Jackson native Paul Meyers died during the Andrew Jackson Half Marathon on March 31, 2012.  Meyers was just 33-years old.

Meyers was an assistant public defender for the 26th Judicial District of Tennessee.  A graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis and the University of Mississippi School of Law.  He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

His death is the first in the 40 years of the Andrew Jackson Marathon and Half Marathon.  The race takes place every spring in Jackson, Tennessee.

“He was (lying) on the road and people had gathered around,” Charleyn Reviere said. “There was no pulse and we put him in the car and got him to Regional as quickly as we could.”

Meyers collapsed and fell around mile marker 8 of the race. He was found by Reviere, as she stood near the street, waiting to cheer her husband on during the race.

Meyers father and brother both died tragically young from heart related issues as well.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Paul’s family and friends!

Phi Alpha

Here is the finisher’s medal from the 43rd Annual Yuri Gagarin Memorial Half Marathon that took place outside of the cosmonaut training center just outside of Moscow, Russia.

This is the medal for third place that was awarded to Michelle Mitchell.  A beautiful medal that appears colorful and with the image of a double-phoenix on the front.

[You can follow Michelle on Twitter @runnerchickey]

Loud, colorful, and proud….here is the finisher’s medal from the Tour De Pain Extreme Half Marathon that took place on April 1, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Great job by the RD’s on this colorful bling.

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[Submitted by BeardRunJax. Follow him on Twitter @BeardRunJax]

Here is the finisher’s medal from the 49th Caesar Rodney Half Marathon that took place on March 25, 2012 in Wilmington, Delaware.

This one is almost more of a corporate advertisement than race medal but it’s not bad overall.

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[medal photo submitted by Gerard Pescatore. Follow him on Twitter @Gpescatore]

Here is the finisher’s medal fromt he Xterra Black Canyon Half Marathon that took place on March 25, 2012 in Rock Springs, Arizona.

Just an opinion but this medal is small (per a witness), ugly, and uninspired.

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[medal photo submitted by Robert Boluyt RIF #66. Follow him on Twitter @Bateluer]

This is the finisher’s medal (and shirt) for the Bearathon Half Marathon which took place in Waco, TX on March 24, 2012. 

This is a great medal for the Bearathon which is known as the “”The Toughest Half-Marathon in the State of Texas”. Love the bear paw with wings over all of the inspirational words!

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[This medal was submitted by Aaron Johnstone RIF #94 – follow him on twitter @TexasRunnr]

This is the finisher’s medal for the NC Half Marathon which took place in Concord, North Carolina at Charlotte Motor Speedway on March 25, 2012.

This is a fabulous medal to commemorate the event. The half marathon course takes the runners on all 3 tracks at the Speedway and finishes under a checkered flag on Pit Road. The medal captures all of that by including the track, racing cars, the checkered flag, and yes, even flashing lights. This is a must do race for any NASCAR or race  fan and it is definitely on my to-do list!

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[medal submitted by Elizabeth Kalifeh RIF #104 – follow her on twitter @ekalifeh]

 This is the medal for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas Half Marathon that took place in Dallas, Texas on March 25, 2012.

I like this medal a lot. I think the big boots and the sparkle on DALLAS are exactly what you’d expect to see for that city. Everything is bigger in Texas, right?

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[medals submitted by Brian L (follow on twitter –  @bmleub) and MassielSm (follow on twitter – @massielSm)]

Running USA released their Half Marathon Report for 2011 yesterday. I was looking at it and comparing it to the Marathon Report for 2011 they released last month. I am a numbers geek and I like to look at all the data in the reports (median ages, median times, fastest times, slowest times, biggest, etc. ) Ok, I confess…I do compare my times to the median times to see how I compare to the rest of the runners out there. Is that bad? But on a less selfish note, our sport is really growing and that is really awesome to see.

I thought it might be fun to compare the two reports:

Kind of interesting to see the percentages for men & women flip for the marathon vs. the half marathon, don’t you think? And also that the median ages increase slightly as the distance goes up?

Anyway, if you are a numbers geek like me or if you’re just curious to see where the marathon and half marathon are at, you can check out the full report here:

2012 Marathon, Half-Marathon and State of the Sport Reports