So, I’m an unabashed fan of Nike+iPod. Love it, love it, love it.
And, I’m favorably inclined to Lance Armstrong. Not a huge fanboy, but, barring some bombshell revelation of pictures of him with gallon jugs of EPO, an IV in his vein, and random farm animals smoking post-conjugal cigarettes, Lance is OK as far as athletes go. (I’m still miffed at the whole Kristen split – seems entirely at odds with his views on marriage in “It’s Not About the Bike”, but we’ll leave that dog lie).
Anyway, Nike’s announced a “Run Like Lance” challenge, where it aims to collect 50K miles through Nike+iPod prior to the NYC Marathon in November.
Nike will donate $1 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) for every mile run and logged by Armstrong and runners that visit www.nikeplus.com from October 2nd until November 5th. … Armstrong recently selected five New Yorkers, one from each borough, who are participating in this year’s marathon to serve as borough captains in the “Run Like Lance Challenge.” Runners from around the world can also contribute by logging on to www.nikeplus.com to donate miles to the borough of their choice.
Anyway, went to check the Nike+ site, and it’s running awful slow. Kind of a cool effect. Though $50K seems to be chump change for a group like Nike…
*** Per Blaine‘s comment, I want to be clear – Kudos to Nike for committing to the $50K; it’s leaps and bounds above what a lot of companies do. Stupid Gen X cynicism strikes again…
I’m not going to knock a company for giving $50,000 to charity, even if it is “chump change” to them. I say that that is a much better use of accumulated wealth than somebody like (for example) Randy Moss, who wipes his ass with a $10,000 fine and compares it to losing a $1 bill through a hole in your pocket.
It’s the same thing as saying that Bill Gates is not a philanthropist because he only gives away $50 million per year to charity or something silly like that.
Either way, that’s a very cool program, miles for dollars. I don’t use Nike+ though, or run with any sort of mp3 player, so I’ll stick to just trying to beat Lance during the marathon in a month.
Lance always seemed a bit too “robotesque” in his whole approach to cycling and life for me to be a big fan, but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy, and he does stuff to help folks, so he’s o.k. in my book.
I’m reading a decent book on the history of the TdF called “Le Tour” – its written by an English journalist. So far its quite good. Maybe it will change my heart and I’ll be a cyclist fan again, as opposed to just a girl who likes to ride her bike. :-)
The Nike+ thing is pretty interesting. I am thinking about hacking it (har har) to work with my Sauconys. Seems like minor shoe surgery. Or fun w/ velcro. I really, really like the UI they’ve developed for the site. It will be interesting to see how that changes over time as they add features to it.