Frog Log 2001

-SPONSOR RESULTS-

Running Tools
Running Resources
Running Shoes
Running Gear

February 1, 2001 - Urbandale (Usa/Iowa) • Larry Jablonski: Phil the frog visited Olmsted School in Urbandale, Iowa during the month of February. Unfortunately he arrived in the middle of one of the worst winters on record in Iowa. In Des Moines we broke a long standing record with over 99 days with snow cover on the ground. Most schools missed between 4-6 days of school for snow related problems and will be making those days up in June. Olmsted School has a lunch running program during the fall and spring where students keep track of their miles run/walked and earn prizes. For more info go to www.urbandale.k12.ia.us and clic on Olmsted School and learn more about the Road Runner program. Due to the snow/cold Phil visited the physical education classes and ran with the students inside. We did take his picture outside on out new fitness track. While visiting Iowa Phil tagged along with Principal Larry Jablonski and ran in the "Des Moines Red Flannel 5 mile run" on Saturday. An ice/snow blizzard hit Des Moines the day before so many of the out of town runners were not able to participate. Temperature at race time was around 5 degrees with a minus 15 windchill. The roads were very slippery/icy and the goal of many of the participants was just to finish without falling. Principal Jablonski and Phil were able to do that and they warmed up on the pancakes at Embassy Suites. Phil did want to check out the pool but he needed to travel up to Iowa State University where he watched the Iowa State University indoor track meet. The conditions were much warmer and he enjoyed that more. From some students: "Every spring and fall Olmsted has the Road Runners run. It's a program where we get to run over lunch break. We usually run between 1-2 miles per day. When we saw Phil we thought he would be fun to run with. At first we thought we were going to get a real frog but when we saw it in the capsule we knew he wasn't real. But we still got to run with him indoors and take our picture with him. That was cool. We love to run and enjoyed Phil's visit...". Another student writes: "We get prizes to run at school. We didn't get to run with Phil outdoors for it was winter. Road Runners is fun because we can run".

April 1, 2001 - Ouarzazate (Morocco) • Phil: From April 1st until April 7th 2001 I was participating in the sixteenth edition of the "Marathon Des Sables" (or "Sand Marathon" in English) in the Morrocan part of the Sahara (north Africa). The "Marathon Des Sables" is a tough freestyle footrace over 240 kilometers in seven days/stages. My mate was Joost Oerlemans, a running Dutchman living in Switzerland. Here you see us in the morning short before action. On this picture I'm sitting on Joost's front pouch but normally I stayed in the backpack because of the sun, the wind and the temperature of up to 55 degrees Celsius. Here I'm inspecting the water reserves, as you will understand something very important for a frog: together we drank up to thirteen liters of mineral water each day. In the morning the temperature was quite nice so that I could sit on Joost's backpack and enjoy looking at the busy participants. Altogether we did not bad! We finished in the middlefield (246 of 630 participants) and I must say we had a good time together. For more information use the following frognetadresses: www.sandmarathon.com, www.darbaroud.com (both pages in French and English) or Joost's homepage www.trinakria.com/Trinakria/woich.htm (only in German).

May 3, 2001 - New York City (Usa/New York) • Marty Radner: We ran together over the Brooklyn Bridge and through the Brooklyn Heights section of Brooklyn. Phil acted up on the evening and spent the night in our jail!

May 4, 2001 - New York City (Usa/New York) • Marty Radner: Phil was released and we ran around the tip of lower Manhattan through Wall Street and Battery Park City. We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

May 5, 2001 - New York City (Usa/New York) • Marty Radner: Phil and I will be running the "Long Island Half Marathon". I'll report on our results in the race as soon as it's over.

May 6, 2001 - New York City (Usa/New York) • Marty Radner: Phil and I ran the "Long Island Half Marathon" today. We did it in 1:43. Phil was a great help. He kept me focused throughout the race. The only problem I had was Phil kept me up most of the night before the race. He kept whimpering and begging for beer! I'm ready to pass Phil on to the next Planeteer.

May 23, 2001 - Clinton (Usa/New York) • Laura Pantzer: Phil arrived today... safe and sound. He is resting comfortably before his busy press schedule next week! He is getting photographed by the local media and he and I are doing a radio talk show. Then of course, he will run the "10 mile Kac Run & Walk" road course on June 2!

June 2, 2001 - Clinton (Usa/New York) • Laura Pantzer: Phil participated today to the twentythird edition of the "Annual Kac Run and Walk", a five kilometers event that was held in Clinton. He ran with Elizabeth Miller. Of course Phil wanted to be photographed with the first place prize.

August 26, 2001 - Rockton (Canada) • Nanci Virginillo: Phil joined us here at possibly the worst time... in the middle of a record heat wave that saw temperatures pushing 39 degrees on some days. Phil was a game little frog, though, and dark and early on a Sunday morning clambered from his bed to join the Hamilton Running Room run club for a 6:30 training run. The morning was hot and humid, but the run was still pleasant enough; twenty-three kilometers over winding country roads and rolling hills, around the Dundas Valley Conservation Area, which is one of the best places to run. As we ran, my friend Denise and I speculated on Phil's potential as a good luck mascot, but had to drop that idea when we ended the run with matching skinned knees. Luckily, Phil landed on top, and wasn't hurt. Afterwards, Phil joined us for our traditional big Sunday breakfast. We really enjoyed our time with Phil, but all good things must end, so with the help of a highly amused postal worker, Phil is now on his way to his next adventure. Runners, yeah, we are different.

September 24, 2001 - St. Gallen (Switzerland) • Robert Schöpflin: Phil arrived in perfect condition here in St. Gallen (www.stgallen-i.ch/englisch/index.html), in the northeastern part of Switzerland. He is really an extraordinary nice little guy. I made some pictures during his stay here. The first image shows Phil and me on one of my favorite workout places. Close to the town there is a nice little lake called "Gübsensee". The track around the lake is almost flat and is a little bit longer than 5 kilometers. Phil liked this place a lot, because he could meet many other frogs in the water. The second image shows Phil and me in front of the abbey with its famous library (www.stibi.ch/homee.htm) in the center of the town, where the event "St. Galler Altstadtlauf" (www.altstadtlauf.ch) passed by. It was a very cold and rainy day, but we were quite happy and a little bit tired together. On the third picture you can find Phil at my home enjoing the company of some of the other frogs from my wife's large collection. I know she would have loved Phil at the first moment. I hope you have as many pleasure with the pictures as I had with Phil. Thank you so much for sending him to me.

October 30, 2001 - Edenvale (South Africa) • Marthie Brits: The day when I got Phil, I email a letter to my friend, asking her, if they will take some pictures of him, with their digital camera. I explained to her in the email, that he travels all over the world. Well, to cut a long story short... they thought he was a "real and very important" person. So, they agreed that I'd come the Sunday afternoon. Because a "very important" person was coming to their house, they got stuck in, and cleaned the house from corner to corner. Big was their shock, when they saw that Phil was only a little toy!!! We had such a nice laugh because of this misunderstanding.

November 18, 2001 - Nelspruit (South Africa) • Marthie Brits: Phil and I had a wonderful race yesterday. I enjoyed it so much. It was a marathon in Nelspruit. It was raining most of the time. And the race was in the mountains. It was a very difficult race. I introduced him to so many runners. And there were runners who knew him.