Marine Corps Marathon

WASHINGTON -- Today's Marine Corps Marathon offers a final opportunity for Olympic trials hopefuls.Some of the 13,000 entrants in the 26.2-mile race have a shot at running under the qualifying times of 2 hours, 20 minutes for men and 2:45 for women.The 16th marathon will begin at 9 a.m. on Route 110 -- about 250 feet south of Marshall Drive below the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, Va., and conclude at the memorial.

Baseball Ex-National Acta receives 3-year deal to manage Indians Manny Acta, fired as the Washington Nationals manager in July after 2 1/2 seasons, was hired as manager Sunday by the Cleveland Indians, who gave him a three-year contract with a club option for 2013. Acta is the first Cleveland manager hired from outside the organization since John McNamara in 1990. The Indians chose Acta, 40, over two other known finalists: Triple-A manager Torey Lovullo and former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who might have eliminated himself from consideration when he arrived at his second interview last week and conceded that he not done his homework on Cleveland or the American League and wasn't sure he wanted the job. The club had planned to interview Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly and Los Angeles Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke this week.

Run, walk -- Volunteers are needed for the Howard County Striders 8k Run Through the Grapevine at Linganore Winecellars in Mount Airy, which starts at 10 a.m. Nov. 6. Linganore is at 13601 Glissans Mill Road. Jason Tripp, 410-963-0134 or Mark Gilmore, 410-799-7976. The Marine Corps Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, and the Striders Series Race 6 (5K) will start at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at Burleigh Manor Middle School in Ellicott City. Taci Feliciano, 443-745-7377; Eric Bell, 410-203-1473; or Kevin Dean, 410-750-2529.

Run, walk -- Volunteers are needed for the Howard County Striders 8k Run Through the Grapevine at Linganore Winecellars in Mount Airy, which starts at 10 a.m. Nov. 6. Linganore is at 13601 Glissans Mill Road. Jason Tripp, 410-963-0134 or Mark Gilmore, 410-799-7976. The Marine Corps Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, and the Striders Series Race 6 (5K) will start at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at Burleigh Manor Middle School in Ellicott City. Taci Feliciano, 443-745-7377; Eric Bell, 410-203-1473; or Kevin Dean, 410-750-2529.

Rejected by the Marines? Banned in Boston? Tired of the city that never sleeps? Well, now local runners have a marathon to call their own. Mayor Martin O'Malley and leaders of the business community announced yesterday that city streets will take a pounding Oct. 20 in the inaugural running of the Baltimore Marathon. The event will fill a glaring hole in the city's running resume -- that of being the only one of the nation's 30 largest cities to be marathon-less, organizers say. Filling the void, O'Malley said, will prove to the rest of the country that Baltimore is "a world-class city" and help persuade Olympic officials that the region is capable of playing host to the 2012 Summer Games.

At first glance, Ty Lanahan's 3-hour, 4-second finish in the Boston Marathon eight days ago is a fairly respectable showing.Lanahan has been running for only a year and a half, and not until this year has he gotten his marathon training log up to 80 miles a week.But considering what he has done in the last half year -- in the Marine Corps Marathon, in the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon and the London Marathon -- his statment, "I only ran through Boston with some friends," is not idle boasting.

Baseball Ex-National Acta receives 3-year deal to manage Indians Manny Acta, fired as the Washington Nationals manager in July after 2 1/2 seasons, was hired as manager Sunday by the Cleveland Indians, who gave him a three-year contract with a club option for 2013. Acta is the first Cleveland manager hired from outside the organization since John McNamara in 1990. The Indians chose Acta, 40, over two other known finalists: Triple-A manager Torey Lovullo and former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who might have eliminated himself from consideration when he arrived at his second interview last week and conceded that he not done his homework on Cleveland or the American League and wasn't sure he wanted the job. The club had planned to interview Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly and Los Angeles Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke this week.

Runners who are planning their 1992 marathon schedules might want to consider the B&A Trail Marathon, to be held on March 8 beginning at Severna Park High School.It is the latest entry among five marathons in the Baltimore-Washington area -- the others being The Last Train to Boston Marathon at Aberdeen, the Washington's Birthday Marathon at Greenbelt, the Marine Corps Marathon at Washington and the North Central Trails Marathon in northern Baltimore County."We've talked about it for probably eight months," says Sue Briers of the Annapolis Striders, who will oversee the event.

If November is marathon season, then September and October are the times for half-marathons.The Philadelphia Distance Run, the East Coast's premier half-marathon, kicked off the flurry of 13.1-mile runs in early September. In the area, the Renaissance AllSports Athletic Club's Harmony Half-Marathon, held nine days ago, and the Westminster Road Runners Club's Bachman Valley Half-Marathon, held Sunday, kept up the pace.There is good reason for the abundance of half-marathons at this time of year.

