Rocks !! member Klaus Ehrhardt recently ran the USAF marathon in Dayton Ohio. He provided the article siubmitted to the Midnorth Monitor below.

Quite a few people in Espanola keep asking me if I still continue to run. I've never quit; it's just that my daughter keeps stealing the show, lol!. (Caroline Ehrhardt is a National calibre triple jumper - 2nd best in Canada)

So my story goes something like this........
Klaus Ehrhardt of Espanola had recently competed running in the United States Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The 61 year old athlete stayed on the airforce base as the guest to the commander and General of the US Air Force. Although running in numerous marathons in various countries, Ehrhardt indicated that this one was 'special'. "I've never been chauffered to and from a marathon in any previous runs and almost right to the starting line." The VIP treatment also included exclusive use of washroom facilities. "Normally, prior to the start of a race, runners would have to wait in long lineups for a last minute jaunt to the portable washrooms; fortunately for me no waiting was required."

The 42 kilometre course was fairly flat and not a difficult run. However, Ehrhardt indicated that he had developed leg cramps at the 36km mark and was forced to slow down. "Timewise I was on my personal target at 1:41 hr for the first half (21km) of the race and anticipated finishing between 3:30 hr to 3:35 hr. Even though losing a considerable amount of time due to an agonizing leg cramp I managed to finish in a time of 3:44 hr." He said that he was happy with his age class place of 6th out of 69 runners and overall 379th of 2013 finishers. His finishing time qualifies him for the Boston Marathon. " I've been notified that my application has been approved to run in Boston in April, 2010. I'm looking forward to run for the third time in Boston which will be host to over 25,000 marathoners from all over the world."