Marine Corps Marathon 2009 Hosts Health and Fitness Expo

The 34th Marine Corps Marathon will be held on October 25, 2009 and features a weekend full of activities, including the Marine Corp Marathon Health and Fitness Expo. The Expo started Friday and will end Saturday, October 24 at 7pm. The 2009 Health and Fitness Expo will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC with over 200 exhibitors and vendors.

Sunday's Marine Corps Marathon 2009 is part of an event filled weekend. Prior to the marathon, there be vendors at the Expo featuring everything runners and their support teams want including running apparel and gear, training and nutrition products, food samples, MCM licensed merchandise and entertainment. This event is free to the public.

The MCM Health and Fitness Expo, supported by nearly 300 military and civilian volunteers, offers more than 200 booths and interactive centers for enjoyment by an expected 100,000 runners and guests.

As part of the Marine Corps Marathon procedure for runners involved in the event, runners will need to retrieve their race materials at Packet Pick- up, part of the MCM Health and Fitness Expo, located inside the Washington Convention Center. The packet includes the participant bib number and D-tag.

All runners who pick up their packet can then retrieve their coveted "goodie bag" at the Expo. This year, the Marine Corps Marathon celebrates its 34th year so there will be 34 super-sized goodie bags with some very valuable prizes inside. No two goodie bags will be alike at the Expo, so it is suggested by the marathon coordinators that runners arrive early for a chance to get one of the bigger goodie bags. All runners will get a goodie bag full of great marathon items but the 34 over-sized bags will include high value products from MCM sponsors and licensees.

Some of the products in the super-sized 34th Marine Corps Marathon goodie bags at the Expo include:

*Airline tickets from JetBlue
*Free pair of Brooks shoes
*Original MCM Finisher Bear from Vermont Teddy Bear
*Pair of tickets to a 2009-2010 Washington Wizards game courtesy of Comcast SportsNetEagle Bank
*Pair of tickets to the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl
*HD Radio from WTOP
*Flashdrive from Hyatt Regency
*Bart Yasso's new book "My Life on the Run" courtesy of Nissan
*Free photo from MarathonFoto
*Complimentary poster and one gold ticket for a complimentary signed Giclee from Lasting Commemoratives

The 2009 Marine Corps Marathon gets underway Sunday morning, October 25. The Health and Fitness Expo is just the beginning of a weekend full of activities for runners, their families and spectators.

Check back for more news on the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon throughout the weekend.

Barbecue again draws people together in county

Carlton Hurt, who worked as a sportswriter here from February 1998 to November 2005, stopped by for a visit Monday. A group of us went to lunch with him - to a barbecue restaurant, naturally.

It seemed a fitting choice in the week leading up to the Barbecue Festival, and county natives (Carlton graduated from West Davidson) often make a beeline for their favorite barbecue joint when visiting. We used to joke with Carlton that whenever we went to lunch, he would always see several people he knew. Although he's been gone for almost four years, Monday was no exception.

That's one of the great things about eating at one of Lexington's barbecue restaurants. Chances are good you'll run into someone you know. I just don't think that happens as much at chain restaurants.

Another thing that has always struck me about the barbecue restaurants is the longevity of many of the employees. Some of the waitresses who were working when I came to Lexington 20 years ago are still there. Food services is often considered an industry with high employee turnover, and that's probably more true for fast food. But continuity and stability are the name of the game at the barbecue restaurants.

We do love our barbecue and spread the word about it to others. When family and friends come see us, usually we'll head to a barbecue restaurant, like we did with Carlton. When my in-laws visit from the Charlotte area, often they'll stop on the return trip and pick up some barbecue to eat later at their home.

Some people avoid the barbecue slaw (even Carlton left it on his plate), and others may quibble about the hush puppies. But few people turn their nose up when it comes to the barbecue itself, whether they try it chopped, coarse chopped or sliced (or another exotic version, often known primarily to locals, like white lean chopped).

We sometimes joke at The Dispatch that it's an offense punishable by dismissal to misspell barbecue. The word appears numerous ways - barbecue, barbeque, bar-b-q, BBQ, etc. - but for Lexington-style the preferred spelling uses a c. I did notice that the sand sculpture for this year's festival uses "Boo-B-Q" for its Halloween theme, so maybe I need to move beyond my 'cue hang-up.

Lexington residents know that October is Festival Month, but did you know that Gov. Bev Perdue proclaimed this Pork Month? Perdue's proclamation, which the N.C. Pork Council proudly publicized, offered these interesting facts: the pork industry contributes more than $9 billion to the state economy, employs 46,000 people full time and sent 18 million pigs worth almost $2 billion to market in 2007. I wonder how many of those 18 million pigs were consumed by diners in Lexington restaurants?

