Quick Chicago Skate?

A little late notice, but I wanted to quick point out the inaugural Chicagoland Inline Marathon on Saturday, July 21, hoping for some Twin Cities representation. Some reasons to do the skate:

1) They gladly accept old, huff-n-puff recreational skaters like myself

2) It sounds like the course is pretty flat and fast

3) Registration is only 40 bucks (before July 19th)

4) If you decide to stay Saturday night, you can probably find something to do. Hey, you’re near Chicago!

5) The marathon is in Mundelein, a far northwest Chicago suburb which cuts down driving time and has plenty of affordable lodging. You could actually leave after work Friday and make it in time. Race packets are picked up the morning of the race

They do have a ten mile option, too.

I can’t go down there without geekin’ out, and will bring the Mac down to do some blogging. Hopefully I’ll get to chat with some who helped put the event together and how they’ve been able to market it.

Anyone?… Bueller?

Update: July 20, 2007 - At the Mundelein hotel right now, not much to do in this town unless you golf (really, golf courses are everywhere!), but the hotel’s Karma Lounge is really sleek and cool. The food and presentation is fantastic!

Cassette Adapter for your iPhone?

I just came across an interesting iPhone accessory. It’s a cassette adapter for your car.

I’m guessing they don’t sell a ton of these, although it looks like it’s been an iPod accessory for quite some time.

Discount Tire, Co. Wishes my Sis & Bro-in-Law a Happy 10-Year Wedding Anniversary

Well, indirectly anyway.

Many know that I’m a fan of real online user reviews, both as a marketer and as a consumer. Bear with me. There’s a point. Really!

Late this morning I took off to Rochester to take pictures and help my sis & bro-in-law celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary, but wound up running over something on I94 in St. Paul that ruined my right-rear tire. I got off the freeway and slapped the spare donut on, but there was no way I was driving to Rochester with that thing.

I wasn’t far from a Discount Tire location, and drove there since I bought new tires from them a few months ago. Great news, they had a replacement! Bad news, it’s a sale weekend and there was a 2+ hour wait. Judging from the “oh, f%$&” look I had on my face, they asked me what was up and I explained my situation. They basically said they’d see what they could do.

I’m guessing customers often come into these places and artificially embellish reasons why they neeeeed their work done right away. Since I was dressed in scrubs and literally brought my dress clothes in to change in their restroom, they probably realized I was actually in a hurry and wasn’t hoping for a rush just because I was some snob making up a story who didn’t want to wait.

Under a half hour later they called my name saying it was finished! Thanks Ben (I’m guessing that’s the name, it was on his uniform)! I literally made it to Rochester just in time to put my bad photo taking skills to work. Winds up my bro-in-law Bob likes to prepare in style.

Ok, the user review part. Because of Discount Tire taking care of me, I was luckily able to get there in the knick of time. I appreciate that and posted a user review on Yahoo Local. Hopefully others will see it and view that as a potential positive user experience for themselves.

…and we had a great time at the Hubbell House in Mantorville, MN, and I uploaded a small Flickr set. There are a bunch more pictures, but they’re reserved for the fam.

Favorite Blogs/Posts of the Week

It’s kind of a random time of the week for this, but that’s ok.

Bretton Jones has a newer political blog labeled MinneaPolitics.com. He’s a self-described former political anarchist. I like that! What I don’t like is die-hard card-carrying left/right wingers telling me how I should think.

Bretton’s blog lets me make my own decisions as he’s interviewed both donkeys and elephants. It sounds like he has something in the works with Al Franken too, and I’m looking forward to it!

Between Bretton and his wife Christy, their online marketing minds can blow a person away.

Larry Sullivan from the Local Biz Bits blog contacted me last week regarding local search. He asked me a few questions about user reviews and was cool enough to include them in a post. He also posts quite a bit on mobile search. It’s one of those things that I should dive into more, but haven’t as of yet.

Jennifer Laycock from Search Engine Guide provides great input on how to update your Google Maps business listing. It’s a fresh insight for anyone unfamiliar with it. Jennifer, if you read this, I’m not slacking. I’m just wishing there was 30 hours in a day.

Last but not least, we’ll miss you David Temple! If there’s a way and time for me to visit you in Singapore, I’m there!

Currently on iTunes: Accidents Waiting to Happen - 12 Rods

Google Mapping the 2007 St. Paul Inline Marathon

Update: Even with all the rain, the St Paul inline marathon was a huge success! Here are the race results, and a Flickr photo set I took of the weekend.

It’s been awhile now that Google has allowed you to create your own custom Google map. It’s really slick, it takes a little time to get used to, and I hope to get better at it while improving on my first one.

