My 2nd Marathon and what a day!

My 2nd Marathon was a memorable one. "A Freakish Snow"

I finished #30 out of 78 and ran with my good friend Tim Lewis.

5th Annual VIRGINIA CREEPER MARATHON
       Virginia Creeper Trail
    Abingdon VA - March 30, 2003
       30's and freakish snow
     93 starters, 78 finishers

1   Tom Atkins             Abingdon VA               3:04:53
2   Chris Black            Raleigh NC                3:09:15
3   Patti Fredrick-Enloe   Asheville NC              3:17:42 *
4   Mark Shrader           Rosedale VA               3:18:38
5   Chuck Brown            Marion NC                 3:28:50
6   Chris Squires          Raleigh NC                3:29:18
7   Monika Bracken         Castleton VA              3:32:13
8   Jerry Hensley          Pennington Gap VA         3:36:09
9   Shawn Kerrick          Johnson City TN           3:37:30
10  Eddie Cohn             Matthews NC               3:43:25
11  Mike Lipton            Rockville VA              3:51:02
12  Lynn Burnett           Livingston TN             3:54:54
13  Wail Malaty            Hendersonville NC         3:55:07
14  George Brown           Richlands VA              3:58:40
15  Kent Worman            Marietta GA               4:06:36
16  John Lesslie           Rock Hill SC              4:06:51
17  Bo Strickland          Kingsport TN              4:07:31
18  Karen Mitchell         York PA                   4:08:42
19  Danny Keatley          White Sulphur Sprgs WV    4:11:36
20  Kevin Nies             Chapel Hill NC            4:11:36
21  Mark Williams          Scottsboro AL             4:12:07
22  Bob Neiderman          Cuyahoga Falls OH         4:15:58
23  Jerry Anderson         Greeneville TN            4:16:01
24  Frank Weider           Union KY                  4:17:28
25  Ken Meyer              New Albany IN             4:20:58
26  Rick Karampatsos       China Grove NC            4:22:17
27  Rick Showalter         Georgetown KY             4:26:11
28  Jim Snyder             West Jefferson NC         4:29:31
29  Brian Cook             Dunwoody GA               4:32:12
30  Ronnie Collins         Cana VA                   4:34:25
31  Tim Lewis              Woodlawn VA               4:34:26
32  Stephen Armstrong      Johnson City TN           4:36:51
33  Mike Oliphant          Hendersonville NC         4:39:34
34  Cliff Corker           Kingsport TN              4:41:18
35  Philip Cook            Chapel Hill NC            4:42:12
36  Michael Stowe          Blacksburg VA             4:42:34
37  Catherine Shirley      Raleigh NC                4:43:22
38  Jonathan Parce         Hendersonville NC         4:45:08
39  Sharon Cline           Kingsport TN              4:46:32
40  Doug Ferriss           Charlotte NC              4:48:11
41  Scott Foxx             Charlotte NC              4:48:14
42  Michael Abbott         Wise VA                   4:49:32
43  Sharon Fleenor         Bristol TN                4:50:28
44  Mary Rodriguez         Abingdon VA               4:51:47
45  Robert Conrad          Hillsborough NC           4:52:39
46  Robert Bice            Kingsport TN              4:52:59
47  Dennis Saulnier        Alexandria VA             4:56:01
48  Terry Higgins          Knoxville TN              4:57:54
49  Parmod Sapra           Norton VA                 5:01:06
50  Ray McCaslin           Hendersonville NC         5:05:46
51  Stephen Donohue        Kitty Hawk NC             5:08:52
52  Cliff Cartwright       Booneville MS             5:13:48
53  Corey Scott            Satellite Beach FL        5:14:16
54  Byrd Watts             Marion NC                 5:16:00
55  Charles Brown          Marion NC                 5:16:01
56  Mike Brooks            Danville ME               5:16:16
57  Pamela Jolley          Marion NC                 5:19:00
58  Chet Rogers            Pittsboro NC              5:19:42
59  Abe Keating            Maysville KY              5:21:30
60  Paul Chappin           Statesville NC            5:22:21
61  Bruce White            Bristol VA                5:22:22
62  Ron Horn               Hendersonville NC         5:25:43
63  Gail Shepherd          Roanoke VA                5:27:22
64  Valerie Dunlap         Durham NC                 5:28:25
65  Rodney Dunlap          Durham NC                 5:28:25
66  Janice Hicks           Bristol VA                5:28:43
67  Bencita Moore          Boone NC                  5:30:38
68  Brenton Floyd          Harrison TN               5:35:42
69  Karen Bolton           Salem VA                  5:37:37
70  Jim Simpson            Huntington Beach CA       5:37:37
71  Emmanuel Sideris       Pittsburgh PA             5:38:45
72  Harry Donati           Richmond VA               5:57:34
73  Liane Cutforth         Louisville CO             6:02:48
74  Craig Cutforth         Louisville CO             6:02:48
75  Bronwyn Glantzberg     Norcross GA               6:42:58
76  Chuck Bryant           Miami FL                  7:15:36
77  Jerry Herndon          Cabin Creek WV            7:21:01
78  Cher Eaves             Powderly KY               7:37:46

