Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Hello to our Mathews Neighbors. If you haven’t already heard the news, our hometown will be host to a running event next weekend. On Saturday, Oct. 16, more than 100 runners will be racing along Main Street and county backroads in the early hours.

The inaugural Mathews Marathon and Half Marathon will start and finish in Historic Mathews Court House at Put-In Creek Park and Pavilion. The race will start at 7 a.m., while the roads are pretty quiet; the finishing times will vary depending on the distance and speed of the runners. The route goes out to three of our area beaches and the final section will take the runners down Tabernacle Road to Main Street to Brickbat Road. The full course maps can be viewed on the Race Event Page: mocva.net/marathon.

Starting this week, we’ll be marking the course routes with spray chalk: red for the Full Marathon route and blue chalk for the Half Marathon. Just in case you see the new marks on the roads, you’ll know the...