During my first marathon, my friends Michelle and Cynthia gave me a bag of gummy bears around mile 16, and I realized what lifesavers these little guys are.

I have my support team bring me them on my marathons, and for the last few years, I have set up a Gummy Bear Station at mile 23 at the Baltimore Marathon. This was right in front of my brother's house, at 29th and Guilford, at the top of the cruel hill that started at the turn from 33rd street to Guilford.

I ran the inaugural Baltimore in 2001, so missed that year, and My brother has since moved from Guilford Ave, nonetheless:

• 2002, I bought 20 pounds, and ran out after 5 hours or so.
• 2003, I doubled it to 40 pounds, and ran out after 4 hours. I sprinted a few miles to the nearest Safeway, made a deal with the manager, and bought another 10 pounds.
• 2004, I doubled it again, to 80 pounds, and got thru the race with gummys to spare (well, about 5 pounds worth, and about 5 pounds worth on the ground).
• 2005 took about 110 pounds.
• 2006 I had 160 pounds ready, as the race had grown by 30%
• 2007 Brings another 30% increase in runners, and extending the size of the stop to include the turn onto 29th takes me to 240 pounds.
• 2008 320 pounds. I ran this one as my 50th marathon, so my brother Gary took over and we had some additional volunteers, including Bob Slowey.
• 2009 expects 25% more runners, and we were there with 400 pounds.
• 2010. I expected addtional support, and went to 450 pound. I had promised my volunteers a porta-potty (that I was assured would be there) would be there. When it wasn't, they weren't. Had not not been for Monica Zamora, and Suzy Deppa, who jumped in to help, it would have been a disaster.

I promise to be there until the least fastest marathoner makes it. Say Hi as you go by.

Perhaps we'll be back in the future.

While it's not my intention, I've received some press coverage. This year the most attention was generated from Kate Amara's interview and Sarah Caldwell's race day coverage, and a nice write up from Anica Butler at the Sun, and one from TheBizRunner that called me the GodFather of Gummies, who rightly called out the company that makes the gummy bears for not working with me.

The Examiner called me a famous runner,Cool Runnings mentions the stop and ScrumDiddly says its his favorite part (caution, language)... And of course the Rona Marech' Sun report from 2005 (archived at Cool Runnings). 2006, we were joined by Baltimore Sun reporter Mike Klingaman, who not only wrote a great article about the stop, but helped us tremendously.