. Let me know if you have any interest.

How did your fantasy track team do at the Tyson Invitational “Pick & Win” for the Visa Championship Series? My team didn’t do nearly as well as at the Reebok games, but better than at the Millrose Games, and put me into 231^st place overall with 228 points between the three events. I am now 102 points behind first place, which means that I need to step it up this week to still not have a chance of winning!

This week’s fantasy track meet involves a return to Boston for the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Champs. You have until Saturday, February 23^rd at 11:59 a.m. EST to make your picks. This week promises to offer some high scores for folks as there are 26 events to choose competitors for.

You can watch the meet on ESPN2 on Sunday, February 24^th, from 5:00-7:00 p.m EST.

How did your fantasy track team do at the Millrose Games “Pick & Win” for the Visa Championship Series? My team didn’t do nearly as well as at the Reebok games, but still put me into 296^th place again with 156 points between both events. Hopefully this week I will do a little better, but at least I made the top 500. I am now 64 points behind first place.

This week’s fantasy track meet is the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville. You have until Friday, February 15^th at 7:59 p.m. EST to make your picks.

How did your fantasy track team do last week at the first “Pick & Win” for the Visa Championship Series? My team put me into 296^th place with 91 points. Hopefully this week I will do a little better, but at least I made the top 500. I was less than 30 points behind first place.

This week’s fantasy track meet is the 101^st Millrose Games in New York. You have until Friday, February 1^st at 5:40 p.m. EST to make your picks.

The USATF has put together a Fantasy Track & Field game for the Visa Championship Series called Pick & Win. You need to live in the United States and be at least 18 years old to win, but each week you can win a gift bag by picking the athletes who perform the best in the meet.

After the conclusion of the 2008 AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, the person whose teams have scored the most points during the Visa Championship Series will win a grand prize trip for two to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, presented by Visa!

Overall second-place prize is a $250 Visa Gift Card and Nike gift bag, including but not limited to a Nike/USATF duffel bag, jacket, t-shirt and cap. The third-place prize is a $100 Visa gift card and Nike gift bag.

If you are interested in playing, be sure to get your first picks in before tomorrow afternoon. The first meet is the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on January 26^th, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. EST. Picks need to be made before 3:00.

I’ll be setting up my account and making my picks tonight.

For more information:

• Pick & Win Fantasy Game home page
• USATF Press Release
• Official Rules