Most cities and towns are just struggling to keep the same level of municipal services, while staying afloat. With the finances of the city in mind, we have decided to pursue this project with the assistance of our great corporate and residential citizens to help see this project through.

Our partners are as vital to the success of this event as the athletes and host cities. Their belief in this race, support of our vision and commitment to ensuring that this event was a great experience for everyone involved made this one of the greatest first-year events that I have ever been a part of.

This is big today to have Sylacauga listed with the 99 other cities, ... Sylacauga is the only one in the state, which I think is just extraordinary.

Many cities make music, but no city breathes music quite like Memphis. The songs and sounds that come from here are uniquely American.

[Most American cities began life around some basic means of production, like mining or manufacturing.] People come in to work at the factory, ... and the goods from that factory are sent out to other cities or across the region. But over time, smaller services start building up within the city, like little grocery stores or gas stations, that are servicing needs within the community. The internal infrastructure gets larger and larger, and over time it becomes the biggest part of the city -- the city producing goods and services for itself.

Growing up in a suburban home, the world seems so massive to you. It seems like cities are so big and so far away, and there's so much in them. So your imagination runs wild, instead of when you are born in the middle of Manhattan, you'd know, like, that this is the biggest city.