We are excited to announce Javier Gómez Noya as the latest addition to the Strands Team.  Javier is one of the best active triathletes in the world, winning the 2008 ITU Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver, and finishing fourth in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Javier is now competing in the United States under the sponsorship of Suunto, Louis Garneau, Oakley, Nike, and Cervélo among others.  You can follow his training at Strands.com/javiergomeznoya.

Returning to one of the most hallowed sites in the sport, the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place at Hayward Field, site of the ‘72, ‘76, ‘80, and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.  Eugene has long been dubbed “Track Town, USA” for its rich track and field history and the community’s overwhelming appreciation of the sport, and Strands has 20 tickets to give away.

The top winner will receive 1 pair (2 passes) of All-Session passes, good for all days and all events of the 2009 USATF Track & Field Championships.  Four runners-up will each win 3 Individual Session passes, good for all events for 1 day each (date of passes TBD).

To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post and include your Strands.com Username.  For extra style points, add your favorite running quote or include a link to your favorite running video on the internet.  Winners will be chosen at random from the comments below, and all winners will be announced by June 24th.

For more information about the event, please see the USATF event website.

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Since hiring employee number one in 2004, Strands has been directly involved in the lives of hundreds of people, grown to more than 10 offices in 3 countries, and expanded to a multitude of domains ranging from music to financial products recommendations. It has been both a fun and exciting experience for everyone involved, and we are looking forward to the next 5 strong years!

We dug through our photos and grabbed some reminders from the past — check out the slide show of some Strands employees, projects, adventures, and fun.

On August 28th over 12,000 runners will embark on the largest relay race in the World — 197 miles from majestic Mt. Hood to the beautiful Pacific Ocean in Seaside, the Nike Hood To Coast Relay is truly “the mother of all relays”.

Strands is sponsoring two teams of up to 12 runners each to participate in the 28th Annual Hood To Coast Relay, and we are inviting specialty running stores and individuals from across the nation to compete for 12 all-expense paid trips to Oregon to participate in this incredible adventure!

Stores can win by creating an account on Strands.com and inviting their customers and friends to join them, and individuals can win by creating a video about “Why I Run” and posting it on Strands.

Full contest details can be found at http://contest.strands.com.

A former long-distance runner from Spain, winning the marathon at the 1994 European Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, and again in 1995 in Gothenburg, we are excited to welcome Martín Fiz to the Strands Team as a Marketing Manager.

He will be working along side Spanish friends, rivals, and teammates Abel Antón and Fabian Roncero – together these three men lead Spain to be the largest world power in long-distance running in the 1990’s.

Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images, 1995

You can follow Martín’s run @ http://www.strands.com/martinfiz

The 2009 USATF National Club Track & Field Championships will be held at New York City’s Icahn Stadium on July 10-11.  This marks the third time the championships have been held in New York since 2005.  The meet will be hosted by the Central Park Track Club, who captured the 2009 combined team title.

“We are extremely pleased that the Club Championships are returning to one of America’s premier track & field venues, in an area that is a hotbed for our sport and the USATF club program,” said USATF Director of Grass Roots Programs, Andy Martin. “The 2005 and 2007 Club Championships held at Icahn Stadium were both big successes, and the meet continues to grow. We hope to continue that growth in 2009.”

The schedule of events, entry information, and housing information for the 2009 National Club Track & Field Championships, and meet headquarters hotel information, is available at the USATF website.

Fellow Corvallis based company, CenterSpace Software, was recently chosen in a competition of over 40 Willamette Valley start-ups as the winner of the 2009 Willamette Angel Conference.  Trevor Misfeldt, CEO; Steve Sneller, CTO; and Ken Baldwin, PhD, Senior Scientist, have all been part of the Strands Team in the past, and we’re trilled to see their NMath Suite win this top prize.

“After a rigorous selection process by the 25-member panel of angel investors, CenterSpace was chosen to receive an $125,000 angel award investment,” said Trevor Misfeldt, CEO.  “We’re proud to have been chosen from over 40 excellent start-up companies to receive this award.  The investors recognized the excellent traction CenterSpace has already achieved in the .NET numerical component market, and the exciting growth opportunities for leveraging CenterSpace technology into new markets, such as cloud-hosted numerical web services and numerical applications.”

The first annual Willamette Angel Conference was held May 14, 2009 in Corvallis at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the Oregon State University campus, and is a new investors conference aimed to connect early stage and seed businesses with angel and venture investors in the Willamette Valley.

The 2010 Willamette Angel Conference will be held in May in Eugene, Oregon. For more information about the conference see www.willametteconference.com.