Philadelphia Distance Run Orthopedic Surgery News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

World-class marathon runner and previous Distance Run winner Khalid Khannouchi will compete again this year. There will also be a two-day health expo race weekend at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott Hotel on Friday, Sept. 17, and Saturday, Sept. 18.

Olympic-bound marathon runner and Villanova graduate Jen Rhines will be the special guest at the 27th annual Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run set for Sunday, September 19, 2004. The 13.1-mile road race will kick off at 8 a.m. from 10th and Market streets.

The day before the race, Rhines, who resides in St. David's, Pa., will also serve as emcee of the Philadelphia Children's Run on the Ben Franklin Parkway, starting at 10 a.m. She will also speak to runners and answer their questions at 1 p.m. that same day during the second day of the Jefferson Hospital Distance Run Health Expo at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, located at 1201 Market St. In the evening, she will be feted at the elite runners' dinner.

Rhines returns to Philadelphia after a fast second-place finish last year behind Leah Malot at the 2003 Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run.

She is one of three women runners competing for the United States in the marathon portion of the track and field events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. She placed third last month in the U.S. Olympic Women’s Marathon Trials with a personal record by 11 minutes, 19 seconds over her previous best of 2:41:16, to make the U.S. team.

"We are honored to have a great athlete like Jen Rhines, as well as Philadelphia's mayor, take part in our event,” said Race Director Mark Stewart. "That makes this year's race even more special."

Thomas Lewis, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said, “Everyone at Jefferson University Hospital is excited about being involved in the full array of activities together with the road racing community.”

Another highlight of this year’s event is a new graphic design for the race created by Sam Maitin, an internationally recognized Philadelphia artist whose works have been displayed in the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, both in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London.

The floral design will appear on Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run shirts and on prints available for purchase. The weekend’s events also include:

• The three-mile “Big Walk for Little Feet,”a fun walk to raise monies for Jefferson University Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for babies born prematurely or with other difficulties, at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 19, at 12th and Market streets.
• The 5K Classic starting at 10:30 a.m. that same morning at Cherry Street and Ben Franklin Parkway.
• The Children's Run and activities at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 17th Street and Ben Franklin Parkway

The free, two-day Distance Run Health Expo will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the following day. The expo will feature special workshops and talks by Jefferson’s sports medicine, fitness and nutrition experts and exhibits by leading fitness-related merchants and manufacturers.

Once again, the Distance Run is offering special race packet opportunities for half marathon and 5k Classic participants who cannot make it to the Expo to pick up their race packet.

Those runners will have the option of getting their race packet on race day for an additional prepaid fee of $20 for the Distance Run participants and $10 for 5K participants. The packets can then be picked up that morning before the races at Friends Select School, 17th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

There is no race day registration.

This is the seventh year Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is title sponsor for the premier half-marathon race in the nation. Last year's event drew nearly 10,000 entries.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has major programs for heart disease, cancer treatment, neuroscience, orthopaedics, high-risk childbirth, genetics, radiology, digestive diseases and many other areas of medicine and surgery. It is one of only a few hospitals in the United States that is both a Level I Trauma Center and a federally designated regional spinal cord injury center. The Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson is designated as a clinical cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the hospitals of the Jefferson Cancer Network offer free screenings for breast, skin and prostate cancers. There are several free support groups.

U.S.News and World Report has consistently ranked many of Jefferson's services as among the best in the nation. These include rehabilitation, cardiology/cardiac surgery, orthopaedics, digestive disorders (gastroenterology), geriatrics, gynecology, neurology and neurosurgery, which are both based at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, otolaryngology - head and neck surgery, and urology. In addition, Jefferson physicians have been named among the best doctors by Philadelphia Magazine and by Best Doctors in America.

Jefferson has been ranked among “The Top Hospitals In America” by Modern Maturity, AARP’s magazine for people over 50. For six years in a row, Jefferson University Hospital has been awarded the Consumer Choice Award by the National Research Corporation (NRC), for being an innovator and leader in health care in Philadelphia.

In addition, Jefferson University Hospital was the recipient of the HealthGrades 2004 Distinguished Hospital Award for excellence. ™

For more information on the Distance Run and other events, or to register online for any of the races, go to www.philadistancerun.org or call the race hotline at 215-564-6499.