* New Female VCM Record

My First Marathon

I am # 457 out of 814 people, with a time of 4:15, I was very satisfied with that. I was a lot younger then. Our oldest son, Michael ran the Half Marathon that day.

Ronnie

457  80  4204 Ronnie Collins       37 M Cana            VA 4:15:46 4:14:08   9:42

KIAWAH ISLAND MARATHON
                            26.2 MILE ROAD RACE
                   KIAWAH ISLAND,S.C.  DECEMBER 14, 2002

Brief History of the Marathon

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MARATHON

The marathon race commemorates the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield near Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C., bringing news of a Greek victory over the Persians. Legend has it that Pheidippides collapsed and died at the end of his historic run, thereby setting a precedent for dramatic conclusions to the marathon.

When the Olympic Games were inaugurated in 1896 in Greece, the legend of Pheidippides was revived by a 24.85 mile (40,000 meters) run from Marathon Bridge to Olympic stadium in Athens. Traditionally the final event in the Olympics, the first organized marathon on April 10, 1896 was especially important to the Greeks.  Greece was hosting the first modern Olympics, had yet to win a medal, and had one final chance to bring glory to their nation. Twenty-five runners assembled on Marathon Bridge, the starter mumbled a few words and fired the gun, and the race was on. “The excitement of the crowd waiting at the finish line at the ancient but refurbished Panathenaic Stadium was beyond description” writes the Greek historian Quercetani. Spiridon Louis, a Greek postal worker from village of Marusi and veteran of several long military marches, crossed the finish line a full seven minutes ahead of the pack. His time was 2 hours, 58 minutes, 50 seconds for the 40 kilometer distance (average pace of 7:11 minutes per mile). When it was all over – nine runners finished (8 of them Greeks), the host nation was ecstatic, and the marathon was born.

The United States was one of 9 nations at the 1896 Athens Olympics thanks to sponsorship of athletes by the Boston Athletic Association. Middle distance runner Arthur Blake was the only American to enter the first marathon. Blake won a silver medal in the 1500 meters 3 days before the marathon but unfortunately this left him exhausted and he dropped out after about 14.5 miles. The seed was planted, however, and organization for a North American marathon began on the boat back to United States.

The first annual Boston Athletic Association marathon was conducted on April 19, 1897, the date chosen to commemorate the famous ride of Paul Revere in 1775. The topography of the 24.7 mile course (Metcalfe’s Mill in Ashland, MA to Boston’s Irvington St. Oval) was remarkably similar to the Athens course, although about 250 meters shorter. Fifteen runners started the original Boston marathon race with John J. McDermott winning the 39,751 meter distance in 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 10 seconds (average pace of 7:05 minutes per mile).

At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with 385 yards added on so the race could finish in front of King Edward VII’s royal box. After 16 years of extremely heated discussion, this 26.2 mile distance was established at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as the official marathon distance.  The marathon and half-marathon are the only footraces designated by a name, rather than a distance.

