The Thin Blue Line

Weeving throughout Akron like a drunkard fresh out of wine is a long, flirtatious blue line. If you are new to the city, you will wonder why it winks at you from the side of the road--though not if you're a marathoner.

If you follow that thin blue line, it will take you 26.2 miles from downtown, to the old working class neighborhood of Firestone Park, through the university, into one park and out another, to the western edge of the city, where you'll pass through the grounds of an old rubber baron's mansion, then return to the urban setting of the trendy Highland Square area, past my favorite local writer's house, back toward downtown to Canal Park, where you can imagine crossing home plate, which marks the finish line of the Akron Marathon. (The route also passes about 15 bars, probably more, but who's counting?)

That line is repainted every year. And last week, it received its new coat. The route is ready. And in five weeks, I will be too.

I ran 10 miles Sunday and felt about as fast as the escargot Jaques Chirac has or breakfast.

Top 10 Reasons for 10 Miles of Suckage

1. Heat: 87 degrees
2. Intake: Cheerios, soy milk, hard-boiled egg, leftover fajitas
3. Nipple chaffage
4. Missed opportunity for torso flaunting
5. Persistence of slight ankle tweak
6. My own Beijing smog
   
7. Rain
8. Dead sexy legs?
   
9. Hydration plan: nil
   
10. Perhaps there is reason it's called Rogue Dead Guy Ale