Blue Ridge Marathon On The Parkway

40 National College Employees, including one Salem resident, to participate in the National College Blue Ridge Marathon

Pete — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:53:19 +0000

We found this on the SO Salem blog – thanks!

National College will have a large presence in the National College Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway with 40 employees from Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia participating in the event. In addition to signing on as the title sponsor for the event, the College agreed to pay the entry fees ($80 – $100) for employees participating in the event.

Salem resident Jodie Terry is the Director of Repayment Success and he is participating on a relay team with four of his co-workers. The College has about 40 total employees participating in either the half marathon, full marathon, or a marathon relay

“Any great challenge-whether running a marathon or pursuing a college education-takes concerted effort and dedication in order to accomplish a goal,” said National College President Frank Longaker. “That’s what makes our involvement with the Blue Ridge Marathon a great fit.”

The College plans to be very involved during the event with participants, cheerleaders, and volunteers. As many as 20 students in the emergency medical technology and paramedic programs will provide medical support at the rest stops along the route.

Students in the emergency medical technology programs will not only be of great service to marathon participants on the day of the event; they will also get valuable hands-on experience as they apply what they learned in the classroom. National’s two emergency medical technology programs-the Emergency Medical Technology diploma program and the Paramedic associate degree program-exceed the standards and curriculum established by the US Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration.

National College has a history of creating programs for employees to promote activity levels and healthy nutrition choices. “In addition to being an important regional event, the National College Blue Ridge Marathon also ties in nicely with our new college-wide wellness program,” adds Longaker. Recently, the College launched a wellness program for all full-time employees, which offers a discount on health insurance premiums for those who participate in a plan to improve their overall health and fitness levels.

Previously, the College organized the National Challenge, a system-wide wellness program encouraging employees to record their daily exercise or sporting activities online. This program also provided employees materials and resources on healthy nutrition options. In an effort to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the college donated money as employees earned points for their logged activities. As a result, the National Challenge raised more than $10,000 through employee participation.

The inaugural National College Blue Ridge Marathon begins and ends in downtown Roanoke. Marathon runners will ascend Mill Mountain and later Roanoke Mountain before returning to the Valley for the final 10 miles on rolling terrain. A substantial portion of the run is on the Blue Ridge Parkway or Parkway property.

Proceeds from the National College Blue Ridge Marathon will benefit Friends of Blue Ridge Parkway (http://www.blueridgefriends.org/), the official non-profit membership organization of the Parkway. The organization works to protect, preserve, and enhance the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of our national treasures.

Teaming up with SeriousRunning.com

Pete — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:03:31 +0000

SeriousRunning.com teaming up with the serious Blue Ridge Marathon!

SeriousRunning.com is excited to partner with one of the most scenic and challenging marathons in the Southeast, the Blue Ridge Marathon! SeriousRunning.com provides training plans and tips for all types of runners, serious and those that strive to be more serious runners. Read some tips for running a marathon so you can enjoy this serious marathon with a strong running performance. SeriousRunning.com provides runners with race listing across the nation, running shoe reviews, mapping tools, and much much more. SeriousRunning.com is your # 1 trail running resource with the largest listing of trail running trails across the nation, with over 1,000 trail runs! No matter how you train or compete, SeriousRunning.com is a great resource to help you reach your goal. Good luck on the Blue Ridge Marathon and reaching your running goals runners!

To learn more visit SeriousRunning.com.

The Sandman Half Marathon

Pete — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:47:58 +0000

Our neighbors down in Wytheville, VA have a new half marathon coming up for those of you who want a training event leading up to the Blue Ridge Marathon.

The Sandman Extreme Half Marathon

Extreme for Excellence

Saturday, January 16, 2010 (9:00 a.m.)

Benefiting the Wythe County Public Schools Foundation for Excellence

1st Annual Sandman Extreme for Excellence Half-Marathon up and down Sand Mountain. In the middle of January, rain or shine, runners will begin in the town of Wytheville, Virginia at an elevation of 2,300 feet, descend to Reed Creek at 2,100 and then begin a 4.5 mile climb to 3,100 feet. Atop scenic Sand Mountain the run takes you through the Big Survey Wilderness Management Area on gravel road before reversing course back to Wytheville.

Learn more and register!

GEM Car – the official electric car of the Blue Ridge Marathon

Pete — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:15:31 +0000

The National College Blue Ridge Marathon is excited to have GEM Car as the official electric car of the Blue Ridge Marathon.