The St. Paul Inline Marathon (SPIM) takes place on August 19th up and down Shepard and Warner Road in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I created a map for it. Some notes:

Green Box = Starting Line
Orange Box = Finish Line
Blue Boxes = 1st Lap Mile Markers
Maroon Boxes = 2nd Lap Mile Markers
Black Box = Split Mark
Push Pins = Water Spots and Medical Aid Centers
Red Lines = Rough Roads

Here’s a Google Maps link that lets you get all interactive.

For the five-wheel, lycra-wearing skaters, this doesn’t mean too much to you. This year it sounds like there will be a ton of first-time skaters though (I was one last year), and this can hopefully provide some course insight.

I can’t imagine people who actually run 26.2 miles and have mad respect for anyone who does. Just skating it is a challenge for me, and here are some tips for first-time skating marathoners:

1) Drinking Mountain Dew before the race is not smart (from self experience). Drinking a half or full liter of Gatorade is smart. There are porta potties in the warm up area, or you can just sweat it out during the marathon.

2) Cramping up sucks. Grab water whether you are thirsty or not. There are wonderful volunteers at many spots that stick their arms out with bottled water so you can grab one on the fly.

3) Draft behind strangers that you feel you can keep pace with.

4) Acknowledge anonymous fans cheering you on. They have the easy part.

5) Buy new wheels and Abec 5+ bearings a week before the marathon, and put five or ten miles on them to loosen them up.

6) There’s a side trail that literally parallels the course. It can be bumpy, but it can get you used to the hills on Shepard Road (anything west of 35E is basically too bumpy for inline skates).

7) If you get some longer skates in beforehand, find out where you blister up. Then, buy some moleskin padding (in your normal grocery store or Target, either in the bandage or foot care area) and cover yourself up.

In the meantime, check out some of the SPIM sponsors.

Most importantly, enter the event and have fun!

2nd Annual Lawn Dice Tourney

Non business related, but it was fun to go to Matt and Mike’s 2nd annual lawn dice tourney/party. For the second year in a row, I got knocked out right away.

Too bad, because the trophy is pretty cool.

Longboards (long skateboards which is good cardio for bike/inline skate trails) were brought there too. My buddy Dave shot a quick video with my point-n-shoot. The vid and audio quality isn’t great since it’s from a point-n-shoot, but this guy (Pete) can tear it up on a snowboard.

Welcome City Pages Readers!

Way cool. Thanks to the City Pages for making this the MN Blog of the Day. I’m a pretty big CP fan and reference their different articles quite often.

Plus, I’m in great company - right between mentions of a condom bar in India and their links for “Time Wasters”.

I mentioned this a few posts below, but a few of us are trying to grow something we’re initially dubbing Blogger Hour. Since the City Pages recognizes a boatload of MN bloggers, why not get people away from their monitors for awhile? I’m gettin’ “Cabin Fever-itis”.

Cool, urban watering hole? Favorite suburba-name-your-favorite-chain-restaurant/grill? Dunno. Date/Time? Dunno. Any thoughts? Just drop a comment. Bloggers meet up, eat, drink and be merry! Ed from The Deets will pick up the tab. Really. He told me so… ok I’m lying.

Blogger Hour - Calling All Twin Cities & Minnesota Bloggers!

A few of us met tonight at the Ridgedale Champps over dinner on what we initially dubbed “blogger hour”. It was basically myself plus the cool minds of Aaron Weiche and Patrick Schaber.

It was fun. We enjoyed a dinner and a drink, chatted about stuff like podcasts, RSS, video marketing, Twitter, beer, endurance sports that only Aaron’s wife can pull off, etc. I certainly got to learn a few of those things that I should just automatically know.

Then we thought “why not expand this?”. There are a lot of great bloggers in the area. The City Pages does have a small list of them (ok, HUGE list). It would be a great way to meet new people while getting to blog-talk whether it’s about marketing, techy, blogging in general, or most importantly, just about “stuff”.

Aaron and Patrick may post about this as well. Any takers?

Favorite Posts/Blog/Article of the Week

This strays from “just” the favorite posts of the week, but it has the same idea.

From the Technology Evangelist: Is There a Market for a Twitter Time Clock? - In the search marketing world, I’m in the minority by thinking that Twitter actually has some useful features and benefits. It doesn’t just have to be about where your friends are eating lunch.

Office Supplies Blog - A look into the blog from BuyOnlinenow.com. Winds up that content regarding office supplies can be very informative, compelling, and even funny. Milton?

Super Lawyers, Unmasked - I have my own opinions, but this article from City Pages is fantastic! I’m thinking user-generated-content now, but that’s for a different day. I had no idea that the Super Lawyers concept came from Minnesota!

Currently on iTunes: The Chauffeur - Deftones (originally by Duran Duran)

Happy Mother’s Day…

… to all the Moms out there (a couple days early).

I’ll most likely go to Rochester on Sunday to see my Mom, Sister, and Niece to wish them a happy day.

This has been out there for a couple years, but it never stops being funny.