Second Annual "Phedippidations" World Wide Half Marathon Challenge: Official Press Release

Next weekend is the "race day" and you still have time to register. For those in KL, we will start at the Bkt Aman car park over 2 waves. First wave is for marathoners who want to put in extra miles and we will take off at 6am heading towards Hartamas plus 1 loop around the Petronas station before heading back. After you get back and want to do extra, just stop your watch and record your timing. You can then submit your timing at www.worldwidehalf.com with photos and reports. Second wave starts at 6:30am. In case you didn't know there are 21 of us who registered from all over Malaysia. Outstanding! If 13th or 14th are not viable dates for you, you can also run it anytime between today and then. And as long as your route is 21K, you can run practically anywhere.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 4th, 2007

Contacts: London, UK : Mal James. mal.james@worldwidehalf.com Knoxville, TN: Terry Higgins planet3rry@gmail.com Columbus, OH : Ben Deutschle ben@buckeyeoutdoors.com Boston, MA : John Ellis john_j_ellis@hotmail.com, Worcester, MA : Steve Walker steve@steverunner.com

World Wide Half Marathon
1000 Runners from 45 countries "Think Global, Run Local" in global race.

Boston, MA. - Over 1000 runners in 45 countries across 6 continents will be running together on the weekend of October 13th and 14th for the Second Annual "Phedippidations" World Wide Half Marathon Challenge, and "Kick the Couch 5K".

Co-race director John Ellis, from Boston, Massachusetts, said "This is a unique race that embraces the spirit of the running community across the entire world."

The "Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon Challenge" (www.worldwidehalf.com) is an open invitational event where runners from around the globe will run either 13.1 mile (21 km) or 3.1 mile (5km) course on their own or as part of a local race in their region.

Teams of athletes around the globe have come together, in countries such as Austria, Bahrain, Columbia, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Vietnam and Yugoslavia.

Co-race director, Mal James, trained for the vent in both Israel and Australia, and will be running locally on race day in the Munich Germany Marathon. "This has truly become a global event", said James, "runners from all over the planet have been training together for the past four months and encouraging each other to go the distance on race day."

Co-race director from Knoxville, Tennessee, Terry Higgins, is impressed with the new runners who have accepted the challenge of running the race. "It's awesome to hear that this will be the very first race for some runners, or that this challenge has rekindled someone's passion for running", said Higgins, "We joke about the 'Couch of Doom' that too many sedentary people spend too much time upon, and we are very please to know that people all over the world are getting off that couch!"

"We've more than doubled the number of entrants we had last year" said Co-race director Steve Walker, from Central Massachusetts, "we've made friends across 44 countries, and now we'll be able to share our race reports, photos and audio recordings about our race experiences!"

The event is completely free and is being organized online at www.worldwidehalf.com .

Entrants who run the race will record their finish times, and have the option of uploading a written race report, a photo and audio recording to share a description of their experiences of the day for posting on several online blogs and Internet radio "podcasts".

Co-Race director Ben Deutschle, from Columbus Ohio, says the event's motto ""Think Global, Run Local", best describes that goal of the race. "We run in our own home towns all over the world, but are aware that at the very same time we have friends who are out there running with us" said Deutschle, "Runners aren't limited by geographical or cultural differences...we celebrate what makes us unique and share this common passion for running".

Further information about the First Annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon can be found at www.worldwidehalf.com