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Blogs, forums, route planner, and pace-calculator features designed to enhance training experience
TORONTO. (May 20th, 2008) – Participants preparing for this year’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Half & 5K on September 28th now have the opportunity to interact online to ask questions, share opinions and news, plan training routes and calculate the pace required to achieve their goals. Through a partnership with realbuzz.com, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront launched its online community today, as “Cool Training Tools” at www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com.. The initiative represents another “first” for a Canadian marathon, and reinforces the event’s leading edge position, adding to its prestige as one of only five IAAF Silver Label marathons in all of the Americas.
Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon’s online community now features blogs, forums, route planners and pace calculators to help enhance the training and race preparation experience for all runners. The launch is timed to coincide with the beginning of in-person training Clinics at more than 40 Running Room stores across Canada in May and June, where the event has been designated as “Running Room’s national Feature Fall Marathon.” For those unable to get to a Running Room store Clinic, the event is also offering an online training programme designed by Runner’s World columnists John “The Penguin” Bingham and Coach Jenny Hadfield.
“We’re delighted to partner with realbuzz.com, offer ‘Cool Training Tools’--another ‘first’ for Canadian marathons,” said Race Director Alan Brookes. “I think everyone knows what an outstanding, flat, fast, elite race we have as Canada’s fastest marathon; but from the outset, we’ve always wanted every runner know that they’re important to us, whether they’re running 2:10 or 6:10; whether they’re in the 42k, the 21k or the 5k. The Waterfront is about a “life experience”, and we want all our runners to know that we’re with them every step of the way, every day, on their remarkable journey.”
The blog feature is a way for runners and walkers to journal their personal experience in an “online diary” type format. Additionally, bloggers can use the site’s training log function to track their runs and record information about weather, course conditions and other relevant information. Depending on the preference of the blogger, the blogs can be either private or shared with the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront marathon community.
The forum feature provides an interactive online community for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon events, that allows runners and walkers to share information amongst themselves about the race, training, helpful advice and other event-related questions. Athletes that are new to the event or have participated in each of the previous 8 races, as well as international visitors, can ask questions and share opinions in real time.
The training route planner provides an opportunity for runners and walkers to map and share training runs virtually, instead of having to drive the route or guess their mileage. The service is offered free to the running community and uses detailed interactive maps and satellite images. Runners can also plan and save running routes for future reference. As runners save their routes, they can also search for other routes based on postal codes and cities in order to find running routes when they travel or visit a new area.
The Cool Training Tools package is brought to the Toronto Waterfront through a partnership with the online company Realbuzz.com . Realbuzz.com is the UK’s most popular lifestyle and community online networking site, aimed at individuals interested in running, fitness and nutrition. They are also major partners with the Flora London Marathon.
For more information on the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, entry, Clinics or to start using the new training features, visit www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com.
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