AKRON, Ohio — Name a sporting event that doesn’t keep score but has 1,100 winners and LeBron James.
The NBA draft would be a bad guess. But if you picked James’ own King for Kids Bike-a-thon in Akron on Saturday, you can sit in the winners’ circle with the 1,100 bikers who rode for charity. And maybe Akron itself was a winner, too. Mayor Don Plusquellic certainly thought so. In the past 20 years, the city’s downtown has gone from the world’s largest vacant lot to a vibrant urban center that gleams and teems with a splendidly intimate ball park and myriad destination restaurants. The mayor was pleased because James burnished the city’s luster when he let it slip out that he was committed to maintaining the bike-a-thon as an annual event no matter what. But Mahogany Gibson didn’t come to dine or take in a game. And neither did Christopher Beard.
They were among the first heat of riders, ages 9 through 14, who formed up in ranks and files like horse cavalry to charge around a one-mile course.