Aran Gordon should be easy to spot amid the throng running in today's Baltimore Marathon. He's the one toting a knapsack. The guy who looks like he veered off the Appalachian Trail. Or a scoutmaster in pursuit of his troops. Which begs the question: Of the 3,000 runners, why is Gordon the one with a 10-pound pack strapped to his back? Because he's training for a bigger race, one that makes this one seem like a walk in Druid Hill Park. For Gordon, 44, of North Baltimore, today's 26.2-mile race is a prologue to the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands)

Plenty of people had places to go yesterday morning in downtown Baltimore. For participants in the Baltimore Running Festival, the path was free and clear. For everyone else, it was gridlocked. Friends and families who made up a solid portion of the estimated 250,000 spectators enjoyed the sunny skies and crisp breeze as they marveled at the professional runners and motivated their slower loved ones. "This wears me out just watching these guys," said Betsy Ziegler, 54, as a quintuplet of Kenyans near the lead turned off Key Highway onto Light Street, about the halfway point of the Baltimore Marathon.

Aran Gordon should be easy to spot amid the throng running in today's Baltimore Marathon. He's the one toting a knapsack. The guy who looks like he veered off the Appalachian Trail. Or a scoutmaster in pursuit of his troops. Which begs the question: Of the 3,000 runners, why is Gordon the one with a 10-pound pack strapped to his back? Because he's training for a bigger race, one that makes this one seem like a walk in Druid Hill Park. For Gordon, 44, of North Baltimore, today's 26.2-mile race is a prologue to the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands)

Deborah Barnett of Columbia can run -- well enough to finish the Marine Corps Marathon in a tidy 3 hours, 2 minutes. Yet, her coach has this tendency to say the same thing to her again and again, often while tapping gently on her head: "If I can just get you squared away from the neck up, you'll be fine" goes the phrase, as Barnett and her running mentor Mick Slonaker recall it. Ah yes, the head game. While spectators at Saturday's Baltimore Marathon watch legs and arms pumping, shoulders set and faces in sundry expressions of anguish and ease, much of the action lies elsewhere, hidden beneath so many Fila caps, or somewhere between the noggin and the seat of human determination.

Like everyone else in Saturday's Comcast Baltimore Marathon, Mary Spinoso will be on new footing for the inaugural running of the race. Spinoso, a 40-year-old massage therapist from Baltimore, has run three Marine Corps marathons, but will be running her first outside Washington. Thanks to the help of the NCR Trail Snails, a loosely formed running group that trains on the converted railroad trail in northern Baltimore County, she figures to be ready. "It's a group that takes in runners of all shapes and sizes.

Road races are among the events that have been affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but preparations continue for the inaugural Baltimore Marathon Festival, which will be held four weeks from today. More than 6,100 have registered for the Comcast Baltimore Marathon, which will start and finish near PSINet Stadium, with a 26-mile, 385-yard counter-clockwise tour of the city in between. The first major marathon in the area since the 1980s will be the centerpiece of the festival, which also has 700 entrants for the Fila 5K and 400 four-person teams entered in the Geico Direct Team Relay.

Rejected by the Marines? Banned in Boston? Tired of the city that never sleeps? Well, now local runners have a marathon to call their own. Mayor Martin O'Malley and leaders of the business community announced yesterday that city streets will take a pounding Oct. 20 in the inaugural running of the Baltimore Marathon. The event will fill a glaring hole in the city's running resume -- that of being the only one of the nation's 30 largest cities to be marathon-less, organizers say. Filling the void, O'Malley said, will prove to the rest of the country that Baltimore is "a world-class city" and help persuade Olympic officials that the region is capable of playing host to the 2012 Summer Games.

Road races are among the events that have been affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but preparations continue for the inaugural Baltimore Marathon Festival, which will be held four weeks from today. More than 6,100 have registered for the Comcast Baltimore Marathon, which will start and finish near PSINet Stadium, with a 26-mile, 385-yard counter-clockwise tour of the city in between. The first major marathon in the area since the 1980s will be the centerpiece of the festival, which also has 700 entrants for the Fila 5K and 400 four-person teams entered in the Geico Direct Team Relay.

Cut to the chase:John Ausherman didn't allow himself the luxury of thinking about winning yesterday's 30th Washington's Birthday Marathon until nearly within sight of the finish line. Pressure had nothing to do with it.See, lots of marathons these days have accompanying relays and, well, there are people jumping in and pulling out all over the place. "The only solid pieces of information I had was I did the first half in 1:18 and I was about fifth at 15 miles," said the Chambersburg, Pa., native.

Chuck Bryant will get a jump on the field in the Northern Central Trail Marathon on Nov. 25.Bryant has asked for -- and received -- permission to begin the race an hour earlier than the rest of the participants."

There's good reason for the timing of the Westminster Road Runners Club's Baugher's 10K/20K.For starters, the races are held at the height of pumpkin and apple picking and Baugher's Orchard, the 1,200-acre Carroll County farm from which the 10 and 20Ks begin and finish, have enough of both to accommodate a field as large as the New York City Marathon.For another reason, the races are held a week before the Marine Corps Marathon.Says the club's Dave Herlocker: "One of the reasons we put the 20K in was that anyone doing Marine Corps could use it as a workout."