10/1/2018: EARNED RUNS 3rd ONLINE ANNIVERSARY! THANKS USA & world

THE FIRST DAY OF THE 10TH MONTH OF 2014 was shaping up to be an important one for Earned Runs LLC.  The company was incorporated in February but the online material wasn’t ready until later in the year.  Ready to go live, all of a sudden, the website host rolled out a formatting change! No kidding.  Weebly.com had chosen that very day to accomplish this overhaul. The Earned Runs materials were a mess.
 
There wasn’t a crisis because I had decided beforehand not to go live with the Facebook rollout until October 12, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.  Only family were notified that the site was live, to obtain their critical reviews before the outside world had a chance to see what was being offered. All was fixed by October 2.
 
But since then it’s been all uphill…in effort required, but also in excitement and rewards. As this post is being written, bibs with numbers like 1235 are being mailed to competitors all over the world.  Most have come from the USA, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Northern Africa.  Your notes of appreciation have been greatly appreciated! Thank you!
 
There have been issues with some international mailings that lack postal codes, the most helpful from the USA side of the postal delivery system. When requesting bibs, please include this crucial number.
 
Note: if you haven’t received bibs in a timely fashion is it is because an address problem exists. An Earned Runs email will request complete address info, so please, check the email used to make the request and provide the missing information in your reply.
 
But enough with the business of mailings!!!
 
KNOW THAT YOU ARE PART OF A NEARLY GLOBAL COMMUNITY. Requests have not come from the continents of Australia or Asia, so not quite global (yet?).  Below is the listing of the countries from which requests have come.
 
ALGERIA (MANY), ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, BELARUS, CANADA, GREECE, IRAQ, ITALY, LATVIA, MOROCCO (MANY), RUSSIA (MANY), TUNISIA, UKRAINE (MANY), UNITED KINGDOM, USA (MANY), and UZBEKISTAN.

The USA states from which requests were received include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
 
In deciphering addresses so envelopes could be prepared, I’ve used the internet to investigate which place names were streets, city sections, villages, regions, or administrative seats. The images that appeared showed incredibly lovely parts of the world, many that are situated on coastlines near beautiful bodies of water. Others are in very rural locales. The Ukraine, Russia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria have provided the greatest of such surprises in the course of this detective work.
 
It’s exciting, if all will be using their bibs to challenge themselves and commit to a training plan. Imagining outdoor workouts in these homelands, I hope each person feels connected in a small way to each other. If you train to meet an athletic goal, you can consider yourself an Earned Runs athlete, regardless of the remoteness of the training site.
 
Thanks are due to all who have been supportive, especially family. My sister is number one cheerleader! She also took me to the start of the Dipsea Trail this summer so I could experience the feel of the iconic race, if not actually participate in it. My husband passes scientific articles and news along to me that might be used for Science Friday posts, and endures the clutter of bibs, stickers, envelopes, and stamps in our living space without complaint.  My friends endure comments like, “… that topic was covered in one of my Earned Runs blog posts.”
 
By mid- September 2018, the number of blog posts reached 1000!  I am grateful for having this opportunity to communicate my enthusiasm, and the interest shown by all who visit the Earned Runs website. Thank you for the connection I feel to you from my small town on the shore of Lake Michigan in the USA.
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!

CORRECTION!: 2018 marks the 3rd anniversary, but the beginning of our 4th year online.