Retail industry expert Joe DeStasio presented at the global real estate convention 2013 RECon in Las Vegas. He connected with shopping center operators and retailers in the #iTechLounge and highlighted how to use guest Wi-Fi to roll out a virtual red carpet to welcome shoppers to stores. Continue reading
This week, the world watched in wonder as 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres attempted to make her record sixth Olympic team at the jaw-dropping age of 45. While she just missed qualifying – finishing fourth with a time of 24.82 – her performance was nonetheless staggering. It got me thinking about our Resident Butt Kicker, Cherie Gruenfeld, who at the age of 68 continues to compete at the highest levels of Ironman competition. What, I wondered, is the secret to these athletes for whom age appears to be nothing more than a number? Here’s a snapshot of my conversation with Cherie. Continue reading
Turns out, boulders and shoulders don’t mix. Our resident butt-kicker and 10-time Ironman World Championships Age Group champion Cherie Gruenfeld found that out the hard way during a recent early-morning training ride. Head down in the aero position, cranking away at 6:30AM, she didn’t see the landscaping boulder that had fallen into the bike path. Until she hit it. Let’s just say the boulder won. A broken clavicle and four broken ribs later, Cherie now finds herself in the position no athlete wants to be in: Evaluating their racing season and asking themselves, “What next?” As expected, Cherie has some great insight on what to do when things don’t exactly go your way. It’s a beautiful summer day. My next planned event, the 70.3 (Half Ironman) World Championships, is 6 weeks out. Today my training schedule calls for a 50-mile bike ride followed by an 8-mile run. But instead of “enjoying” that workout, I’m sitting here trying to adjust to my new future. As the old saying goes, “If you want to see God laugh, make a plan.” Two weeks ago, I crashed while doing a bike ride, breaking my collar bone and several ribs. Clearly the 70.3 Championships are
I wish I could say I get tired of watching Cherie Gruenfeld smash her competition. But I don’t. And I love it all the more now that she races in a Boingo kit! I asked Cherie for an update about her last race; below is her summary. My favorite line? “I loved it.” “I recently returned from Kona on the big island of Hawaii where I competed in a race called Honu 70.3. This is a Half Ironman distance race (Swim 1.2 miles/ Bike 56 miles / Run 13.1 miles). If you’ve seen the Ironman World Championships on NBC, you’ve watched athletes struggling through the brutal Hawaiian conditions. These same elements played a major role in this day of racing regardless of the fact that the distance is just half the Ironman distance. The swim, in the beautiful blue Pacific, is fraught with currents and waves as the result of strong winds. The bike course is part of the fabled Ironman bike course so we enjoyed the same strong cross-winds while attemptine to stay upright on our bikes. And during the run we had to negotiate the ups and downs of the Mauna Lani golf course along with some road
In the fall of 2000, an idea began to bloom in Sky Dayton’s mind. A new technology was beginning to emerge – back then referred to as “802.11b” – that enabled people to access the Internet without wires. As the founder of EarthLink, Sky quickly understood how this technology could transform the whole way in which we connected to the Internet. If you weren’t attached to the web by a wire – you could get online virtually anywhere. He imagined a world where people could connect on every type of device imaginable – laptops, cameras, cars and phones – in as many locations as possible. “It’s like trying to imagine all the things we’d use with electricity before electricity had been invented,” he said in a Wired magazine cover story about Boingo in October 2002. During a snowboarding trip in Mammoth, CA, Sky sketched out the basic idea of how Boingo would work: develop software that makes it dead simple to get a user online, and partner with burgeoning Wi-Fi network operators to create an aggregated network of Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. The company was incorporated in the spring of 2001 with the stealth name “Project Mammoth” and was eventually named “Boingo”
Our resident butt-kicker has done it again. Cherie Gruenfeld placed first in her age group at the AVIA Wildflower Triathlon this past weekend, besting the 65-69 year-old age group for the Half-Ironman distance. (She beat the 60-65 year-old women for good measure, too.) Known for a particularly hilly and grueling course – many participants wonder how it is possible for a course to have so much “up” and so little “down” — the AVIA Wildflower Triathlon is one of the largest triathlon events in the world, with 7,500 athletes and 30,000 spectators attending each year. The event features a 1.2 mile swim in Lake San Antonio, a 56 mile bike ride that includes the notorious “Nasty Grade” — a nearly five mile grade which climbs 1,000 feet (300 m) from bottom to top of “Heart Rate Hill” — and finishes with a 13.1 mile run, more than half of which is done off-road on hiking trails. It’s a tough, fiendishly difficult course that will test the mettle of any triathlete. Lucky for Cherie, she’s got mettle in spades. And she’s got medal, too. A first place medal, that is! Join us in congratulating Cherie on yet another awesome victory. (P.S. Check out Cherie’s new
A few years ago, I decided it would be really fun to do a triathlon. Looking back, I’m not sure what aspect I thought would be fun – the freezing cold ocean swims I spent hoping I wouldn’t be eaten by a shark? The minor fortune I spent on equipment? The small death of embarrassment I endured each time I wiggled into to my Spandex training outfit? Hard to say. But I do know one thing that made my journey from novice to triathlete fun was that I got myself a darn good coach – Cherie Gruenfeld. Cherie Gruenfeld is one of the most decorated Master’s triathletes in the world today. She’s competed in twenty-three Ironman races, including the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii 17 times. Now, for the uninitiated, an Ironman triathlon is a study in insanity. It begins with a 2.4 mile swim, continues with a 112 mile bike ride, and concludes with a marathon. (Yes. All on the same day.) Cherie is a master at this particular form of crazy. She’s won the world title in her age group ten times and currently holds the world record for Women 65-69. She is the first female over 55
Perhaps you’ve heard that the good folks at JetBlue are offering an All-You-Can-Jet-Pass for just $599. Yep, take JetBlue anywhere you like, as often as you want, from September 8 to October 8, 2009. Pretty cool! Our good friend Mike, the founder of HazelMail, bought a pass this morning and is going to use it for a HazelMail inspired postcard-sending/blogging/YouTube travel adventure. We love the idea so we’ll keep you posted on Mike’s travels here. What would you use an All-You-Can-Jet-Pass for?
Jonathan B. Spira reviews Ipevo’s new Wi-Fi Phone for Skype as part of Business Traveler’s “Tech Front.” “The tiny Ipevo Wi-Fi Phone for Skype seems almost custom-made for the business traveler who wants to use Skype without having to carry a laptop. at setup, one can use an existing Skype account or establish a new one; when I logged in, all of my contacts from Skype showed up automatically. To place calls, one simply connects to a Wi-Fi network and dials. Voice quality turned out to be very good, an the convenience factor is excellent. The phone doesn’t support access to Wi-Fi roaming networks, but a software update for Boingo functionality is planned.” We look forward to getting Boingo functionality integrated into this nifty device. Boingo + Skype = Amazing value for business travelers!
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