Alochol and United Methodist Issues

Happenings Around the Church By Dr. Riley Case  December 4, 2008

United Methodists, Alcohol, and Loss of the High Ground I remember, years ago, teaching a class at church camp on Methodist beliefs.  Before the first session, I asked the teen-agers to write down what they had learned as the beliefs of Methodists.  One girl, a conference youth officer no less, thought for a long time and then wrote down two words.  When I shared some of the responses, there was only one paper with two words.  The words?  Total abstinence.     That was not an unusual answer for those days.  As a church, we were not always clear on our doctrine, but we communicated one moral message quite well:  total abstinence.   How things have changed.  According to the United Methodist Reporter (Oct. 10 issue), six presidents of United Methodist-related schools have now signed the Amethyst Initiative, an effort on the part of many leaders of U.S. colleges and universities to raise debate about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.  Behind that simple news report lies a reality: the church that once spearheaded moral reform in the nation in matters of temperance is now really no different from the secular society that surrounds us.  Our church-related colleges are now known as “party schools” where binge drinking, date rape related to alcohol, and general out-of-control behavior has become a distinguishing mark of some of these schools.  Meanwhile, the church has no meaningful prophetic word against the evils of alcohol; nor witness to the importance of high moral personal behavior.   It was not always so.  For the first 200 years of its existence in America, the word Methodist was linked with Temperance and moral reform.  Francis Willard founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and fought for rights for women.    At the merger forming the Methodist Church in 1940 the church’s new Discipline called for a return to Prohibition and stated that unless Christian and moral forces rally in united warfare against the evils attendant upon the legalized liquor traffic, there would be an unprecedented era of debauchery and degradation.     The Social Principles of 1964 stated: “We believe that the Christian principle of love for God and neighbor calls us to abstain from the use of alcoholic beverages…”  Ministers agreed to abstain from alcoholic beverages.  Persons serving on church committees were urged to be total abstainers.    But there were detractors.  The students in the seminary I attended who frequented the bars indicated they had no intention of following the church’s standards.  The 1960s brought rebellion against standards of any kind.  In 1968, when the church removed references to ministers and total abstinence, it included an incredible footnote in the Discipline explaining that in removing the prohibitions the General Conference was really seeking to “elevate the standards by calling for a more thorough going moral commitment by the candidate…”  This was double-talk, for “standards” from that point on simply disintegrated.  It might also be noted that it was at the same time when the church gave up on standards of personal morality that church membership began its dramatic decline.   Alcohol started showing up at receptions connected with the seminaries.  The bars no longer lost business at places where United Methodist general agencies met.  Bar tabs appeared on so many church expense vouchers that in 2000 the General Conference added a provision that the General Council on Finance and Administration was to see that no church apportionment money would be used to pay alcohol bills.    The index of the 2004 Discipline has 30 listings for “Native American,” 12 for “Peace,” 15 for “Justice,” 12 for “Health,” 9 for “Environment,” and 3 for “Alcohol.”   The Board of Church and Society, housed in a building erected by temperance money, is but lackluster in its support of anything that resembles the church’s historic stand.  It has been decades since anyone used the word “sin” in regard to alcohol use.   The same Methodist Reporter article that spoke of college presidents wanting to lower the drinking age also quoted a 2000 study by the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, CA.  In that study, 40% of United Methodists say they drink no alcohol, only one percent more than the national average.    Our church has spoken of emphasizing “holy living” for United Methodists.  But the holy living being discussed has a hollow sound if, as our bishops says, there are no standards for church membership, and people are left to decide right and wrong in their own minds.   This is exemplified by a blog written last summer after an ordination service in one of our annual conferences:    After the ordination service, we went out to the bar and got fabulously drunk. Although I think it’s the three hours of sleep that are kicking my butt just now.   So much for holy living.  So much also for United Methodism and the moral high ground.

It is simply SIN! People need Jesus Christ!

Friday , December 05, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS — 

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to answering an online advertisement for baby-sitting work and then using the client’s child to make a pornographic video.

 

Aaron Jay Lemon of Little Canada admitted Wednesday to producing the video in a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

The 23-year-old also admitted to coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct.

The plea agreement says Lemon filmed the child in St. Paul after seeking the baby-sitting job through Craigslist.

