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Showing posts from 2011

Race #158 - Mount Mourne Christmas Elf 5k - Mooresville, NC - 12/24/11

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I had heard a lot about this race from others who have run it in the past and the reviews were always good, so we headed over to the Mooresville area to experience it for ourselves. It actually exceeded our expectations, being just about a perfect race except for a glitch in putting down the cones or marking the course or something (I never figured out what exactly). The result was that the race was quite a bit longer than a 5k. According to several other people I talked to, they all had Garmin measurements of between 3.38 and 3.40 miles although personally my Garmin measured only 3.25. I don't check distances as I'm running, but I usually have a pretty good feel for how fast I'm running and I felt like I might have been somewhere between about 20:45 and 21:00, so as I approached the finish line and saw the clock at 22 minutes I was surprised. My final time of 22:39 still won my age group (55-59) and everybody else seemed to think they would have been about 2 minutes fast

Race #157 - Columbia Half Marathon - Columbia, SC - 12/17/11

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The Columbia Half Marathon is one of 22 races in the USRA Half Marathon Series held in cities around the country. It was the 12th half marathon in my quest to run at least one half marathon each month in 2011. Uh, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not but I missed the half marathon I had scheduled for November because we had company, and according to my wife Linda, "Nobody cares about that streak but you." After I thought about it for a minute I realized she was right, so I skipped it. No big deal really, because she's right. I'll still try to run a half marathon every month if there's one that I'm able to run, but I won't get too bent out of shape if there's not one, and some months maybe I'll run more than one. Beginning with this race I've got a brand new Race Rating system in place. I believe it's much more objective than my original rating method since it's mostly yes or no (you can see the details below). I decide

Race #156 - Speed for Children in Need 5k - Charlotte Motor Speedway - 12/10/11

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We were able to sleep in today since this week's race was a rare afternoon event. You'd think Charlotte Motor Speedway would be a great place for a road race, and it does have certain advantages such as being private property so you don't have to worry about clearing off the public streets at a certain time, but this was the second race we've run at the speedway and one drawback of both races has been the parking situation. That seems a little odd since there are probably 50,000 parking spaces or so -- surely more than any other location in the Charlotte area -- but sometimes more is not better. There were parking attendants directing people on where to park, but our parking spot was probably about a half mile from where race registration was taking place. We arrived around 2:30, which was 30 minutes before race time. We were able to jog down and make it in time, but it's still nice to be able to park more closely. In the end, it hardly mattered that we parked a

Race #155 - Silvia A. Martz Memorial 5k - Honolulu, HI - 12/03/11

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It's taken me a week to get around to writing about this race, partly because I've spent all week trying to get caught up with the work I got behind on while on vacation, and partly because there's no way I can do it justice. This was just a small 5k, not unlike you would find anywhere else although since it was in Honolulu, just across the street from Waikiki Beach, it will go down as one of the most memorable and special races I've run. To make things even more special, my son Joe, who we were visiting, also ran the race. He's not a runner so a 3.1 mile race is definitely a challenge for him, but he did great and finished 3rd in his age group. I'm hoping that one day all of my kids will make running a daily part of their life. Hey, you gotta try to stay in shape somehow and there's no better way to do it. I'm still pressed for time (another race this afternoon!) so I'll shut up and let the pictures tell the story. We arrived early to make sur

Race #154 - Elf Stampede 5k - Spindale, NC - 11/26/11

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It's a rare occasion lately when we've been able to run more than one race in a week, but running the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day left Saturday wide open for another race if we could find one. As you can imagine, the options are limited on Thanksgiving weekend, but we were pleased to find this race, now in its second year, in Spindale, North Carolina. It's about a 50-mile drive for us, but I don't really mind a little drive on Saturday morning. The website said registration ended at 8 a.m. and the fun run for kids started then, followed by the 5k at 9 a.m. That's a long wait in the freezing weather and we spent most of the time until about 20 minutes before the race staying warm in the car. One of the nice things about small races is that most of the time you can park up close and see what's going on. We watched the kids fun run -- at least the start and finish -- as people began warming up for the main event. There were a handful of people we knew there