Thanks to Dominion of Bedford and GEM Car, lead runners will not have to breathe the exhaust from a traditional pace car. The pace car will be an electric GEM Car.

GEM electric vehicles are 100 percent battery-electric and emit zero tailpipe emissions. They have a top speed of 25 mph and a range of up to 30 miles on a charge making them a fun and economical way to run errands, drive to work or school, haul equipment, or transport people around work facilities. GEM cars cost approximately two cents per mile to operate and can be plugged into a standard 110-volt outlet to recharge.

Dominion of Bedford is a franchised Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealer serving the Lynchburg and Roanoke markets. Dominion recently added the GEM line to their business. Dominion has been in business in the region since 1976 and, in addition to their sales & service facility in Bedford, also operates an independent vehicle repair shop and GEM warranty and parts center at 1259 E. Main St. in Salem, Va. To learn more visit Gem Car and Dominion of Bedford.

National College Secured as Peak Sponsor

Pete — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:39:39 +0000

Contact: Pete Eshelman 540.540.1550 (x104)

Blue Ridge Marathon Secures National College as Peak Sponsor
Carilion Clinic, Valley Bank, & Fink’s Jewelers add additional sponsorship support

Roanoke, VA. (December 07, 2009) National College has signed on as the Peak sponsor for the Blue Ridge Marathon which will be held on April 24, 2010 in Roanoke, Virginia. Carilion Clinic and Valley Bank are Overlook sponsors, while Fink’s Jewelers in association with TAG Heuer will be the event’s official timekeeper.

“National College didn’t hesitate when presented with the chance to be our Peak sponsor,” said Race Director Ronny Angell, who explained that the sponsorship levels were named after mountain features in honor of the peaks that mark the marathon’s first 16 miles. Angell is President of Odyssey Adventure Racing, and National College has also sponsored a series of Sprint Adventure Races through Odyssey.

“I’m pleased for National College to be a part of something that signifies health and fitness, while showcasing the Roanoke Valley,” said National College President Frank E. Longaker. National’s involvement is in keeping with its ongoing push to promote healthy living among its employees. Recently the college implemented two wellness programs. Now National College is offering to pay the entry fee of its employees at each of its 26 campuses who are interested in participating in the marathon.

Carilion Clinic and Valley Bank have taken two of the three available Overlook sponsorships. “We saw this as an opportunity to support wellness in the Valley and the region’s outdoor attractions,” said Dr. Edward Murphy, President and CEO of Carilion Clinic. Murphy said Carilion Clinic employees and others will be encouraged to walk the 13.1-mile half marathon.

Ellis L. Gutshall, President and CEO of Valley Bank echoed those thoughts. “We have a wonderful city nestled in the mountains, and this marathon showcases all of it. We feel like it’s a perfect fit for Valley Bank.”

Roanoke-based Fink’s Jewelers in partnership with Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer will be the official time keeper for the event, and will also provide watches valued at $5,000 to the overall men’s and women’s winners. “The Blue Ridge Marathon is going to be a great thing for Roanoke and I knew Fink’s needed to be a part of it. TAG Heuer is our leading timepiece for the sports enthusiast, so it was a natural fit,” said owner, Marc Fink. Fink’s will also provide a $500 gift certificate toward Tag Heuer merchandise to all participants of the event.

“We are seeing the desire of runners to come here to match themselves against this course,” said Race Co-Chair Pete Eshelman, who is also director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership one of the event’s Switchback sponsors. “We are excited that the business community is embracing our vision,” he said. Eshelman pointed out that the committee has many more sponsorships available and hoped to be making more announcements soon.

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After 3 Days of Rain Contest Winners

Pete — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:39:29 +0000

Last week we ran a contest where we asked you to share your favorite running websites. To enter you had to post the website to BOTH the Blue Ridge Marathon blog and also to the Blue Ridge Marathon Facebook Page.

To select the winners we numbered the first entry submitted as #1 and the last as #17. We then utilized an online random number generator to select three numbers at random – 3, 2, & 6.

Congratulations to Lindsey, Spencer, and Derick! We’ll email you the details.

For those of you who didn’t win we promise to continue with our random giveaways in the near future.

