Next weekend, Saturday May 9th is the 3rd annual Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon and 2-Person Relay. The race is sold out but you can still come to Santa Barbara and be athletic – do a bike ride thru wine country with me on Friday, the day before the race.

http://www.runsantaynez.com

Wine Country Half Marathon
“Course Preview” Cycling Tour
with Bart Yasso of Runners World

   
Friday, May 8^th, 2009
Half Marathon “Course Preview” Cycling Tour w/Lunch includes:

• Two Hour Leisure Guided Cycling Tour along the route of the Wine Country Half Marathon
• Professional Tour Guides
• Gourmet Picnic Lunch & Wine Tasting at Rusack Winery.
• Includes guest host Bart Yasso, author, endurance athlete, and Travel Writer from Runners World Magazine.
• Bike rentals with helmet & custom water bottles also included
• SAG vehicle & mechanical support available
• Distance = 18 miles; flat with some rolling hills.
• Rate = $120.00/person

Cycling Tour Itinerary (with Gourmet Picnic Lunch)

• 11:30 AM

•  
  • Meet at Santa Barbara Wine Country Cycling Tours (SBWCCT) store in Santa Ynez for bike fitting and ride description.
  • Depart on Cycling Tour from race start line in Santa Ynez.
  • Ride along country roads before we reach the quaint town of Los Olivos.   Our ride will continue up a short hill before we descend into the beautiful
  • Ballard Canyon past vineyards and cattle ranches. 
     

• 12:30 PM

•  
  • Arrive at Rusack Winery along Ballard Canyon Road for a gourmet picnic lunch under the shade of the Valley Oak trees on the wood deck over looking the vineyard. 
    
  •  Bart Yasso of Runners World Magazine will share running experiences and discuss tips for running this course during lunch at Rusack.
     
  • Lunch is followed by wine tasting.
     
  • After lunch we will continue a few more miles down Ballard Canyon into Solvang to cross the finish line on Copenhagen Dr. in downtown Solvang and stop in Solvang Park for a quick breather and refreshment.

• 1:30 PM

•  
  • Arrive back at Santa Barbara Wine Country Cycling Tours (SBWCCT) store in Santa Ynez. 
     

Half Marathon “Course Preview” Afternoon Cycling Tour includes:

• Two Hour Leisure Guided Cycling Tour  along the route of the Wine Country Half Marathon
• Professional Tour Guides
• Bike rentals with helmet & custom water bottles also included
• SAG vehicle & mechanical support available
• Distance = 18 miles; flat with some rolling hills.
• Rate = $70.00 / per person

• 2:30 PM

•  
  • Meet at Santa Barbara Wine Country Cycling Tours (SBWCCT) store in Santa Ynez for bike fitting and ride description.
  • Depart on Cycling Tour from race start line in Santa Ynez.
  • Ride along country roads before we reach the quaint town of Los Olivos.   Our ride will continue up a short hill before we descend into the beautiful
  • Ballard Canyon past vineyards and cattle ranches.
  • We will continue a few more miles down Ballard Canyon into Solvang to cross the finish line on Copenhagen Dr. in downtown Solvang and stop in Solvang Park for a quick breather and refreshment.

• 4:00 PM

•  
  • Arrive back at Santa Barbara Wine Country Cycling Tours (SBWCCT) store in Santa Ynez.

 MAKE YOUR RESERVATION TODAY!

To make your reservation contact Corey or Tim at: (888) 557-8687 
or e-mail  info1@winecountrycycling.com

Registration to “Wine Country Half Marathon” is not included and must be done through 
www.destinationraces.com .

The third annual Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon returns to the Santa Ynez Valley this May 2008, by Destination Races.  Located in a spectacular setting within the wine country; this event features a scenic course through rolling hills alongside the majestic San Rafael Mountains. The race starts in Santa Ynez and passes through the town of Los Olivos before finishing on Copenhagen Street in historic Solvang for the Wine & Music Festival. For more information, visit:www.destinationraces.com

This is a piece by Mark Remy on Runner’s World Online, http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/  

April 07, 2009

iPhone Apps: Have We Been Trying Too Hard?

Mark Remy In case you haven’t heard, apps are white hot. (No, not this kind of app. This kind.) Apple has sold approximately 900 jillion iPhone apps to date, and roughly 3 jillion new apps are being added every single day. Just in the time it takes you to read the phrase “iPhone apps,” according to our estimates, 320 million new apps were created. Feeling overwhelmed yet? So are we. In fact, we here at Runner’s World are feeling so overwhelmed that we don’t even have any apps for sale yet. We’re working on that. But I’m starting to wonder if we aren’t overthinking this iPhone app thing. All along, we’ve been working on the assumption that our apps should be, you know, useful. For instance: an app that creates a marathon training plan for you, then imports it into your calendar, then reminds you when it’s time to run and, oh yeah, that you also might be due for a new pair of shoes, and, hey, click here for a list of specialty running retailers in or near your zip code, and yadda yadda. What a bunch of chumps we are. Apparently, according to articles like this one in The New York Times, the hottest iPhone apps are the simple, goofy ones. Like iSteam. iSteam — and we’re not making this up — is an app that makes your iPhone’s screen appear to fog over. Wipe a finger across it, and you “clear” a path, complete with squeaky sound effects. Three guys created this app in seven days. According to The Times, “they made more than $100,000 in three months.” Which got me thinking that there has gotta be a Runner’s World equivalent. Say hello to iBart. iBart is a new iPhone app that, for the low, low price of $1.99, puts RW’s own Bart Yasso on your iPhone. What does Bart do on your iPhone? Hey, you’re lookin’ at it. I mean, come on… It’s Bart! On your iPhone! For less than two bucks! While you fish your credit card out of your wallet, I’ll get back to work on our next iPhone app. I can’t give out details just yet, but let’s just say it’s called “iAmby.”

Eight years ago today was a beautiful and unseasonably warm day in Casoli, Italy where Laura and I were married in her grandparent’s hometown village with 27 friends and famiglia in tow. Today, we celebrated, just the two of us, at a local Indian restaurant. Laura had a quilt made for me  - using t-shirts from my favorite races including Badwater, Smoky Mountain Marathon and various Ironmans. Here’s a photo Laura took of me under the quilt and our cat on top of it. (A shout out to runner Jackie Kelly of Tennessee for her amazing work on the quilt. Nobody makes better t-shirt quilts than Jackie.) Mojave never slept on the couch when other blankets were there but he does now – he loves this quilt for some reason.