The Old Runner

I could write a whole book about this race. Fortunately for my readers, I just drove 400+ miles from Huntsville to Gastonia and I’m so exhausted and it’s so late that I’ll limit my enthusiasm to just a few sentences. Runner’s World ranked this race as one of the Top 100 road races in the United States, and it really was a spectacular race. Almost every aspect was outstanding. The 10k had 2,048 finishers and the 5k almost as many. Most notably for me, this was the final race of the Running Journal Grand Prix. I finished 3rd of 82 runners in my age group in this one, and for the season finished in the top 3 runners in all seven RJ Grand Prix races that I ran, and at the awards ceremony I received a plaque as “Male Grand Masters Champion” for the year (that’s ages 50-59)! I’d love to take a few minutes here to blow my horn, but it’s lights out in 20 minutes so I’ll just say it’s a biggy for me. I won’t be chosen for the next Olympics and probably won’t knock the top out of the New York C...

We were headed for Huntsville on this Saturday but I decided to sneak this one in before we left. Didn’t have time to write about it before we left and still don’t have time as we’re getting back from Huntsville on Monday night. It was fun to see all the local folks though! Click Here for Race Results Race Rating: 3 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.) 3 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10) (generic medals) 7 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10) 6 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10) 7 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average) 4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No) 0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No) 6 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No) 7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No) 7 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average) 6 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average) 7 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with ...

My daughter Nicole has been living in New York City for the past 14 years. She moved there to attend graduate school at NYU, and after she graduated she stayed on as an English professor. She’s now been at NYU for almost as many years as I was in the ninth grade, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog entry. Last summer while I was visiting, Nicole’s friend Diana took me for a run across the Brooklyn Bridge and down along the Hudson River, which is still my best and most memorable training run ever. You can  read about it and see photos that I took along the way by clicking here . Diana and Nicole both live in Brooklyn and we talked about all of us running the Brooklyn Half Marathon this year. Nicole got a little sidetracked when on Mother’s Day just a couple weeks ago she found out she’s pregnant (yay!), and it was decided that a half marathon might not be the best thing for her right now, which I think was a good decision. We’d never want to look back and regret making a decision to ru...

Linda’s best friend from college has been going to White Lake her whole life, and in fact, now owns a cottage there, and when they recently got back in touch for the first time in many years we looked for a race in the area so we could do a little multitasking by visiting and running a race on the same weekend. It worked out nicely this weekend, so off we headed the approximately 180 miles to White Lake, North Carolina, which is about 30 miles east of Lumberton near Elizabethtown. We didn’t really know what to expect in the area but were pleasantly surprised that the area is a beautiful and laid back summer hideaway that time seems to have forgotten. There are no big hotel chains but quite a few mom and pop motels and cottages that line the shore, many with a private beach of their own. We rented a really nice cottage for the night at Carolyn’s Cottages, much more than we needed as far as space (it slept 10 but there were only two of us) but the price and location were perfect. We had...

In the immortal words of Randy Jackson, “You know I’m a fan, but it was just all right for me Dog.” Sad to say that compared to last year’s Home Run Trot, which was one of my favorite races of the whole year, this one seemed a little pitchy (no pun intended). As we drove up to the stadium about 40 minutes before the start of the race, the first thing I noticed was that there was only a fraction of the crowd in attendance compared to last year. We soon found out that this year they decided to have the Girls on the Run race after the 5k. That was disappointing because, although they weren’t counted in with the regular runners, last year the hundreds of girls ran along with the other runners in the 5k and with all of their friends and families in attendance the crowd support was great. This year, not so much. Last year as I entered the stadium and ran down the third base line I received an ovation that sounded like I just hit a grand slam. This year, it was more like a sacrifice bunt. Ok...