Running Without Music

Exxxxxtreme Tag

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under interesting

Wanna play tag? These guys ran, climbed jumped through the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. This technique is called Parkour, which is the “activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.” You’ve seen this technique in commercials, movies (Casino Royale), and even video games (Assassin’s Creed).

Westside LA TNT Summer Season

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under experiences, training

The Westside LA Chapter of Team in Training is now accepting participants! I will be the Web Captain for this season and I can’t wait to get started! If you’re interested, below is where you can get more information.

• San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon- May 31st
• Mayor’s Marathon and Half Marathon Alaska- June 20th
• Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon- June 27th

Please join us for one of our upcoming information meetings to learn more about our fundraising and training program.

Upcoming information meetings:

Tuesday, January 13th at 7:00 pm
Sporteve
3849 Main St, Culver City

Sunday, January 18th at 10:30 am
Niketown
9560 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills

Wednesday, January 21st at 6:30 pm
Will and Ariel Durant Library
7140 W. Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood

Sunday, January 24th at 10:30 am
Montana Branch Library
1704 Montana Ave, Santa Monica

If you cannot attend the meeting or would like more information about Team In Training please contact Kristen McManus at (310) 846-4727.

Together we are saving lives one mile at a time!

Ugly Sweater Party

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under fundraising

Themed parties are always fun. Here’s an idea for an interesting one for the holidays. Do the usual donation at the door, discounted if you dress up. You can host it at your own house or apartment, or at a bar or club, depending on your budget. What should you have inside the party? A DJ of course, playing some dance tunes of the 80s and 90s keeping the theme fun. Maybe you could get someone to sponsor or donate a photobooth, which seem to be a very successful goodie at weddings or small dances. Have a silent auction to help boost donations, or opportunity drawings of even more prizes. You could even have ANOTHER ugly sweater as a prize to make it interesting. At the end of the night, announce an Ugly Sweater winner for the night, with some grand prize. Be sure to market that prize when you start promoting your event, too. If you end up throwing one of these, let me know how it goes!

TNT in the Washington DC News

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under videos

Here’s a TNT news segment on “Living Well” on WUSA9 from Washington DC Team In Training. Good to see TNT get this kind of exposure.

Read the full article here.

Selling Pieces of Yourself

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under fundraising

A few days ago, I posted about auctioning yourself off. Last night, after a few hours of researching for my Web Captain position, I came across a participant from TNT’s blog. Her name is Kim and is training for the Disney World Half Marathon in Orlando, Florida.

Kim is selling pieces of herself. Yes, it sounds a little weird, but she explains herself. If you donate $100, she will write your name on that body part. Think of it as a sponsorship. What body parts?

Right Arm
Left Arm
Right leg
Left leg
Right Breast
Left Breast (sold not exclusive)
Right check
Left check
Belly
Back

I think this is a very interesting idea, and I think it might work especially with some close friends and relatives. Would you like to donate? You can help her out here.

Be Creative

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under fundraising, videos

Just when you thought there’s no other options, there is always another option. Some of you may feel this at the end of your fundraising efforts, but look outside the box sometimes – ask alumni, go to forums, Facebook groups, MySpace groups, or just Google it.

Progression of Challenges

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under experiences

My first EVER athletic event was a 5k WALK for diabetes. I didn’t think anything of it back then, but seriously, I had a hard time doing that. A few years ago, my friend got me to run around the block a few times with her, and it was hell! It was probably only a mile. Seeing how poorly I ran, I decided to sign up for the Nike Run Hit Remix 5 Miler. The only training I did was on a treadmill. I finished that (with a very bad time), but I wanted something more. So I signed up for the Long Beach Half Marathon. I was semi-dedicated, still treadmill training. When I finished that, I thought to myself, if I could do a half, I could do a full!

That’s when I signed up for TNT and my life changed from there. I’m always setting new goals for myself. The first season was to FINISH. The second was to help others. The third was to break my PR (personoal record). I’ll be back one more year, but I’m contemplating on an even greater challenge for 2010, a triathlon. I don’t know how to swim, I haven’t rode a bike in YEARS.

I guess I understand why people do some of the more extreme endurance events, like the Ironman Triathlon, or the AIDS Life cycle from SF to LA, or even ultra marathons of 50 or 100 miles. They probably started off like me, and just accomplished each goal that they achieve.

Here’s a sport preview of a film called “Indulgence“, following the training of an ultra marathoner Anton (Tony) Krupicka.

I’m a TNT Web Captain / Mentor!

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under experiences

A few days ago, I was notified that I got accepted to be a Team In Training Web Captain / Mentor! Wonder what that slash is for? I guess I’m a hybrid position because captains are not supposed to have any mentees, but I will (but half as many as the other mentors). I get the best of both worlds I guess.

What does a Web Captain do? Basically I will create and update the team’s website such as: team news, staff bios, fundraising, information about the cause, links, events, and more. In the next few weeks I will be working hard to redesign the site (as with Running Without Music’s layout), but not only just the design, but rethink the UI navigation, and think of ways to make the site a little more automated and easy to update. The challenge? I don’t have full access to the hosting that it’s on, so I’ll have to be creative about that.

When I was a mentor a few seasons ago, I pretty much held the same position but I was officially a mentor with online duties. I was thinking, this position was mainly about updating the site, and pushing information to the team. This time around? I want to evolve the position into something a little more than that. I’ll tie in social media tools such as Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook to connect all our team, so that information can easily be communicated. There is a wealth of knowledge across not only our LA team, but across the USA with all the TNT chapters out there. Why not use it? I’ve already contacted some TNT folks from New York, San Francisco, and Florida to help brainstorm new ideas for fundraising. We’re living in an Internet age, let’s use it to it’s full potential.

Run Rage

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under videos

Forget Road Rage, do you ever get Run Rage? There’s a pretty funny Nike Commercial on just that.

Ironman Founders

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under videos

2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run. WTF??

I have a few friends who are training for the Ironman next year, and I’ve always wondered how it all started. It all started because of one question between swimmers and runners, “Who are the best athletes?”. So John & Judy Collins started with that idea, and made it a success.