While the Rock Hall revs up for its first induction ceremony here, 10,000 runners (give or take a few) are revving up for Revco.

This weekend will be the 20th Anniversary of the Revco Cleveland Marathon and 10K races, and other linked events.

The races are Sunday (the marathon starts at 8 a.m. and the 10K at 8:15).

Last year, a world record was set in the 10K (Joseph Kimani, of Kenya, 27:20) and a course record was set in the women's marathon (Alevtina Naoumova, of Russia, 2:32:14). There likely would have been a course record in the women's 10K, but the winner, Elana Meyer, of South Africa, tripped over a fallen runner and finished in 32 minutes, just seven seconds off the record set in 1993 by Lisa Ondieki.

And while pavement-pounding predators pursue a prey of prestigious performances, other predators (the real thing!) are settling in and waiting for the influx of people (not to be thought of as prey) to come look at them.

The five gray wolves from Minnesota are the focus of the Clevland Metroparks Zoo's first new exhibit in five years (Rainforest opened in 1992; can you believe it's been that long ago!?). The $2.5-million Wolf Wildnerness opens May 9.

It isn't all wolves in the two-acre exhibit. There are beavers in a pool, a pond and creek for fish and frogs and salamanders and turtles, and trees and shrubs and wildflowers for quail and ducks and owls and ravens and bald eagles.

A "trapper's lodge" at the site has observation points for visitors to watch the animals and their environment and also serves as an educational center with a computer research station for tracking wolves in the lower 48 states. Zoo officials say about 2,500 wolves now live in the wilds of the country and that conservation programs are underway to get wolves back into several states (in the early 1800's there was a concentrated effort by ranchers to destroy wolves because of threats to livestock).

It's the first time in 19 years that wolves have been on public display at the zoo.

Other notes:

"I Do! I Do!" with Gary Sandy (remember him as station manager of "WKRP in Cincinnati"?) and Anne Torsiglieri is at the Cleveland Play House (through June 1; tickets, $28-$35, call 795-7000).

Carl Topilow's "Cleveland Pops Orchestra" plays the Big Bands May 10 at the CSU Convocation Center (tickets $20-45, call 765-POPS or Ticketmasters at 241-5555).

After the May 3 wrap-up of "Blue Suede Shoes" performances in San Jose, its "second city," Cleveland Ballet will take a break from its international tour and come home to practice some more before taking the rock ballet set to Elvis Presley tunes to Mexico City for May 27-June 1 performances.

The touring version of the million-dollar-plus show got mostly good, but some not-so-good reviews in its stops in Detroit and San Jose.

The San Francisco Chronicle dance critic called the San Jose performance "outrageously entertaining" and said that Ballet Artistic Director Dennis Nahat's "...meeting of rock and ballet...amounts to an alchemy of movement, music and feeling."

The Oakland Tribune's writer did not like the show much. She described the sound quality as "mediocre" and the choreography as "anemic."

The Chronicle review came out two days before the Trib's review, and maybe there's an unwritten law that competing papers have to disagree? Probably not, but one wonders if the two reviewers saw the same show.

The San Jose Mercury News said "Blue Suede Shoes" is "...just the tonic to revive America's would of touring ballet, which has been sagging for most of the past decade." The writer asks, "...can a Beatles ballet be far behind?"

Regardless of who said what in the reviews, all of them agreed that the audiences loved the show.

And finally, this: on May 10, amusement parks open. And the thousands will rush to the Cedar Points and Geauga Lakes and Sea Worlds to wait in lines to do this and that, and a few will wonder, "Isn't it too bad that ________________ isn't still around? And you can fill in the blank with the name of your favorite amusement park that once was and is no more.

A couple of Cleveland area guys have put together a collection of books on amusement parks that were and some that still are. Lee Bush and Richard Hershey even co-authored some of the books ("Euclid Beach Park is closed for the season" and "Euclid Beach Park--a second look"). Others are available through their AP Books publishing house (http://www.apbooks.com).

The books are good reading and great for pictures.

But one story they don't have: that of Louie "the Dip."

That fascinating tale has to do with Louie's visits to Euclid Beach Park and his penchant for popcorn and purses.

More about Louie later.

(That's called a "hook," and is intended to pique your interest enough for you to come back here as often as necessary to find out about Louie!)

OTHER STORIES by John Herrington

RETURN TO Cleveland, The New American City