Mr. MOSES NEWSON (Reporter): I considered myself an outsider as far as the kind of access we could get and the kind of rapport that we had with people we were dealing with.

NPR: Book Examines Covering the Race Beat

Mr. BARRY SMITH (owner, Louisiana Music Factory record store in New Orleans): I'm very low-tech myself, and I know as far as our customers, we still do quite well with the records upstairs.

NPR: Vinyl Still Sells in New Orleans

And so despite my status as a running refusenik, I found myself herded, among a crowd of far fitter, healthier, sportier types, into a pen behind the start line, part of a sea of red t-shirted runners beneath a threatening gray sky.

CNN: Crossing the Olympic finish line