Running world ready to track every step of Hall, Goucher and other favorites at 113th Boston Marathon

AT&T Press Release
April 17, 2009

BOSTON, Mass. – Want to track pre-race favorites, such as Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher as they aim to become the first Americans to win in Boston since 1985?  Now you can by using AT&T Athlete Alert. The names of the elite men and women fields for the 2009 Boston Marathon are listed below. To track your prerace favorites, simply text RUNNER to 41234 and you will receive an SMS text message asking you to reply with the bib number of the runner you would like to track. Once you've signed up, you’ll receive the same updates as you will for your friends and family as they make their own way from Hopkington to Boylston Street. 

The service, available to US mobile phone users, will allow anyone to register for any of the elite bib numbers published on the Boston Marathon website and receive SMS text updates at 10km, Half-Marathon, 30km and their finish.

Thisyear, there’s much added interest in the elite races, even among casual fans of the Boston Marathon. For the first time in several years, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher are considered to be legitimate contenders and if one of them did win, it would be the first American winner at Boston since 1985. Hall, who placed tenth in the 2008 Olympic Marathon, holds the American record for the Half-Marathon at 59min, 43sec and holds the fastest personal best of any marathoner in the field, at 2:06:16. Goucher, fresh off a win at the Lisbon Half Marathon, made her debut at the 2008 New York City Marathon, where she finished third. In addition to the American favorites, there is much speculation if Robert K. Cheruioyt can become only the second man in history to win five or more times at the Boston Marathon.

About AT&T Athlete Alert

AT&T is once again proud to sponsor the AT&T Athlete Alert Program at the Boston Marathon. At AT&T, our goal is to connect people with their world wherever they live and work – at home, at the office or running up Heartbreak Hill – and the 2009 AT&T Athlete Alert program helps friends and family keep tabs on the progress of registered runners in real time. As the network with the best coverage in Boston, AT&T actively supports events and traditions that strengthen its communities – and that certainly includes the historic Boston Marathon.

For more information on AT&T’s wireless products and services, please feel free to visit one of our Boston-area stores or shop online at www.wireless.att.com.