Dear Readers;

I thought perhaps we were due for another entry here since we just had our most recent Committee meeting last night.  Peter Donato at My Next Race is a long time friend of our race and we are very happy to have him back as our key marketing agent.  We have a 1st email blast through his group due tomorrow (March 29th) and with that - we will be able to announce that there are only a very few days left until our 1st price increase due on April 1st (no fooling)  .

Over recent years Mix 95.5 has done an incredible amount of local publicity for us. Adding value to our sponsorship packages and driving local participation we were excited to learn that the launch of their 2012 marketing of our event is just 6 weeks away.  Reason enough to call our Team Challenge The 95.5 Hits Fm and Cool 100 County Team Challenge.  A thank you is due to this great local media company 

In other news we have confirmed that our half marathon will be called the Remax County Half Marathon.  Remax has been a huge supporter since we started the Marathon in 2004.  If you have raced here before it is hard to miss their water stations.  The race truly works because of the role Christine Hendon (a Remax agent) fills.  She coordinates the 500 volunteers we need every year to make the race the success we believe it is.

Over the years we have focused on raising awareness for two local causes:  Wellington's CML Snider Public School Track and the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital.  With a final push in 2011 we were able to complete our role in the resurfacing of this historically significant track - when it was built in 1981 schools from across North America called and asked how it had been possible to have such an amazing track at a rural public school...the answer may then have been what it still is today...community support.  So now we are concentrating our efforts on our local hospital which really only exists because of overwhelming community support.  In light of this; there will be an additional question on our events online registration site.  You will have the chance online (but there is no obligation here) to donate to the hospital foundation where funds collected go directly to making our local hospital stronger.  Donations of $20 and above will recieve a tax donation slip from Briar (she signs them for the Foundation).

As a final note we had a call from a young man who has worked very hard to get his various training designations in place.  If you are living in the County, Belleville or Kingston areas you may want to give him a call.  Kael wants to be your personal trainer and he is at 613.661.7712.

Happy running from the County Marathon Committee and as a final aside we think you are going to really like this year's shirts (last night we decided to spend more than we planned to...but since our accountant was away we went for the top dollar item...sorry Aggie).  Lisa will probably let you know more about these custom made shirts really soon...she is all about swag.

Cheers and happy running!

Sincerely thanks for reading this! - Race D Mark and Chairman Lynne

Dear Runners;

Its a pleasure to launch this new side of our website.  From time to time, Lisa and Tim and I will be updating you on news related to the County Marathon and if you feel like responding please do. 

As an aside Tim and I recently had the chance to run the Peterborough Half Marathon .  Tim races regularly but I hadn't been in a race for about 16 years so I was happy just to finish it.  The weather was great - (we should be so lucky).  The organization of the event was also really good - after 34 years they have put together a very tight race - congratulations to them! 

But then back to us:  Lisa and our committee have been very busy preparing for this years race and I expect she will be filling you in on some of our developments/new ideas very soon.  Meanwhile, years ago when we chose the 1st weekend in October it didn't dawn on us that every 7 years we would have to move the event because of Thanksgiving.  So this year we are running later than usual and will be going head to head with the Toronto Waterfront Marathon  .  But frankly we have always felt that we were going head to head with this race since we are rarely, if ever, more than 2 weeks apart.  We will leave the choice up to you but just so you know we think our waterfront is just a little bit better.

Best wishes to you, happy running and of course there is much more to come from us in the near future.

Cheers from Race Director Mark (and my running/life partner and Chairman of the County Marathon Board - Lynne)