A Marathon in the Slow Lane…

Pete — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:01:37 +0000

We seriously doubt anyone running the Blue Ridge Marathon is going to set any personal records. Pretty sure that if you do a Boston qualifying time here you’ll win the Boston Marathon. Heck, if you qualify for the Boston Marathon on the Blue Ridge Marathon we’ll probably give you race entries for life (see us after the race). – Race Committee

Enjoy this article from the New York Times:

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: November 2, 2009

After a 10-kilometer road race this summer, a friend apologized for missing me at the finish line. The truth was, she hadn’t lost me in the crowd. She just didn’t wait long enough.

I’m a slow runner. A really slow runner. In that field of 625, I finished in 619th place

There was a time when I was embarrassed by my painfully slow pace, but not anymore. Since I began training for a marathon this spring, I’ve discovered that the view is a lot more interesting in the back of the pack.During a five-mile run in Central Park last spring, I paced alongside a double amputee who was using crutches and a single metal leg to propel himself along the course.

At the 13.1-mile Philadelphia Distance Run this fall, I spent a good part of the race alongside an athlete who jumped rope the entire way. Later, I trotted with two women wearing pink feather boas. There was also a “joggler,” someone who juggles and runs at the same time. Nearby was 81-year-old Robert Welsh of Wallingford, Pa. (He won his age group.)

My shirt that day read, “Slow Is the New Fast.”

This weekend, I was again at the back of the pack of the estimated 43,000 who participated in the New York City Marathon, and I was thrilled to be there. About five months ago, I declared that I was going to transform myself from couch potato to runner and complete a fall marathon. I trained using a combination of running and walking, a method espoused by the Olympian distance runner Jeff Galloway and now used by hundreds of thousands of runners around the country.

During my marathon, I ran next to a man wearing an Eiffel Tower costume. Several women raising money for breast cancer drew cheers from the crowds for running in their decorated bras. I also spent time alongside several members of the Achilles Track Club, for athletes with disabilities.

My marathon included four stops to hug my daughter along the route, a quick jaunt into a deli in Queens to buy a banana, and countless high fives with kids along the course. I also spent about three miles talking and walking with Maureen Donohue, 68, of Long Island, who began running at age 56 and was taking part in her 10th marathon. To train, she run-walks a five mile course near her home, takes a coffee break and heads back out again for five more miles. I found her inspiring, and so did the crowd. As we passed by, onlookers shouted, “Go, Mo, go!”

Despite their pace, back-of-the-packers still struggle with leg cramps, blisters and back spasms, and so did I. I finished my first marathon in 6 hours 58 minutes 19 seconds. I know faster marathoners are bothered by so-called plodders. A recent front-page article in my own newspaper quoted a number of marathoners to that effect, saying we had ruined the race’s mystique.

It’s true that marathons around the country are getting slower, as more charity runners and run-walkers take part. In 1980 the average marathon time was about three and a half hours for men and about four hours for women, according to Running USA. Today, the averages are 4:16 for men and 4:43 for women. About 20 percent of the participants in the New York City Marathon take longer than five hours to finish.

But the legendary gold medalist Frank Shorter says the criticisms of slow runners are “snobbery.” “You never hear that from elite runners,” he told me. “Elite runners admire other people’s performance. I find it much better to welcome slow runners to the club than to vote them out.”

Greg Meyer, who in 1983 was the last American man to win the Boston Marathon, says that when he hears such complaints from average marathoners, he replies, “If it wasn’t for the run-walkers, you wouldn’t be finishing in front of anybody.”

The main benefit of the run-walk method is that it eases your body into exercise, makes marathon training less grueling and gives muscles time to recover, reducing the risk of injury. Walk breaks are an ideal way for new runners and older, less fit and overweight people to take part in a sport that would otherwise be off limits.

The downside is that just as you are out on the marathon course about 50 percent longer than the average runner, your training time is much longer, too — four and five hours a weekend for long runs.

About 10 days before the marathon, I began to doubt my ability to finish the race. A flulike illness had sidelined me for a few weeks, and I’d missed some important training runs. I questioned whether it would be worth the effort to straggle over the finish line long after most of the runners had left.

But then, during an easy run on a trail near my house, I spotted another slow runner ahead of me. It took a moment before I realized his off-kilter gait was due to the fact that he was running on a Cheetah foot, an artificial limb that uses a flexible blade for the foot. He was young and fit, and I wanted to know his story, but didn’t stop him to ask. Instead I just watched his rhythmic run, and felt my own worries about race day fade away. It didn’t matter how fast I finished, just that I was out there, enjoying the view from the back of the pack.