Like many people, I'm keeping a close eye on the weather forecast and radar as I write this Friday. I thought Stephanie K. Saintsing, the festival's executive director, offered a good perspective on the weather in our preview story published Friday. "We just have to move forward despite the weather."

That's certainly my plan for Saturday. My sons' soccer schedules make visiting the festival somewhat tricky, but we have a strategy to spend a couple of hours uptown and still fulfill their sports obligations. If we have to wear ponchos and use umbrellas, so be it. We'll still have a good time.

My 10-year-old, in fact, ranks the day of the Barbecue Festival in his top three for the year, alongside Christmas and his birthday. That's a pretty high compliment. He already has plans for a light breakfast so he can enjoy lunch from one of the vendors (alas, he's not a barbecue fan yet).

I hope you will venture downtown and spend a couple of hours taking in all the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the Barbecue Festival. For 26 years now the festival has drawn tens of thousands of people to our city for one day to celebrate barbecue. Few small cities can boast of such a vibrant event, so Lexington residents can walk tall and feel pride on this special day.

Michelle Obama on Jay Leno show

New Delhi, October 24: Michelle Obama on Jay Leno show. For the first time since Barack Obama’s coronation at White House, viewers got a chance to know about his habits, likes and dislikes on "The Jay Leno Show". Even some spicy titbits about the First Lady of the US tumbled.

Putting in an appearance at the show via satellite, Michelle Obama dexterously handled 10 random questions thrown at her by Jay Leno. The questions mostly included trivia ranging from her iPod song list to her husband President Obama's most annoying habit.

According to statuesque Michelle, Obama is perfect. But when pressed further by the host, she revealed his fault, saying: "When he beats me at tennis, that gets to be pretty annoying and he beats me quite often!" The answer was greeted with rapturous applause.

Then she was asked about her favourite artists she loves listening to. Gushingly she said: "I've got Sting, I've got Stevie Wonder, my favorite. I've got some Sara Bareilles, I've got, ooh, some Robin Thicke, some Mary J. Blige. I got it all.

Some Herbie Hancock. I love my iPod!" She was also asked about the Halloween and what her daughters would wear on that day. She never wavered during the question session. When asked what she whispers after her husband’s speech? She quipped, "I usually ask him, did he take out the garbage?". Is it so, Mr President?

Gas Stations Paying The Price For Gouging 3 Local Stations Fined

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Some gas stations in North Carolina will be paying up after state officials caught them overcharging customers.

WXII showed video from when the Four Brothers raised their prices in Yadkinville on September 12, 2008.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Friday that 14 gas stations, including two in Yadkin County and one in Montgomery County, will have to pay a total of $70,000 in fines.

LR&S Inc., the owner of the Four Sister Center and Yadkinville Food Mart gas stations in Yadkinville, will pay $7,700 in fines, and Steve Compton will have to pay $7,800 for his BP Station in Troy.

Cooper said the stores sharply raised their prices on Sept. 12, 2008, the day Hurricane Ike made landfall along the Texas coast.

Cooper said the stations raised their prices from about $4 to more than $5.60 in a matter of hours. The BP in Troy raised prices to more $5.99, though no customers paid that high price.

The investigation found that those prices increased the company's markup over wholesale costs by more than 400 percent. The stations dropped their prices later that day after the news media, including WXII 12 News, reported they were price gouging.

Time Change - Fall 2009

Blue indicates countries where DST is currently used (via: Wikipedia). Note: It shows India as a country where DST was once used (yellow color) but not any more. To my knowledge DST was never used in India.

I hope you haven’t forgotten to set your clocks back by 1 hour before you went to bed. Today is the day oftime change for Fall 2009.

24th October 2009 is the day when you get one extra hour of sleep each morning. Have you woken up already?

Daylight saving time (DST), also known as summer time in British English, is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist in 1895. Many countries have used it since then.

Iowa football playoff pairings revealed

Clay Central-Everly fullback picks up yardage during a district game against North Iowa on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, in Royal. Klett ran for a season-high 219 yards to lead the Mavericks (7-2) into the postseason.
(Photo by Michael Fischer)

Clay Central-Everly was the only team left standing in the local coverage area when the Iowa High School Athletic Association released the 2009 postseason football pairings late Friday night.
The pairings included all potential matchups in bracket form, beginning with substate games and showing each postseason qualifier's road to "The Dome."

A number of northwest Iowa teams will be represented in the playoffs, though Spencer and Sioux Central will not be among them after failing to capture postseason bids with Week 9 losses.

The Mavericks earned their first postseason home game since 2001 Friday with a 36-22 win over North Iowa, which wrapped up a district runner-up spot for CC-E. The second-place finish behind Southern Cal gave the Mavericks clearance into the Class A bracket in what can now only be referred to as "the old-fashioned way" after Iowa expanded its playoff field to include an extra 16 teams and a substate round in each class beginning last year.

