Team Sony Walkman

When one door closes another opens ... 

I recently wrapped up an incredibly fun nine months as a San Francisco Marathon Ambassador. About a month before the San Francisco Marathon though I had received exciting news ... I had been selected to become a Team Sony Walkman Active Ambassador! Yay! 

First Run w/my Walkman in my Sony Gear

You may be asking yourself, wait, they still make Walkmans? Why, yes, they do! But instead of a tape player, the Walkman brand is now used on a line of MP3 players. I remember reading an article last year about Sony retiring the Walkman cassette player. It made me think back fondly to the Walkmans I'd owned over the years. The last Walkman I remember having was purchased at some point in college, but I didn't used  it much after I upgraded to my Sony Discman, and I never even thought about it after I got my first MP3 player. 

As I trained for my first half marathon (Rock N Roll Phoenix) back in 2005 I was going on my runs with my (non-iPod) MP3 player, and planned on running the race with it as well. As luck would have it though, I forgot my MP3 player in my apartment gym one day and someone stole it!  Darnit! There was no way I was going to run 13.1 miles without music, so in total desperation I ran the race with my Walkman in my hand. If you look close enough, you can see it in my finish line picture!

RNR Phoenix January 2005

I've had several friends ask me how I've come about these different Ambassadorships. Um duh, my booking agent! No, just kidding. Several months ago I saw a conversation between two friends on dailymile reference being on Team Jamba. I wondered what that was ... so I took to the Google Machine! I found out that Team Jamba was one of many Active Ambassador teams. I went on their website where you could create an Active Ambassador profile and apply for a team. I was a bit disappointed at first when I saw that there weren't any upcoming Ambassador teams that they were recruiting for, but hoped that something that appealed to me might come up. 

A few weeks after I signed up I saw them recruiting for Team MGD (which didn't interest me since I don't like beer), and then not too long after that I saw a message about them recruiting for Team Sony Walkman. How perfect! I LOVE working out to music, almost always listen to music when I'm running, and the Sony Walkman has a special place in my running heart for accompanying me during the beginning of my running career in college, and for keeping me motivated during my first half marathon.

"Team Sony Walkman is a closely-knit band of athletes who value both music and fitness and the power in combining them both. These 120 unique runners and triathletes possess a strong passion for their sport and are dedicated to not only representing the Sony W Series Walkman MP3 Player in their races, but as brand ambassadors of the product in their local communities and as they lead their daily lives."

The Sony Gear Matches My Dogs!

As I filled out my application for the team I wasn't too confident that they'd pick me since they seemed really focused on performances in races in the past year. I'm an above average runner but don't consider myself to be a "fast" runner (since I've never qualified for Boston), but luckily I had placed 1st overall female in a triathlon last October and had just come in 2nd in my age group in a 5K a few weeks prior. Fingers crossed this was enough to make me look like "real" runner. Holding breathe in 3, 2, 1 ...

Team Sony Walkman Welcome Package

About a month after I submitted my application I received the good news .. I had made the team! They had selected runners and triathletes in ten major markets across the United States: Atlanta, Baltimore/DC, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Denver/Boulder, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle. Whoo hoo! I was in!  As part of the team we'd receive Sony branded running/tri gear, a Sony Walkman MP3 player, and in return we needed to submit race recaps for five races between July 2011 and January 2012 that we'd complete in our Sony gear. We also were expected to engage our friends in our social networks with information about the Sony Walkman brand, and connect with other athletes in an online Sony group where we could talk about training, racing, etc. 

Team Sony Racing Gear

The five races that I will be competing in as part of Team Sony Walkman are:

• AFC 5K
• Heartbreak Ridge Half Marathon
• SheRox Triathlon
• Marine Corps Marathon
• Santa Barbara International Half Marathon

I was also just talked into joining my cousin's relay team for the LA Triathlon next month, so I might swap out that race for one of the above to complete my five race requirement. My first race is up this weekend! - The America's Finest City 5K! I originally intended to do the Half Marathon but didn't register in time, so I'll be running the 5K for the first time. Now the big question for this weekend is to tutu or not to tutu? Ha ha.