" Make A Run For It " November 18, 2022

[FrancesY]

First I thought 20K from the long answers. Then I saw there’s one more K in the puzzle from NECK. Looked up 21K and Iearned that’s a Half Marathon. So which answer to submit? When I saw the 21st K in the puzzle was at 21 Across, I thought that was pointing me in that direction! Oh, well.

[Joe Ross]

Paging @MattGaffney...

What's the story, MorningGlory?

[BarbaraK]

I’m not entirely surprised that 5K was the intended answer. I still believe that half marathon is the correct answer.

[MaineMarge]

Ready for the post- pageant gala…

[Inca]

I was in the half marathon camp as the better answer but ok.

[hcbirker]

I thought 5k was the obvious answer. Glad I went with it.

[LadyBird]

I wasn't really tempted to go with 21K/half marathon because that 21st K wasn't in one of the theme answers (indicated with a ?). But I thought long and hard about submitting 20K (which, apparently, is a real thing). Especially when the answer to 22A was Isles (flashback to the 1000 Island Dressing answer where you counted all the clue numbers). If each of the long answers would have had varying numbers of Ks (adding up to 20) then I might have been convinced to go with that. But, since it was exactly 5 in each long answer, I went with 5K. Now to wait for the coveted email that won't come.

[Dow Jones]

Perhaps Matt should have said "well-known" type of footrace !!

What were the other possible answers ??

[escapeartist]

A local radio station has an annual 0.5 K race where they drink beer at the finish line - so there's that.

[billkatz]

In MGWCC week one puzzles, Matt often has the same answer derived from each of the thematic grid entries. That (and the fact that he could have gotten to 20k/21k without an even 5k per pine persuaded me. I initially came up with 20k, but decided against it.

[DaveWa]

I went with half marathon. I noticed 5 clues with a question mark, the four thematic entries and 35A. The "long i" entry convinced me that the longer race was a better response. Oh well, I guess my chance of getting the elusive mug is now zero instead of nearly zero!

[Colin]

For one, short, moment in time, I went the distance as a half marathon ‘runner’ - convinced that 21st K was significant. Alas, my place atop the podium with mug in hand will remain occupied by a mere 5-K-er. Oh well!
Meanwhile, for those of you who prefer spherical football… enjoy the next few weeks of the World Cup.
Go England, USA and Ecuador!
(Learning from this week’s meta, I am keeping my options open with THREE preferred winners)

[Flamel616]

I felt like 5k was too obvious. I wanted more. With the bankruptcy clues, rho sigmas, and the title reminding me of a run on a bank during ye olde financial hardships, I started trying to look for something that was a race but also related to the finance industry.

[flyingMoose]

If half-marathon was the desired answer, the mechanism would have yielded MARA.

[Dr. HWY]

I submitted 5K, but also

4 X 5K relay, though that is actually a Cross Country Skiing Race

[benchen71]

I'm in the 5K camp. But I solved and presumptuously posted before completing the grid! Afterwards, I still felt it was the better answer. If you were supposed to count up all the Ks in the grid why did 4 long entries have exactly 5 Ks? (Thinking like a constructor, if you were aiming for 21 Ks you could have had them all over the place.)
That said, it might have been neater not to have included that 21st K. Maybe the fill in that region of the grid was too constrained?

[Berto]

I also feel 5-K is the best answer.
1) Race listings almost exclusively use ‘half-marathon’ rather than 21k/21.1k/13.1m
2) only 20 Ks in the long entries, and 5 in each which is too intentional
3) although 20km is a ‘foot race’, it is one of the Olympic distances for a race walk, but title suggests a ‘run’
4) middle entry is MAYDO, May is the 5th month!

[Barney]

Amazing. An irritating grid that needed only the four long answers for the meta. A near instant solve …. And then my distant solving partner and I, like muggles here, spent four days arguing about it.

Ya never know.

[mydogsam]

Well this is probably not relevant, but there were exactly 5 Across answers that contained at least 1 K.... Also, I changed my mind exactly five times before I settled on 5 K.

[LittleGood]

I've rated puzzles KAS-4 before, but this one is the KAS-4 for the ages.

November is pancreatic cancer awareness month. https://lustgarten.org/