St. Paul police spokesman Peter Panos tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the victim was a 2-year-old girl.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says the case was part of a project that encourages agencies to investigate the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet.

The office says Lemon potentially faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,462425,00.html

Gas for under $1 per gallon, Could this be possible?

Oil to Plunge Below $25 Next Year, Merrill Lynch Says

Friday, December 05, 2008

 

Crude oil prices may crash below $25 a barrel next year and gas prices could fall below $1 a gallon if the global recession spreads to China, an energy analyst and CEO said Thursday.

Demand for oil will continue to decline in 2009 as economic growth slows to its weakest level since 1982, Merrill Lynch Commodity Strategist Francisco Blanch concluded in a report.

“A temporary drop below $25 a barrel is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC cuts are required,” Blanch was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. “In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations.”

In October, when oil was trading for around $100 a barrel, Merrill predicted prices could drop to $50. Oil fell Friday to $43.64 a barrel in electronic trading.

The last time crude fell below $25 a barrel was November 2002.

Meanwhile, Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski said on Wednesday that the price of oil could sink even lower — to $20 a barrel — and gasoline prices could drop as low as $1 a gallon by early next year.

Gulf Oil, based in Newton, Massachusetts, is an oil wholesaler.

“The damage to the economy by the financial turmoil is much bigger than the market initially thought,” said Tetsu Emori, commodity markets fund manager at ASTMAZ Futures Co. in Tokyo. “The economic data now is much worse than what we expected a few months ago.”

Oil prices have fallen about 70 percent since peaking at $147.27 in July.

Dismal economic data continued Thursday in the U.S., pointing toward a sharp contraction of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter and weakening demand for crude products, such as gasoline.

The government said the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits last week reached 4.09 million, the highest level since December 1982, while the proportion of workers receiving benefits matched a level reached 16 years ago, in September 1992.

Factory orders plunged a bigger-than-expected 5.1 percent in October caused by big cutbacks in demand for steel, autos, computers and heavy machinery. It was the largest decrease since an 8.5 percent fall in July 2000.

On Thursday, AT&T said it was slashing 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force. Chemicals company DuPont said it will cut 2,500 jobs and media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said it will eliminate about 850 jobs.

Investors will be eyeing the Labor Department’s November unemployment report on Friday, which economists expect will show that the jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent and that companies cut another 320,000 jobs.

“It could take a while before the economy and oil prices really hit bottom,” Emori said. “Oil seems headed below $40.”

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 0.44 cent to 97 cents. Heating oil fell 0.67 cent to $1.50 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery slid 7.9 cents to 5.94 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, January Brent crude rose 7 cents to $42.35 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

533 Thousand Jobs Lost in November

We haven’t experienced tough times like we are about to embark upon.

Ronnie

Ken Sweet

FOXBusiness

 

The U.S. government said the nation’s economy lost 533,000 non-farm jobs in month of November, as the global financial crisis and nearly year-long recession continued to force employers to shed jobs at an ever-quickening pace month after month.

It is the biggest one-month job loss since January of 1974. 

The loss brought the nation’s unemployment rate up to 6.7%, up from a revised October unemployment rate of 6.5%. The unemployment rate is the highest its been in about 15 years.

The number was much worse than the Wall Street economists’ estimates, who were on average looking for a loss of 325,000 jobs for the month according to data provided by Thomson Reuters.

On top of large November loss, the U.S. Labor Department said the nation lost an additional 200,000 jobs in the months of October and September — bringing the total job loss in this report to nearly three-quarters of a million people.

“This is almost indescribably terrible,” said Ian Shepherdson, Chief U.S. Economist with High Frequency Economics. 

Nearly all sectors lost jobs during the November period, the Labor Department said. Construction jobs fell by 82,000 during the month, while service sector jobs dropped by a massive 370,000 jobs. The professional and business service sector lost 136,000 jobs, while manufacturing firms shed 85,000 jobs last month as well.

Economists noted that the sectors that lost the most jobs were mostly the high-paying, high-quality jobs that both Wall Street and the U.S. government is looking for. 