Clay Central-Everly (7-2) will host Woodbury Central (4-5) Wednesday in Royal after the Wildcats clinched the third seed in District 1 with a win over River Valley in the final week.

A win for the Mavericks would put them on the road against Le Mars Gehlen (9-0) or at home against Rockwell City-Lytton (6-3) on Monday, Nov. 2.

The West side of the Class A bracket features eight teams with records of 7-2 or better, including six who finished at 8-1 or better. Algona Garrigan, Rockwell City-Lytton and Bedford all finished 6-3. The remaining five teams have losing records.

Also representing the 12 counties (Lyon, Osceola, Dickinson, Emmet, Sioux, O'Brien, Clay, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista and Pocahontas) that make up the northwest corner of Iowa are MOC-Floyd Valley and Le Mars in Class 3A; Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley, Pocahontas Area, Sheldon, Sioux Center, Western Christian and Cherokee in Class 2A; West Lyon, Hinton, West Sioux, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn and Emmetsburg in Class 1A; Le Mars Gehlen, Alta, and Akron-Westfield in Class A; and Remsen St. Mary's, West Bend-Mallard, Armstrong-Ringsted, North Sentral Kossuth, Remsen-Union and Graettinger-Terril in 8-Man.

Emmetsburg is the only school located in one of the 12 counties to appear in the East Bracket in its respective class.

This year's postseason pairings include 25 teams in Class 3A down to 8-Man with records of 5-4. Eighteen teams with losing records qualified for this year's postseason, including East Sac County (3-6) and Roland-Story (3-6) in 2A, Highland (2-7) and Earlham (3-6) in A, and West Bend-Mallard (3-6), Clarksville (3-6) and Moravia (3-6) in 8-Man.

Iowa High School Football Playoff Pairings

(The first team listed in each matchup is the substate host. The team with the higher finish in their respective district will be the home team for the first-round playoff games. All games are 7 p.m., unless noted)

Class 3A

West Bracket

Sioux City Heelan (8-1) vs. Creston/O-M (5-4)

Glenwood (6-3) vs. Denison-Schleswig (5-4)

Harlan (9-0) vs. MOC-Floyd Valley (5-4)

Le Mars (6-3) at ADM (6-3)

Clear Lake (9-0) vs. Dallas Center-Grimes (4-5)

Ballard (8-1) vs. Webster City (5-4)

Carroll (9-0) vs. Hampton-Dumont (5-4)

Charles City (6-3) vs. JSPC (5-4)

East Bracket

New Hampton (7-2) vs. Vinton-Shellsburg (4-5)

La Porte City Union (7-2) vs. Oelwein (5-4)

Marion (9-0) vs. West Delaware (7-2)

Decorah (7-2) vs. Maquoketa (7-2)

Williamsburg (8-1) vs. Pella (6-3)

Grinnell (8-1) vs. Fairfield (7-2)

Centerville (9-0) vs. Washington (5-4)

Clear Creek-Amana (6-3) vs. Carlisle (6-3)

Class 2A

West Bracket

Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley (9-0) vs. East Sac County (3-6)

Pocahontas Area/PP (8-1) vs. Sheldon (7-2)

Eagle Grove (8-1) vs. Sioux Center (5-4)

Western Christian (8-1) vs. Cherokee (6-3)

Bondurant-Farrar (7-2) vs. Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto (5-4)

IKM-Manning (8-1) vs. West Marshall (6-3)

Carroll Kuemper (7-2) vs. PCM (4-5)

CMB (8-1) vs. Missouri Valley (5-4)

East Bracket

Osage (9-0) vs. Dyersville Beckman (4-5)

Cascade (8-1) vs. Hudson (5-4)

North Fayette (9-0) vs. Roland-Story (3-6)

Gilbert (6-3) vs. Sumner-Fredericksburg (7-2)

Solon (9-0) vs. Mediapolis (6-3)

Mid-Prairie (7-2) vs. Center Point-Urbana (6-3)

Davis Country (7-2) vs. North Cedar (5-4)

Iowa City Regina (8-1) vs. West Burlington/Notre Dame (6-3)

Class 1A

West Bracket

West Lyon (8-1) vs. Underwood (5-4)

Griswold (8-1) vs. Hinton (7-2)

Council Bluffs St. Albert (9-0) vs. West Sioux (4-5)

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn (8-1) vs. Logan-Magnolia (6-3)

Pella Christian (7-2) vs. Panorama (5-4)

Woodward-Granger (7-2) vs. Des Moines Christian (6-3)

Prairie Valley (9-0) vs. Nodaway Valley (5-4)

Mount Ayr (7-2) vs. Manson-Northwest Webster (7-2)

East Bracket

Emmetsburg (9-0) vs. Aplington-Parkersburg (6-3)

South Winneshiek (8-1) vs. Lake Mills (5-4)

Turkey Valley (8-1) vs. Fort Dodge St. Edmond (5-4)