After 3 days of rain we are celebrating with some free entries

Pete — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:38:22 +0000

We’ve endured 3 days of constant rain and the sun is finally poking its head out. To celebrate we are giving away a few race entries.

We’ll select a few winners at random on Monday (11/16). Here’s how you enter:

In the blog comment section below this post, list your favorite running website (be sure to include the http://)
You must also post this to the Blue Ridge Marathon Facebook Fan Page.

After running the New York City Marathon, Karen Ostergaard immediately began looking around for her next big adventure.

Pete — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:46:59 +0000

The 32-year-old mom from Asheville finished the 26.2-mile race on Nov. 1 in 3 hours, 25 minutes and 31 seconds, feeling good and strong. So she started planning for a marathon in the spring, and found the inaugural Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway, set for April 24.

“I checked out the Blue Ridge Parkway marathon online, and it sounds perfect,” Ostergaard said. “I was looking for something challenging. I love the hills.”

She should get her fill of hills at the Blue Ridge Marathon and Half-Marathon, which will both start and end in Roanoke, Va., on the northern section of the parkway, as part of the yearlong celebration of activities honoring the parkway’s 75th anniversary.

Read the entire article by Karen Chávez with Citizen-Times.com>>>

Natural Running, Barefoot Running & Efficient Running

Pete — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:09:34 +0000

Courtesy of The Running Front…

Develop efficient form with lightweight shoes and barefoot drills

The natural running movement is quickly becoming a revolution. Are you onboard yet?

Thanks to the advancement of lightweight high-performance running shoes plus a best-selling book and recent stories in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, Washington Post and National Public Radio, to name a few, the natural running movement has become quite the rage in recent months.

Natural running is running the way the human body was meant to run in its purest form — namely, barefoot — across a solid surface. That means running with good mechanics and a efficient gait that focuses on landing lightly on the midfoot/forefoot (the ball of the foot, but not the toes) and quickly lifting your foot off the ground instead of pushing off with excessive muscular force. Natural running can help make you a stronger, more efficient runner who is less prone to overuse injuries.

Tenants of natural running can be seen while running barefoot and running in lightweight or minimalist running shoes that allow your feet to develop proprioception or “feel” the ground with every step. Running barefoot on a soft lawn, wet sand or even a smooth sidewalk offers proof of your body’s natural inclination for moving across a surface with as little muscular force as possible. The same is true for minimalist running shoes on pavement, concrete or hard-packed trails.

That afferent feedback from feeling the ground encourages your body to naturally run efficiently with light footsteps, upright posture, a relaxed but consistent arm swing and a slight forward lean. Landing lightly at your midfoot/forefoot and quickly picking up your foot to start a new stride is the most effective way your body knows to propel and protect itself while running. Conversely, your body doesn’t allow you to land on your heels, especially if you’re running on a hard surface, because it isn’t engineered to accommodate the blunt force trauma of repeated heel striking. But that’s fine because landing with hard heel impacts doesn’t allow you to be efficient and run with good form.

Running barefoot in controlled circumstances can help you improve your natural running form while also strengthening smaller muscles in the feet, ankles and lower legs that are otherwise unused while running most contemporary running shoes. Many elite runners and triathletes regularly incorporate barefoot drills on soft grass surfaces into their weekly routine. However, it’s very important to implement barefoot running sessions in small doses so as not to become vulnerable to injuries caused by an over-reliance on propulsive muscles in the feet, calves and hamstrings or overstressing the plantar fascia and Achilles tendons.

Unfortunately, most contemporary running shoes have been designed for running form that encourages heavy heel striking and dampens the afferent feedback that allows the foot to sense the ground. Newton Running shoes were designed to be an extension of the feet, enhancing ground contact without the jarring impact shock of the road, sidewalk or hard-packed trail below.

Newton Running’s patented Action/Reaction Technology™ encourages natural running or a barefoot running gait and enhances the shock absorbency, leverage and energy return throughout the gait cycle. Newton’s independent lab research shows the system returns up to 28 percent more energy and reduces impact up to 44 percent when compared training and racing shoes offered by leading running brands.

Practicing natural running form can be simple, but it may take time to unlearn old habits and learn proper technique. But it also requires having the appropriate footwear to allow your body to run the way it was designed to run. Once you learn to run naturally, you’ll put yourself in position to run faster and healthier for the rest of your life.

Danny Abshire is the co-founder of Newton Running, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that makes shoes that promote an efficient midfoot/forefoot running gait. He has been making advanced footwear solutions for runners and triathletes for more than 20 years.