Congrats to Sam who won last week’s GIVEAWAY.  I have to admit: I thought even more of you would enter for the chance to win the plastic equivalent of cash. I knew I was taking a risk by asking you to do ‘real’ homework and read the Handbook, though. On the flip side, it made my communications heart very happy to see so that quite a few of you read the medical information and especially the details about managing heat. If you’re running KBVCM and haven’t read the handbook yet, please do. In fact, do it twice…once now and once again a few days before the race.

Many of you might recall that several years ago we made a decision to remove all paper products from our race bags.  It wasn’t a tough decision; I knew that the first thing I did when I got a race bag was empty out all the fliers to get the good stuff, and based on what we saw in the trash barrels (and often the floor) at the Sport & Fitness EXPO, I wasn’t alone. That said, we knew that local businesses and organizations were eager to have the opportunity to reach our runners, so we created an “e-bag.” The e-bag was basically a web-page with hyper-linked coupons and pdfs from our sponsors and other folks who want you to know about them. Well, the e-bag was fun while it lasted, but what we heard from our runners is that it took too many clicks to get to the coupons, the discounts didn’t feel big enough or targeted enough. So, we’re trying something else.

From now through the marathon, our sponsors and other folks we really like will be bringing you special offers here on the blog. (Not in the form of advertising. Think a little text and a lot of give.) The blog gives the business the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about what they do, but perhaps even better for you, in addition to a coupon or KBVCM-specific offer, you’ll have the opportunity to won something real and valuable; in some cases that something will be worth hundreds of dollars or taste really, really good.  Shortly before the big event, I’ll compile all the posts that fall in to this category into a single post so you have all the info in one place should you wish to return to it. I hope you like what you see, and that you’ll tell us if you don’t.

Today is not one the aforementioned posts, however.  Today we’re giving away 2 official KBVCM cowbells and a whole lot of SUNSCREEN. Yeah, ok, so temps are due to fall back to more seasonal levels, but before we know it we’ll all be running around in shorts again and realizing that our sunscreen expired last year.  So, here’s what one lucky winner can look forward to:

You’ll want to pass the cowbells and a bottle of the sunscreen off to two of your most adoring to fans in preparation for cheering you on at KBVCM. (Because you ARE registered for KBVCM, right? You’re not being silly and waiting until the last minute, are you? Discounted pricing ends April 1 [no joke] and really, you can’t don’t want to risk getting shut out.)

To Enter:

I was inspired this morning by this post on a local runner Sarah’s blog, Daily Nibbles. I don’t know Sarah personally, but I know she is training for KBVCM and that she loves food and photos. I also now know that she likes the effects of chia seeds.

Tell us what you know about chia seeds. (Don’t know anything? That’s ok, I don’t either. Just say so.)

The GIVEAWAY closes at 11:59pm Wednesday, March 28; we’ll announce the winner on Thursday, March 29.

* If you’re a follower of The Run Down, tell us so in an additional comment. (If you’re not a follower, subscribe using the RSS feed on top right of the blog and then leave a comment telling us you did it.)

* Tweet about the giveaway using hashtags #rvt and #vcm and leave one additional comment.

That’s right; you have the opportunity to get 4 entries into this giveaway!  (If you choose to take advantage of the extra entries be sure to submit an additional comment for each one.)

Tagged as: 26.2, Burlington, chia seeds; daily nibbles; sunscreen; cow bell, giveaway, KBVCM, KeyBank Vermont City Marathon, marathon, running, RunVermont, thursday, training, Vermont