Most of the 200 or so athletes competing at the eighth annual Adidas Boston Indoor Games tonight traverse the track circuit seeking fame and a good living. But a handful, including about a dozen contestants in the Masters Mile - whose contestants are all 40 or older - race purely for the competition. Here's a bit more on five local Masters entrants.

PAUL HAMMOND, 43
INSURANCE UNIT CLAIM MANAGER, LEXINGTON

REHOBOTH - Amid the completed, semicompleted, and never-to-be- completed works in the Rehoboth studio of Dennis Congdon sits a small Royal typewriter. At first it seems out of place, but talk a few moments with Congdon, whose large-format oil and acrylic paintings are brush strokes sandwiched between layers of pigment sprayed through hand-cut stencils, and you begin to understand why it fits right in. Congdon, 48 and a professor of painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, begins his explanation, and process, with what he calls "the grand tradition" of great painters:

Eric Nisenson, 56, of Malden, was an editor of college textbooks until 1980, when he began writing books of his own. He now is at work on his sixth, about the tropicalia music movement (also known as tropicalismo) in '60s Brazil. Previous titles include "Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest" and " 'Round About Midnight," a portrait of Miles Davis. Nisenson is a 2002 Guggenheim fellow; the stipend is allowing him to proceed with the book without having a publisher.

"I always wanted to write, since I was a kid, but like all writers, I was afraid I wouldn't get published.

Gordon Hamersley, Chef/owner, Hamersley's Bistro, Boston

"I could not do without my cast-iron braising pot. It's a 15-quart, very heavy, black cast-iron pot with a lid, and I bought it years ago. It's what I cook all my braises in. It's just this fabulous piece of equipment that conducts heat beautifully. You can lower the heat in your oven to almost nothing and it cooks beef stew, lamb shanks, or veal osso bucco in a wonderful way."

The Patriots may be on a hot streak, but vice chairman Jonathan Kraft, 39, has a hot streak of his own that goes back to childhood.

He’s a jalapeno man, on eggs, crackers, or on burgers, pickled or plain.

“When we were just down in Houston [for a November game], I had some that were deep-fried with cheddar cheese, and that was pretty good. But that was a dish,” he says. “Jalapenos as jalapenos, I don’t think you could improve them. I guess you could make them spicier, but I’m pretty much happy with the taste as they are.”

In numbers that haven't been seen since the Vietnam War, US citizens of many backgrounds have been moved to demonstrate their opinions and feelings about the war in Iraq. We recently asked people from both camps to tell us what has motivated them.

FAVORING THE WAR

Annabelle Guerra, 19, student, part-time worker at the Environmental Protection Agency, Roslindale

David Nerrow, 36, of Acton intends to run from Hopkinton to Boston today, just like 20,233 others in the Boston Marathon. He'll start a couple of hours later than everyone else, though, because at 10 a.m. he'll begin pounding out 26.2 miles on a treadmill at the Puma Store on Newbury Street.

Why?

He has declared a goal of raising $100,000 this year for research into cystic fibrosis, which afflicts his 4-month-old daughter, Emma, and the Puma stunt will bring in $1,300 for the cause.

With graduation season comes a new wave of art-school graduates,
their Masters of Fine Arts degrees conferred by Massachusetts College
of Art, Boston University, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
What do you learn in such programs, and when you are done, what comes
next?

JASON CHASE
Boston University

Age: 25

Born: Colorado Springs

Resides: Somerville

To Fenway security personnel, the colored strips of nylon Supertek are proof that a purse or backpack has been inspected for contraband.

But to a subset of the Fenway faithful, the adhesive bracelets lined
with Red Sox logos have come to symbolize something more: links in a
chain of hope for another World Series win.