“You’re now hitting at the core of American business,” said John Silvia, Chief U.S. Economist with Wachovia. Silvia is expecting the nation’s unemployment rate to rise to as much as 9% by the time this recession is over. 

The only sectors where jobs were created last month were in education and health services, which created 52,000 jobs last month, and in government, where 7,000 jobs were created last month as well. Education, health and government are considered recession-resistant professions and do not tend to shed jobs in times of economic slowdowns.

Siliva and Shepherson both noted that if education, health and government were removed from the 533,000 headline number, the number of jobs lost in November were considerably worse.

Since the recession began in December last year, more than 1.9 million jobs have been lost, the Labor Department said.

The average hourly wage rose by a seven cents, or 0.4%, last month to $18.30 an hour. The average workweek declined by 0.1 of an hour to 33.5 hours a week, as more full-time workers moved to part-time hours.

The massive loss in jobs gives further incentive for both the current administration, President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration and the Federal Reserve to consider a further stimulus packages to help boost the economy.

Investors had fully priced in the chance the Federal Reserve would cut an additional 0.5% off at their December meeting. 

President-Elect Obama said in a statement that “now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again.”

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration was “very concerned” about the recent accelerating job losses.

Today’s jobs report was anticipated all week by Wall Street traders and investors. None of the figures that came out earlier this week have given economists any hope that the jobs report would come in better than what is already predicted.

The ADP report on Wednesday indicated that the private sector cut 250,000 jobs last month, while the Labor Department said more than 4 million people have been on unemployment benefits for more than one week. 

New social sites will connect youth through Resurrection

Each January, more than 12,000 teens and counselors are drawn to a spiritual retreat they know as “Resurrection.” For two weekends in Gatlinburg, Tenn., participants rock out to Christian music, listen to young-ish preachers, and roam the streets of the popular tourist town.

This year, youth who plan to attend Resurrection (and especially those who don’t) are invited to visit new Facebook and MySpace pages that will get them ready for the Jan. 16-18 and Jan. 23-25 retreats.

Road 2 Resurrection is a MySpace page that features Remy, a 17-year-old Holston youth. She will blog regularly with updates and news about the upcoming winter weekends.

On Facebook, a Holston Conference Youth Ministries page offers more general information about United Methodist events for young people, but it also provides Resurrection news similar to that of the MySpace page.

“Both pages are basically the same, but MySpace is a little more creative,” said JaNae’ Swanson, youth ministry assistant for Holston Conference. “The MySpace page has Remy, and it’s also got songs from Starfield, the band for this year’s Resurrection.”

The “Road 2 Resurrection” page also includes pictures from the ‘08 event, Swanson said.

Meanwhile, the Facebook page has several CCYM members listed as “friends,” and about 420 visitors have already indicated they will be attending Resurrection in less than two months. (CCYM stands for Conference Council on Youth Ministries.)

On both pages, Remy (pictured at right) provides info about the district winners of the “Festival of Gifts and Talents.” Every year at Resurrection, young musicians, dancers, and actors — representing each of Holston’s 12 districts — take the Gatlinburg Convention Center stage. They offer up their gifts to God before thousands of their Christian brothers and sisters.

“I hope people will look at these pages and get excited about our youth events — and also, get a little preview of Resurrection,” said Laura Lambert, associate director of connectional ministries.

While older adults are welcome to visit, the pages are targeted for youth and youth workers in the weeks leading up to Resurrection as well as the weeks after. “The walls are there to let people post their reactions and responses to what they experienced,” Lambert said.

As always, the Youth Ministries Office will be delighted if these social network sites promote Christian fellowship and relationships among youth and local churches, or if they attract new participants from inside or outside the conference borders, Lambert said. Visitors don’t have to be members of Facebook or MySpace to view the pages, but membership is necessary for those who want to add messages, rate pictures, or get added as friends. It’s easy to sign up for free memberships. (MySpace) (Facebook)

Many newcomers to Facebook or MySpace will find that many local churches, pastors, and church friends have pages on these networks.

In fact, Bishop James Swanson has his own Facebook page, and a former CCYM member, Matt Park, has created a rather unique Facebook page.

The page is titled, “Bishop Swanson Makes Me Proud to be a United Methodist.”