All of us at M3S Sports are excited for the Bicentennial Edition of the The Capital City Half Marathon Quarter Marathon and Commit to Be Fit 5k.

The City of Columbus is getting ready for a huge celebration of the Active Healthy Lifestyle and we want you to be a part of it. Registration for the event is WAY up (read 75% up) and is on pace for our earliest sell out ever! On May 5th, 2012, our Celebrity and Charity Champions will help us Celebrate The Columbus Bicentennial in grand fashion.

With the new start line winding around the Scioto Mile, we will cap the field at 13,000 runners and walkers. Register now!

If you are already registered, thank you, and have fun getting ready for the best party you will have while running or walking! You may confirm your registration here.

Feedback from last year:

The Cap City course was beautiful and filled with entertainment! I didn't even need to run with an iPod. The expo was exciting and fun. Not to mention how the finish line provided runners with a great variety of food and drinks after running. I loved how there were partnerships with local companies. Usually you hear of people traveling to go to great races. However, I feel so lucky that I don't have to travel to experience a great race. You did a phenomenal job and I'm looking forward to next year!!!Additional feedback...

You will be a Champion, come join us.

We are proud to have The American Cancer Society as the benefiting charity of the Capital City Half Marathon. I want to introduce you to Sandra Frazier whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few nights ago. Last March, at age 35, with a husband and three young boys, Sandra was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. She had no warning signs, and her diagnosis was accidental, like many pancreatic cancer cases. An unrelated case of gallstones, and a longer-than expected recovery from the surgery, which removed her gallbladder, eventually led to a CT scan that revealed a tomato-sized tumor on her pancreas.

The next few weeks and months were a roller coaster of emotions for Sandra. She began to wonder if she would be around to see the many milestones yet to come in the lives of her three boys.

Today, she beat the odds and is alive and well. Statistics show that only about six percent of people survive pancreatic cancer. Sandra counts her blessings everyday that she is still here, and has a new goal to help all cancer patients become cancer survivors like her. We want to help her get to her goal of $1,000. I want to see us help her get to that goal before the end of January. Then I want to see us help her double that before May! Check out her personal page to help make a difference for Sandra and so many others.

The American Cancer Society offers participants the opportunity to "make every mile more meaningful" through its DetermiNation program. DetermiNation participants receive outstanding runner benefits such as free team training, race-weekend VIP amenities, invitations to exclusive social events, and online tools you need to make achieving your fundraising goals easy and fun! Join the American Cancer Society's nation and with every step you take and every mile you conquer, you'll be saving lives and creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays. For more information, visit The ACS Cap City page.

If YOU can Run or Walk, YOU can Run or Walk Farther.

If YOU can Train, YOU can Train Harder.

And if YOU do, YOU will FIGHT Cancer and YOU will be a Champion to Sandra and so many others.

The Columbus Bluejackets, the Columbus Crew, the Columbus Clippers and the Ohio State Buckeye's all have coaches, and now so does one of the largest half marathons in the region! You have your whole "season" to train like a Champion, now you have your own Champion Coaches.

Coach Aimee Bross. Check out Aimee's new blogs on treadmill training and dealing with post race sign up blues.

E-mail Aimee at coachaimee@m3ssports.com, follow her blog on the Cap City Site and/or ask her a question on the Capital City Half Marathon Facebook Page.

The St. Patrick's Day 4 Miler at Kinsale is what you would expect from an M3S Sports event, a running and walking event ending in a big Celebration! The event sells out every year and this year is limited to the first 1,000 participants.

Every Participant receives:

*Asics Gender Specific Event Shirt

*Finisher's Medal

*Free First Beer (21 and over) - please bring a valid I.D.

*Free Ticket ($10 value) to see the Reaganomics post race concert!

The event features a four-mile course around the beautiful Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club. The fully-supported course is open for 80 minutes to accommodate all runners and walkers.

The post race concert features the Reaganomics, one of the midwest's most exciting 80s dance and party bands. Based in Columbus, Ohio, The Reaganomics have become the area's most electrifying eighties show. With the release of their latest CD, "Ten", The Reaganomics have truly become the "must-see" act in the region.

Panera Bread has become an Official Partner of The Capital City Half Marathon and will present the Cap City Training Menu in each of their restaurants. Panera will present healthy training and eating tips to you in each newsletter, on the training pages and on Facebook.

The Finish Line Celebration will include great Panera bagels and other great items from Panera.

Panera joins the Finish Line Celebration at the Columbus Commons with the biggest and best Byers Imports Xtra Mile Finish Line Party yet complete with a Yellow Tail Bubbles Toast, Chocolate, Michelob Ultra, post race concerts and the opening of the New Pavilion.

Facebook has become an important part of the M3S events, especially Cap City. Cap City has become its own community and we want you to be part of it. Check out all of the photos and updates and make sure you add your own.

If you have not yet, make sure you like the Cap City Facebook page to stay in touch with what is going on in the running and walking community.

We will be giving away VIP upgrades to the best training tips and Healthy Recipes! Simply post them up on the FB page in the most creative fashion. We will announce 2 winners a month. Giddy up!

Name: 2012 Fight for Air Climb Columbus

Whom: To benefit the American Lung Association in Ohio

What: A vertical 40-story stair climb to the top of the Rhodes Tower (elevator back down)
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When: Saturday, January 28th 2012 at 8:00am registration and last-minute packet pickup; Climbers begin at 9:15am

Where: Rhodes Tower, Downtown Columbus, 30 East Broad Street Columbus, Ohio 43215

The 9th Edition of Cap City will be something special. This is our City's 200th Birthday and 200Columbus is dedicated to developing a robust and transformative commemoration of the city's bicentennial in 2012. The goal for 200Columbus is a community that is more inspired, proud and engaged in their progress and the increasing vitality of Columbus. This will lead to a community that is better recognized locally and globally as one of the best places to live and work.

If you are in town on February 10th, come join us at Columbus' Birthday Celebration in the Battelle Grand Ballroom at the Greater Columbus Convention Center (where the Cap City Expo is held). The Columbus Bicentennial Birthday is the must-attend (non running) party of the year! This Celebration of the Centuries will engage all five senses with style, decor, entertainment and local flavors the likes that Columbus has never seen.

If you are from out of state, mark your calendars for May 5th and come on and Experience Columbus! We have some great Official Race Hotels a few blocks from the start line and only steps from the Finish Line Celebration! Make your plans now to join 13,000 new friends at the Bicentennial Edition of The Capital City Half Marathon.

A huge thank you to our volunteers, our charity, corporate and community partners and most of all to YOU for making Cap City one of the largest Celebration's of the Active Healthy Lifestyle in the Midwest.

David