Congrats to Kim D. who won last week’s Giveaway for a $25 KeyPossibilities card!

This happens every January. Seemingly out of nowhere, the to-do list swells and the deadlines approach at a stunning pace. All of a sudden May 26 is “weeks away” (17 and change to be exact) rather than “months and months” away.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Six years into planning this race and you might think I’d expect it, plan for it, even. And we do. Plan for it, that is. (Remember to expect the sudden feeling of pressure, not so much.) Each year the team here at RVT pushes project plans earlier in the calendar in an attempt to get more done with more time to spare before race weekend. And it works; we’re further ahead this year than we were last and the year before that. But the funny thing about getting stuff done sooner, is that the space you created? The “extra” days? You don’t spend them sipping coffee, taking longer runs and upping your time for stretching from 5 seconds to 5 or 50 minutes. No. You add more projects, you do things bigger and better than you have in the past. Especially this year.

So here we are…January 24, 2013. Much like many of you who are kicking of training plans this week, we’re just getting started. The best is yet to come.

Before we get to today’s Giveaway, here are few important highlights from this week:

• Vote for your favorite Rookie finalist on our Facebook page. The winning Rookie will share the ups, downs and in-betweens of training for their first-ever marathon here on The RunDown. If you haven’t read the posts yet, set aside 10 minutes to laugh and be inspired, then VOTE before we close the poll this Friday at midnight.

• Erin Bancroft, Burlington VT
• Melissa Gaudio, Milton VT
• John Strout, Waterville VT
• Krysten Farrell, Burlington VT
• Kacie Desmond Meixell, South Burlington VT

• Back by popular demand, Vermont City Marathon Facebook banners! Tell the world, or at least your closest 673 friends, that you’re running VCM.





To install one of the banners on your Facebook page:

–Right click one one of the images above.
–Save to desktop.
–Click on your FB cover photo.
–Click “change photo.”
–Click “upload photo.”
–Select photo from your desktop.
–Save changes.
–Enjoy!

• The 2013 SkiRack Mizuno Pace Team is in place and ready to rock! Whether VCM is your first Marathon or your 50th, if you have a time goal in mind, our pace leaders will get you there. Every Wednesday and Friday through March we’ll introduce you to members of the pace team. Got questions about how the pace team works? Learn more here.

• Last but most certainly not least, we’re very excited to extend an invitation to all our RunDown readers to join us on Church St next Tuesday morning at 10:30am for a group photo shoot before our silver anniversary kick-off press conference.  If you’re able to sneak away from work for a few quick minutes, please do. As a part of what makes the Vermont City Marathon not just an event but a true community affair, we would love to have you be a part of  this historical photo. Details here and here.

Now for the GIVEAWAY:

Today we’re giving away a THREE-HOUR playlist. This isn’t just any playlist, but one right out of 1989, the same year The Vermont City Marathon got its start. What better way to kick-off your VCM training plan than with new old music?! The playlist includes all your ’89 favorites (thanks to everyone who responded to our Facebook post) and many of ours. We’ll gift it to you via iTunes so you can download the songs to your permanent collection.

To Enter:

Tell us: What training plan are you using to get ready for VCM? Not training for VCM? Tell us which, if any, training plan you use to prep for races.

PLEASE NOTE: In order to claim extra entries for Tweeting or FB’ing the GIVEAWAY, you must follow the rules below. Thank you!

The GIVEAWAY closes at 11:59pm Wednesday, January 30; we’ll announce the winner on Thursday, January 31.

* 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/or #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, giveaway, Green Mountain Running Medicine Shop, KBVCM, KeyBank Vermont City Marathon, marathon, pace leaders, running, RunVermont, SkiRack, This Rookie's Ramblings, thursday, Vermont