Saint Ansgar (6-3) vs. Denver (7-2)

Clayton Ridge (8-1) vs. Wapello (6-3)

Belle Plaine (7-2) vs. Starmont (6-3)

West Branch (9-0) vs. Bellevue (6-3)

Goose Lake Northeast (7-2) vs. Eddyville-Blakesburg (6-3)

Class A

West Bracket

Le Mars Gehlen (8-1) vs. Rockwell City-Lytton (6-3)

Clay Central-Everly (7-2) vs. Woodbury Central (4-5)

Southern Cal (8-1) vs. Alta (4-5)

Akron-Westfield (7-2) vs. Algona Garrigan (6-3)

Madrid (8-1) vs. Corning (4-5)

Treynor (8-1) vs. Earlham (3-6)

A-H-S-T (9-0) vs. Southeast Warren (4-5)

Van Meter (8-1) vs. Bedford (6-3)

East Bracket

Cedar Falls NU (9-0) vs. Lisbon (5-4)

Central (8-1) vs. Northwood-Kensett (6-3)

Wapsie Valley (8-1) vs. Tripoli (4-5)

Mason City Newman (8-1) vs. East Buchanan (6-3)

WACO (6-3) vs. H-L-V (5-4)

B-G-M (8-1) vs. Cardinal (5-4)

North Tama (9-0) vs. Highland (2-7)

Danville (5-4) vs. North Mahaska (7-2)

Class 8-Man

West Bracket

Remsen St. Mary's (9-0) vs. West Bend-Mallard (3-6)

Armstrong-Ringsted (8-1) vs. Ar-We-Va (6-3)

North Sentral Kossuth (9-0) vs. Remsen-Union (6-3)

Woodbine (6-3) vs. Graettinger-Terril (7-2)

Adair-Casey (7-2) vs. Farragut (5-4)

East Mills (7-2) vs. Coon Rapids-Bayard (7-2)

Stanton (9-0) vs. Glidden-Ralston (7-2)

CAM (7-2) vs. Sidney (5-4)

East Bracket

CWL (7-1) vs. Dunkerton (6-3)

West Central (8-1) vs. Janesville (6-3)

Preston (9-0) vs. Clarksville (3-6)

Northeast Hamilton (9-1) vs. Lansing Kee (6-3)

Tri-County (9-0) vs. East Union (5-4)

Ankeny Christian (8-1) vs. Melcher-Dallas (4-5)

Lenox (9-0) vs. Moravia (3-6)

Harmony (5-4) vs. Grandview Park Baptist (7-2)

Site Selections for all Games

Substate (All Classes)

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7 PM

First Round Games (All Classes)

Monday, Nov. 2, 7 PM

Quarterfinal Round Games (All Classes)

Friday, Nov. 6, 7 PM

Semifinal and Championship Round Games

Thursday, Nov. 12-Monday, Nov. 16 & Friday, Nov. 20-Saturday, Nov. 21

Kimberly quarterback Mitch Hintz to miss WIAA football playoffs with broken ankle

The Kimberly Papermakers will have to play the postseason without senior quarterback Mitch Hintz.

Coach Steve Jorgensen said Thursday that Hintz broke an ankle in the Papermakers' regular-season finale — a 20-8 win over Oshkosh North — and would be sidelined the remainder of the season.

Junior Austin Rodgers is expected to replace Hintz. Rodgers rushed for 87 yards Wednesday and tossed a 31-yard touchdown pass to Mitch Weber.

Kimberly is the two-time defending WIAA Division 2 state champion. The Papermakers will learn their playoff opponent and site late this afternoon when the WIAA releases the pairings.

Ticket sales: Kimberly is selling tickets for Tuesday's WIAA football playoff game from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday and from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday in the school commons.

All tickets are $4. No passes will be honored. Children 6 and younger will be admitted free.

Games cancelled: Hortonville and St. Mary Central high schools didn't play varsity football games Thursday to end the regular season. Hortonville's Bay Conference game at Marinette was cancelled due to an outbreak of the flu virus at Marinette High School.

Classes were called off Thursday and today at Marinette after 34 percent of the students were confirmed ill as of noon Wednesday.

The game will not be made up and Hortonville has gained a forfeit win. The Polar Bears finish the season with a 3-6 record.

Meanwhile, St. Mary Central forfeited its game scheduled at Algoma on Thursday. SMC athletic director Mike Heideman said 50 students were out on Thursday with flu-like symptoms. The school, however, remained open.

The Packerland/Olympian Conference-Small game has no WIAA postseason playoff implications.

The Zephyrs were eliminated from playoff contention earlier. Algoma (6-2) had qualified earlier.

"We totally respect St. Mary Central's decision," Algoma athletic director Eric Nelson said. "We had to forfeit a junior varsity game earlier due to illness."