Marathon Day!

It's marathon day for thousands of people. Alas, not for me. I am a certified marathon coach, but after seven marathons, I'm taking a breather from actually walking it. I volunteered at the Portland Marathon Expo yesterday to soak in some of the excitement and give advice to the nervous folks facing those 26.2 miles.

• Lessons Learned Walking My Seventh Marathon
• How Not to Train for a Marathon
• And here's a funny one from The Onion: I'm Training to Ruin a Marathon

I like shopping through the marathon expo. Here are some cool items I saw.

• MyRaceDayDVD.com: A personalized video of your marathon! Complete with an interview with you, narration, your speed and distance and footage of YOU at 20 waypoints along the route. How cool is that? I may have to walk it next year to get this!
• Mon-Tees: The truest and funniest marathon t-shirt ever is their Marathoner's Check List. It's worth waiting for them to restock it, as it appears to be sold out. They have shirts with great logos for marathoners, half marathoners and triathletes in dry performance fabric, performance lux fabric, and cotton.
• CampusQuilt.com: What to do with your old race t-shirts? I have this problem. I don't wear them but can't bear to part with the memories. Here's a real deal - a lap quilt of nine t-shirts is only $129, and it goes up to a King Size quilt of 49 squares for $419. Turnaround time is only 2-3 weeks. What a great holiday gift idea!
• Coeur d'Alene to Sandpoint Walk Relay: A new relay for 2009 in northern Idaho, August 14-15. Unlike other walk relays, this one actually is set up for two walkers of a 12-person team to walk together for each leg, each pair doing three legs over a 100 mile course.

Photo © Wendy Bumgardner. The marathon checklist is trademarked by Mon-Tees, image used with permission.