New meaning has been given to the term “pounding the pavement,” with the surprising statistic that running on concrete-as compared to asphalt-is 14 times harder on a runner’s joints and bones.

Saint Louis University freshman Ian Hackett, who will be running in the annual St. Louis Marathon Sunday, April 6, learned this the hard way. He suffered a stress fracture earlier this year, as a result of running on St. Louis streets.

Since last fall, Hackett has been training for the marathon event of this year’s Go! St. Louis Family Fitness Weekend, which will take place today to April 6. The weekend has seven different events: a 5K run-walk, a 1.2-mile run for elementary school students, a diaper dash, a Mature Mile run for seniors ages 60 and older, a half marathon, a marathon relay and, of course, the full marathon.

The fitness expo is today at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront Hotel, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Jeff Trammel, director of marketing and communication for Go! St. Louis, expects the community involvement to approach approximately 50,000 people, including spectators. He said that approximately 18,000 of those are registered participants.

SLU will be well represented among the crowd of runners, with several students signed up for the races.

Hackett, who began his running career just a year ago, is in for the long haul of 26.2 miles this Sunday. For him, the race is about testing his physical strength and endurance.

“I just want to see if I can do it, to see what I’m made of,” Hackett said. “It’s just kind of a big goal that I’ve wanted to accomplish ever since I got into running.”

Hackett was persuaded to try out for track and field his senior year of high school by a friend, and now-fellow SLU student. He joined the team and fell in love with the sport, and he continued running throughout the summer.

Once he arrived at SLU last fall, Hackett decided to train for the marathon and, in preparation, competed in a half marathon in Forest Park two months ago.

Although he went into the race with low expectations, he finished the 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 30 minutes-a great time for a new runner.

Even after doing well in the half marathon, Hackett is still keeping his expectations low for the full marathon.

“I mean, I’m just looking to finish, honestly, because I know it’s grueling,” he said. “That half marathon was pretty grueling; I was feeling pretty weak there. Just to finish without walking, that would make me extremely happy.”

However, Hackett realizes that if he doubles his half-marathon time from February, he will qualify for the Boston Marathon, which, for his age group, has a 3-hour-and-10-minute qualifying time.

For one SLU runner, that goal has already been attained. Junior Matt Dirnbeck ran his first marathon in Chicago in 2006. He then qualified for Boston, after running last year’s Spirit of St. Louis, by finishing in 3 hours and 5 minutes.

He and two other SLU students, who also qualified, will be headed to Boston to run on April 21.

Dirnbeck is keeping it simple with the Family Fitness Weekend, participating only in the marathon-relay event. This event takes the 26.2 miles of the full marathon and divides it into four legs, so each team member runs roughly one-fourth of the total distance.

Dirnbeck’s team is composed of him and three other men and was formed because it seemed to them as though it would be something fun for all of them to do together. Dirnbeck and Hackett said that having fun is the most important aspect.

“We’d like to win,” Dirnbeck said. “But a couple of the guys are kind of struggling with injury a little bit, so mostly we’d like to finish and run the best we can and have a good day out there and just have a lot of fun.”

Both Hackett and Dirnbeck have been doing extensive training for their upcoming races, and they go running together with a group on Sunday through the city. Both note that while there are some challenges to training in the city, like running on concrete and having to be wary of traffic and broken sidewalks, there are also some major advantages.

“[Training in the city] is not really so much of a challenge, more of an advantage because we get to actually train on the course.

“The past couple of weeks there have been groups of us that have gone out for runs that are anywhere from 16 to 20 miles, and most of our route that we do is actually on the marathon course,” Dirnbeck said.

This Sunday, runners will start downtown north of Union Station and head through the Soulard neighborhood, where they will go by the Anheuser-Busch Brewery before returning back to downtown. Runners will then go west through Midtown and the Central West End.

Those running the half marathon will turn around, once they reach the Central West End, while the full-marathon runners will head through Forest Park into Clayton and then return downtown.

Another thing Dirnbeck enjoys about running in St. Louis is the scenery. “[Running in the city] is the one thing that’s been really neat-I’ve been able to really experience St. Louis in a whole different light through running, and by being able to see the entire city from my running shoes,” he said.

What will these dedicated runners be doing the night before the big race? Eating and sleeping, according to Dirnbeck.

His race starts at 7 a.m. Sunday. Dirnbeck plans on getting to bed early the night before and also predicts a trip to The Hill, St. Louis’ Italian neighborhood, for pasta and a viewing of “Chariots of Fire,” before the race with his fellow runners, for inspiration.

Trammel and the other members of the Go! team, including 1,500 volunteers for the weekend, are expecting a great turnout for this year’s event.

The event has grown from 2,500 participants, when it began in 2000, to now almost 18,000 participants.

This year’s marathon will include a few changes from previous years. In addition to the name change from The Spirit of St. Louis Marathon, the organizers of the marathon are making the weekend’s events more environmentally friendly.

Go! St. Louis has partnered with two different organizations to reduce the negative environmental impact.

The effort hopes to recycle many of the 30,000 paper cups that will be used by runners during the race, to hydrate, as well as almost 18,000 plastic bottles used after runners finish.

All 270 Port-O-Potties throughout the racecourse will use earth-friendly chemicals.

“We’re happy if we can have a safe, rewarding experience for all of our participants,” Trammel said.

“That includes the toddlers participating in the diaper dash; the seniors, 60 years of age or older, who are doing a one-mile walk; and the people who are participating in the 26.2-mile marathon. We’re happy if everyone comes out and has a great time.”