Poster boy

A month later and I still crack up when I see this. Yeah, that's me in this advertisement promoting the 2011 Georgia Marathon. And if this ad in any small way makes you want to register for next year's race, you can click here to sign up!

Up for a Challenge

Once again, I'm trying to raise money for the American Cancer Society, but this time, I'm not asking anyone for money, just their support as loyal fans!

Let me explain. I entered the Movement Challenge, a contest sponsored by New Balance and Rodale publications that according to its web site, "combines the excitement of racing, the fun of a running community, and the passion for a cause you care about into an exciting Movement for social awareness."

To make a long story short, I'm trying to win a $25,000 donation from Rodale and New Balance to the ACS, as well as a full-page public service announcement that will be published in Runner's World, Running Times, Women's Health and Men's Health sometime in 2011.

All participants must score points by doing one of the four things: A. Run races and rack up mileage (every mile gets you 100 points). B. PR for the year in a race (that gets you a 500-point bonus). C. Recruit fellow runners to join the Challenge (if they cut and paste the referral code from your profile page into the referral space on their applications when they sign up, you get 100 points), and D. Get fans to sign up to the Challenge as fans (10 points each per fan).

So the key here obviously is to run races and kick enough ass to PR in them. Right now, I'm 12th in the competition, but I have a heavy race schedule this fall that features two marathons, two or three half marathons, and a lot of my favorite ones scattered over a 3 1/2-month span. I looked at the people ahead of me in the Challenge and something inside me tells me that I have a good chance to overtake a lot of them, so we'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'd love to recruit as many runners or fans as possible. If you are a runner who wants to take a stab at this Challenge, then please, please use my referral code -- 0e07d093-7264-4b6b-9e0d-e6abcae505f4 -- because I'm going to need ALL THE HELP I can get!

Speaking of marathons, it looks like Hartford's going to be a go for October. I've picked up some serious mileage over the past couple of weeks, and after Labor Day, I got a couple of very long runs lined up.

As for Marathon No. 2, there's a 90-95 percent chance that it could be in another country, actually a faraway island called Barbados in early December. Eighty-one out of 128 runners finished it and 55 finished in under five hours, so if I pull a royal stinker a la Boston the past two years, I still have a chance at a top-50 marathon finish!