Today we finalized the 6 host cities for our 2010 event - "Around The World In Less Than 30 Minutes." It has taken us the last couple of months to complete the selection process for the cities representing their respective continents. We might not have chosen the easiest places to race, or the most well-known, but we did choose cities that will welcome us for our one-mile race and fitness presentation with open arms and make the 2010 world tour an absolute running adventure. Here are the selections and the order of our tour stops:

We will begin our world tour with The Boom Box Mile on America's independence day. The Boom Box Mile was the USA representative thanks to race director, Charlie Olbrias, who was an integral part of the 20/20/20<5@45 event in 2008 and The SmoothToe New England Marathon...One Mile At A Time in 2009. Due to the interest of Juan Lapadula from Urban Running Tours, Argentina rose to the top for representing South America. One of the sister cities of Tarpon Springs, Florida (my host city for the 20/20/20<5@45 event) is the beautiful and remote Greek island of Symi. Nikos Halkitis from The Symi Visitor and Fiona Hotel will be our host on our long trip (by plane and then boat). I met Nikos at a Tarpon Springs dinner in 2008, we discussed racing in Symi at that time - so it is exciting to see our talks come to fruition.

From Greece, we visit the most populated African country - Nigeria. Thanks to their Athletic Association and television interest, we are looking forward to making this stop in Jos a memorable time. Then we travel to a place I still call "Madras." Since my time in India coaching the national junior Davis Cup team from the mid-80s to the early-90s, India has resumed their Indian names and now it is called Chennai. Due to the efforts of Nina Reddy with O2 Health Studios and Savera Hotels and Ranjini Manian from Global Adjustments, I am looking forward to returning to the city where I began my coaching career. We conclude our world tour in northeast Australia at the Townsville Running Festival on August 8th in Townsville, Queensland. Thanks to the President of the Townsville Road Runners, Anthony Hockings, we will try to break the 30 minute mark at his event.

We will keep you updated now that the selection has taken place as we prepare for the event coming in 7 short months.