The Race of Truth: adidas Urban Run 5K

This Monday will be the first adidas Urban Run 5K. If successful, I plan on having this event on the first Monday of every month.

Please follow the procedure for the 5K:

-Go to the adidas Sport Performance Store to sign in with Warren.
-Change and store clothes/bags in fitting room.
-Jog/warmup to start from adidas Store to Ferry Building @ 6:30PM
-Meet me at Ferry Building to check in for the 5K.
-Start 5K at 6:45PM!!

Since there's a Giants game on August 4th, this will be the 5K course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2103287 . This 5K race route will ONLY be used when AT&T Park is having an event. It is an out-and-back course with the start/finish at the Ferry Building and the turnaround at the corner of Taylor St/Jefferson St. (It is also helpful to view Google Maps -Street View.)

*Note-You may also choose to do a 10K, but you must self-time and return to store on your own. But let me know before you start. 10K route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2078807

**I will time and record all participants with my stopwatch. I may forget your time so please remember your time if you can. After 7:30PM, I will head back to store; 5K runners still on course must run/walk to store after time cutoff. ALL runners/walkers cooldown/jog slowly to adidas Sport Performance Store for food/refreshments after event.

The distance on the course map may seem a little long, but if you take the tangents and cut the course, the distance will be more precise.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at adidassfurbanrun@hotmail.com

adidas Urban Run SF - July 28, 2008

Course - Telegraph Hill/Grant Ave ~3.63 Miles

-Start at adidas Sport Performance Store
-Market St.
-Left on Battery St.
-Left on Filbert St.
-Continue up stairs to Telegraph Hill
-Go to top, around traffic circle, and down Telegraph Hill/Lombard Street
-Left on Grant Ave
-Right on Union St.
-Left on Columbus
-Right on Grant Ave.
-Right on Market St.
-Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2103237

* Remember that it's RAFFLE MONDAY!!
** adidas Urban Run 5K will be on Aug 4th. The course map will be posted next week with instructions, race timing, and logistics.

adidas Urban Run SF - July 21, 2008

Course - Tale of Two Tunnels (Broadway and Stockton) ~ 4.4 Miles

-Start at adidas Sport Performance Store
-Powell St
-Left on Post St.
-Right on Webster St.
-Right on Broadway --> Broadway Tunnel
-Right on Stockton --> Stockton Tunnel
-Right on Market St.
-Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2099184

* Just a reminder that the adidas Urban Run 5K/10K will be held on August 4th!

Innovation of Olympic Proportion

Take Adidas, for example: With just two years until the opening ceremonies in China, the German giant was struggling to conjure a new track spike for its star Texan runner, the 400-meter gold medalist Jeremy Wariner. After watching hours of super-slow-motion footage of Wariner's quirky gait, the company decided to replace his Pookie spike, which helped Wariner win in Athens (and nearly every 400-meter race he has entered since). Called Lone Star and sporting a crown insignia to signify Wariner's leadership in the sport, the new shoe has the following unorthodox feature: It lists to port.
"Most middle-distance races are won in the turns," explains Mic Lussier, the French-Canadian leader of the Adidas Innovation Team, or aIT, which developed the shoe. And track runners never, ever turn to the right. So Lussier's 50 biomechanical engineers, industrial designers and electromechanical experts set about making asymmetrical spikes for Wariner. The skewed shoes would be founded on ultralight carbon plates made of microscopic nanotubes 20 times stronger than steel. And they would "redirect the line of force that loads on the outside of his right foot," Lussier says, "and send it inward, toward his big toe." In other words, Wariner's new right shoe would accelerate to the left.
"The idea is based on the same asymmetrical suspension you see in a Nascar stock car," Lussier says. "It's really quite amazing."

You can read the whole article here: http://tech.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8203203&page=2

adidas Urban Run SF - Bastille Day

Okay, so we don't have a French themed route for Monday. But we do go around a dog park, does that count?

Duboce Park 5 Mile

-Start at adidas Sport Performance Store
-Powell St.
-Left on Post St.
-Left on Scott St.
-Left on Waller St.
-Right on Carmelita St
-Through Duboce Park
-Left onto Duboce Ave
-Continue on Duboce via bike path (Do not run into streetcar tunnel!) :)
-Left onto Market St.
-Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2069072

Duboce Park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duboce_Park

Next week's run: The Wiggle

adidas Urban Run SF - July 7, 2008

ROUTE - AT&T Park (4.8 miles)
-Start at the adidas Sport Performance store
-Right on Market Street
-Right on The Embarcadero (later King Street)
-Turn around at the corner of King and 3rd Street (Willie Mays statue at the AT&T Park)
-Left on Market Street
-Finish at the adidas Sport Performance store

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1141173

Congratulations to Henry Ho for winning a pair of adidas Supernova Control in the June raffle!

*Does anyone have a Bastille Day themed route for next Monday?