The Old Runner

One of Charlotte’s most popular road races of the year, the Southpark Turkey Trot has people running off the calories before they even sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Yesterday I received an email from the race directors stating that the race was full, with 6,000 registered runners. Not all of that was for the 8k; there was a separate 5k race, a 1 mile fun run, and a 26.2 yard Tot Trot. Still, the main event was the 8k, and when it was over a total of 3,742 runners crossed the finish line in the 8k alone. It was a big race for me personally since it was the  fourth  of nine races  in the Running Journal Grand Prix series. I’m running most of those Grand Prix races this year in an attempt to gain points in the  55-59 age group . Today I finished 3rd of 93 runners in my age group (33:28 chip time – 6:45 pace) so I’m happy about that. The top 8 runners in each race receive Grand Prix points, and after the first four races I’ve finished in 2nd p...

If you’re a runner in the Charlotte area you most likely already know about the popular Charlotte Observer running blog, “ Run, Theoden, Run ,” which is written by local running enthusiast and Observer entertainment editor Theoden Janes. Theoden was very kind in profiling me in his blog today and in case you missed it here’s a link so you can read it… http://obsruntheoden.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-was-all-ready-to-just-get-old-and-die.html Thanks Theoden!

This was the inaugural running of the Hendrick Marrow Program Half Marathon held at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The field of runners was small, probably 50 or 60 runners for each race (half marathon and 5k). As we lined up to run, the race director told us that they purposely didn’t advertise the race because it was the first one and they wanted to iron out all the kinks, so we were a test group of sorts, and that next year they were planning a big advertising campaign surrounding the race. Sounds logical to me. There were definite kinks to be worked out but it was truly a unique half marathon and I’m glad we ran it. The entire race took place on the grounds of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, which is huge, so it’s not hard to map out a course 13.1 miles long. We ran up and down the ZMAX Drag Strip twice (at the beginning and as we were finishing) and ran around The Dirt Track and around the outside of the big speedway before going inside and taking a lap around the big track itself, which was pret...

I won’t say I told you so, but I did tell you: this is the fastest 5k race in the area. I of course was relying on my old fogged-up memory of running it last year but that was the way I remembered it. Today as our GPS system took us right down the course I was able to get a new look at it, and it wasn’t quite as downhill as I remembered although the trend was definitely more down than up. Actually there are quite a few flat areas along the way for the first two miles, with some gentle downhill and just a couple of tiny uphill areas, with the last mile being a huge downhill nearly to the finish line, with just a little bit of uphill over the last 200 yards or so. It’s still a fast one, and of all the races I’ve run I’m convinced it’s the fastest. Most of the races I’ve run over the past couple months have been longer ones, but my times have steadily gotten better anytime I’ve run a 5k. Last year when I ran this race I cut about a minute and a half off my previous Personal Record, finis...

The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful for the annual Spencer Mountain 10-Miler, a race I’ve heard referred to as “The Southeast’s Toughest 10-Miler.” I can’t say whether that’s true or not, but there are definitely some mean hills out there. The race begins and ends at Warlick Elementary School in the town of Ranlo (just east of Gastonia), travels up a couple miles through Lowell, and then down into the tiny town of Spencer Mountain. It’s surprisingly hilly for Gaston County, and coming back up the hill to Ranlo from Spencer Mountain at around the seventh mile of the race is the dreaded hill that this race is famous for. It’s a doozy, no doubt, but I threw in a couple of 20-second walks along the way and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be. We just live about 3 miles from where the race started (Linda taught at the middle school in Lowell for 30 years before retiring) but we really don’t get down around the town of Spencer Mountain very often. Although the hardest...