With the digital age upon us, committee members for the Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic Run and Walk have adopted a new format for getting race information out to the public.

Those participants who prefer to register via the Internet are now able to access the Classic's Web site, www.ogden20kclassic.com, and fill out all the proper forms.

Jessica Ischy, online manager of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, was added to the race committee this year as the online director and charged with modernizing the race's Web site.

"The site has a lot more information and is easier to navigate," Ischy said. "There are different features for people to look at now, and it has received a lot of positive response."

There are color photographs from previous races on the Web site as well as stories leading up to the 2005 race -scheduled for Saturday, May 28.

For those people who need a minute-by-minute update on just how much time is left before the start of the annual 20K event, there is even a live countdown.

But there is much more to the Web site than just pictures and stories.

Anything and everything - the entry fee, course maps, the Ogden 20K Hall of Fame, even training tips - you ever wanted to know about the distance race can be found there.

Since going online earlier this year, www.ogden20kclassic.com has averaged more than 5,000 visitors per month.

It not only gets the word out about the race, but it allows runners and walkers to register for the race without ever leaving their homes.
A link found near the top of the main page provides a gateway to www.active.com, where entrants also can sign up and pay their entry fees for the race.

Although only a quarter of this year's participants have actually registered online, Ischy said that more than half of the total entrants said they first learned about how to register through the online Web site.

"This was the first year for active.com, so the actual online registration wasn't overwhelming," Ischy said. "But a lot of people said they found out about the event through the site, and I believe that the online registrants will pick up significantly in the years to come."

Ischy said that eventually, she hopes to add a list of all the results from past races, as well as photo pages from the previous years of the event.