Race Review: 2009 Roadrunner Akron Marathon

I suppose it's only appropriate that the Roadrunner should host an annual marathon. He's been outrunning that coyote across cliffs for years now so I'm glad that he has transferred his skills into a competitive athletic event. This was the 7th year for the Roadrunner Akron Marathon and my 2nd year competing in it.

This race impressed me once again. The expo/packet pick-up, while it was unavoidably crowded, still managed to be organized and easy to navigate. Of course I had to walk past all of those annoying vendor stands with people trying to sell stuff, but it was still pretty clear where to go to get what. Race day morning was organized as well. There was a high chance of rain and a large covered area had been set up for racers to wait in before the race started. Fortunately though, the rain held off and we ended up having perfect running weather.

I once again enjoyed Akron's versatile course; it really shows off what the city has to offer. Instead of just staying on downtown roads, runners are sent on the Towpath for several miles and then through the grounds of Stan Hywet Hall which makes for some great scenery. There are also plenty of convenient places for spectators to set up their chairs and coolers and enjoy a day watching insane people run for hours. The best part of the course, however, is that is finishes inside Canal Park Stadium. It's pretty exciting to be greeted at the end of a race by stands full of people. It makes all of us delusional runners in the middle of the pack feel like we are professional athletes or something!

There is only one negative thing that I have to mention about this race, and that is regarding the relay runners. It's understandable that when a relayer has finished his/her leg of the race they want to leave the transition area, but there needs to be more control over how they leave. They often just wander back into the runner's traffic and get in every one's way. I also got annoyed by some of them who act like big shots while passing we marathoners, not considering that they have 3-6 miles to run and we have 26. It is funny though when one of them sprints out of transition at a 6min/mile pace and then is later sighted walking.

As far as my personal experience during this race, I had been aiming to finish in 4 hours, but was slowed down by a foot injury. I had to stop and get wrapped up at the first aid station, and thanks to the great volunteer paramedics I was able to keep going. They did a great job getting me un-bloodied, bandaged and vaselined so I could continue to run. They definitely knew what they were doing. I finished in about 4:23, which I am satisfied with considering my injury.

In conclusion though, I must affirm for the second time that Akron is my favorite marathon. I really had a lot of fun and am sad to have to wait a whole year to do it again!

Christie-bate: Jay v. Conan

So this is obviously a highly scientific study of comedy preference within age demographic. I was fortunate enough to get responses from 245 people regarding individual prelation for either Conan O'brien, the current host of The Tonight Show, or Jay Leno, the has-been host of the Tonight Show.

Results were as expected, younger demographics preferred Conan and older ones (actually all older demographics ended up being hunked into one category, but it didn't make a difference), preferred Jay. Although the outcome of this research was easily anticipated, the interesting facts came from the outliers. My observations showed that preference was correlated with means of survey... in other words, I was more likely to get a "Conan" response from some one I surveyed via text or online messaging as opposed to on the phone or in person. Most outliers were surveyed differently from others in their age group. Any one over 40 who answered "Conan" I did not speak with directly.

A major flaw to my research is that every person I surveyed is a friend or aquaintance of mine, so it scews the data in favor of Conan. However, I still think my sample group is large enough to get some facts from. What I found most interesting were the "not sure" responses; they were all respondants in their upper 40's. Well, this is all great data... for me to poop on.