USMA members,

I tried to make nice with this missive to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 
about tomorrow's 10 km race, but I'm not sure I succeeded.

Norm
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Norman & Nancy Werling 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 23:35
Subject: The July 4th 10 kilometer race


Dear AJC reporter Mr. Scott Bernade,

I'm going to give you credit for realizing that the race in more than 6.2 miles 
because at least Wednesday's sports section headline said: "6.2 Miles, Plus."

I'll assume it was your editors that were at fault for not allowing you to 
simply and correctly refer to it as 10 kilometers.   Perhaps next time, your 
editors will allow you to refer to it as a 10,000 meter race.  Surely you agree 
that the public, which follows Olympic competition, is aware of track events in 
meters.  However, I would be loath to think that the Atlanta public does not 
realize that the prefix "kilo" means a thousand.  Thus 10 kilo(thousand)meters 
is 10,000 meters.

I would be truly interested in knowing if the serious runners from other 
countries practice and gauge their running on one kilometer (1000 meter) 
intervals, as I assume that 95% of the world would do, rather than the one mile 
(5280 feet) measures, as only the US persists in doing.

Norman Werling
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

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