Ed: OK. So live blogging didn't go as planned

Not sure what happened or why. That's to be looked into later...the bottom line is that for some reason nothing worked on the road (well, except for reliable Twitter). I'll figure out why it happened and fix it...for next time.

Did you catch that? Next time!

I'll write a post-run note when I have a moment, but I did take a little time to put together a quick little teaser trailer of this amazing weekend. When the collaborative media gets all assembled, we'll put something together to sum up what a wonderful weekend that was.

Thanks to Amy Bleich and her amazing support folks (shout out to Kandace and Vicky!) for keeping us safe, fed, and hydrated this weekend!

Ed: Live Blogging

Alrighty...this is unashamed nerdiness!

I've decided to try my hand at live mobile blogging to make sure the technology works. Right now I am at the starting point for Friday's run, captured my location on my iPhone's GPS, and am sending up an image from here...if all works as advertised we should be able to update along our route for those interested in following our progress Friday and Saturday.

Oh, and for our coordinator Amy Bleich, I'm here to get my required reflective vest so you'll let me run!

I almost feel like a real St Jude runner!!

...soon to be filled with runners and supporters:






...here's to hoping this works!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Boardwalk Dr,Champaign,United States

Ed: Days away...and our route!

It's been more than a week since I've taken some time to blog. Been busy, but still running in preparation. I ran my last training run on Tuesday, and was happy enough with the result. I managed to run non-stop for 33 minutes, and although again not a blistering pace--it will do.

I did take some time to take our route and plot it out on Google Maps. Each of the St. Jude icons represents a relay stop for us. The distance and arrival times are noted at each. For any of the St. Jude runners who wish to share this with your families--please do! They'll be able to get a better idea of where we will be along the way  (thanks to our coordinator, Amy Bleich, for her hard work in driving this route and checking it out for safety!).


You can zoom in on the route (or open the route in another window using the link below the image), and each icon can be clicked to tell you how far we will have run, and what time we expect to arrive at that location.
For the really geeky (fist bump to you), you can download this Google Earth .kmz file and take a spin around the route in 3D! For the non-geeks, clicking on the "Earth" option in the top right will do just about the same thing. I've also embedded a Google Earth tour that you should only have to click the play button to see our route--depending on your computer and plug-in settings. I've even set the controls so that you can pause the tour and take a look around using the navigation bar on the right side. What's sorta cool (if this actually works on your computer), is that the tour takes 17 minutes, and represents traveling at 350 miles an hour (for those who have been following my blogs, you should know that is actually 352.941176470588235 miles an hour). Feel free to hit the fast forward.
...but as you zip through at whatever speed, consider that for the runners, this will take over 20 hours to complete. The butterflies are starting to flutter a bit...

View St. Jude Champaign-Peoria Run 2011 in a larger map