Ninth Monthly Milestone Message
Near the finish of the Dexter-Ann Arbor run, this green-sock clad foot prompted the cheer from a spectator, “Go green socks!”
If it’s possible to compare the operation of an online newspaper to running, then it’s more like a marathon than a sprint. Today, The Ann Arbor Chronicle passes the nine-month mile marker, and my thoughts are similar to those I had some years ago as a first-time marathoner … at about mile 20 of 26.
I completed the final six miles in a survival shuffle. Spectators along the way at such events provide encouragement to runners like me – mostly they clap or they yell things like, “Looking good!” and “You can do it!”
If you’re wearing green socks, a green-sock enthusiast might yell, “Go green socks!!” even if they don’t know you. I’m not making this up – that’s what the woman standing next to me yelled to a kid wearing green socks at Sunday’s Dexter-Ann Arbor run. To be clear, the kid was bouncing along, not doing a survival shuffle.
Fewer spectators dish out the tough love: “C’mon pick it up, get your butt in gear, this is not a walk in the park, it’s a marathon!”
And the feedback from Chronicle readers has spanned that same range – from unabashed enthusiasm, to the expectation that we “pick it up” and expand the breadth and depth of our coverage to provide a replacement to The Ann Arbor News. [The News is shutting down in a couple of months, in case you're new around these parts.] Replace The Ann Arbor News, huh? Okay, but I have a stitch in my side, and a blister on my toe, so the surge in momentum might not blow you away. [Full Story]