Race #153 - Southpark Turkey Trot 8k - Charlotte, NC - 11/24/11

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This was our third year in a row to run the Southpark Turkey Trot. It's part of the Running Journal Grand Prix. If not for that, I'd probably run one of the smaller races on Thanksgiving morning. It's way too crowded, parking is a little bit of a headache, there are never enough porta potties, and the starting line is a mess. For some reason unknown to me though, it's probably the second most popular race of the year in Charlotte after Thunder Road. This year there were 4,831 finishers in the 8k alone, and a huge number in the 5k as well although I'm not sure how many. I heard that the site said they had a total of 8,500 registered runners. There are about 20 porta-potties and the lines are so long that if you want to start the race on time you better be able to just hold it in until after the race. With around 5,000 runners in the 8k you'd think there would be some kind of corral system at the start of the race, but nope, it's every man, woman, and ch

Race #152 - Santa Scramble 5k - Concord, NC - 11/19/11

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The Santa Scramble has the distinction of being the first race that Linda and I have run for four straight years, partly because we've only been running for a little over three years, but it's one of those races we look forward to every year because it's one of the most fun, and also because it's arguably the fastest 5k in the Charlotte area. Just as in the previous three years, today's race was once again my fastest 5k of the year, an all-time Personal Record of 19:42, being only the second time I've run a 5k in under 20 minutes, with the first time being my race here in 2009 when I ran 19:51. And just for the record, Linda ran her all-time 5k PR here today as well! ***** Note: I originally posted my time in this race as 19:40 (the clock actually read 19:39 as I crossed the finish line). However, when the official results were posted it said that my time was 19:42, so I've made adjustments to my original post. ***** I've been doing my best runni

Race #151 - Vulcan Run 10k - Birmingham, AL - 11/05/11

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It was an up and down week for a lot of runners this week -- they were either up in New York for the NYC Marathon or down in Georgia for the Savannah Marathon. We decided to take the road less traveled and headed over to the Vulcan Run 10k in Birmingham, Alabama, the third of ten races in the Running Journal Grand Prix series. This was our second trip to the Vulcan Run, and again we stayed at The Tutwiler Hotel , a beautiful and historic hotel built in 1914 that has been converted to a Hampton Inn. The Tutwiler is just 2 blocks from the starting line and 1 block from the finish line and is the perfect place to stay for this race. Their free breakfast is served from 6 to 10 a.m. so I had some oatmeal and orange juice before the race, then after the race I came in and took a shower and changed clothes and met Linda as she crossed the finish line, then we both went back and after she cleaned up we had some more breakfast then headed over to the awards ceremony and big after-race party a

Race #150 - Spinx Run Fest Half Marathon - Greenville, SC - 10/29/11

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This will go down as one of my most memorable races. It was my 150th race in a little more than three years, so that's a bit of a milestone in itself, but more importantly it was my all-time fastest half marathon of the 28 half marathons that I've run. I was amazed when I reached the finish line in 1:31:57, which is 14 seconds faster than I ran in The Scream a few months ago. I never thought I could run a better time than The Scream since it was loaded with 8 or 9 miles of downhill running, so a PR on this fairly hilly course in Greenville, South Carolina, was something I didn't even consider before running. My goal going in was to finish somewhere in the 1:34 to 1:37 range and I would have been happy anywhere in that area.  With 2,635 finishers in the three races -- marathon (436), half marathon (1,268), and 5k (931) -- this is one of the largest racing events of the year in Upstate South Carolina. This year the half marathon was the second race in the Running Journal

Race #149 - Rocktoberfest Half Marathon - Charlotte, NC - 10/22/11

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The Rocktoberfest Half Marathon is the same race that used to be the Dowd Y Half Marathon but the name was changed this year. Definitely a good move on the part of the race organizers, who evidently decided that a new name would generate some extra excitement, and I agree. Linda and I have only run this race once before -- it was Race #8 back when we first started running in 2008. At that time we both only ran 5k races and I remember being in awe as we watched the half marathon start before the 5k race. It was the first time I had even been near a half marathon, and at that time it was hard to imagine running a race that was 13.1 miles long. I can't remember my exact reasoning but just a few short weeks later I ran the Thunder Road Half Marathon for the first time (Race #14). The weather was seasonably cool, about 40 degrees, and as always I dressed warmer than almost anybody else, although it felt good to me and I didn't overheat at anytime during the entire race. Despite

Race #148 - Komen NC Foothills Race for the Cure - Hickory, NC - 10/15/11

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This was our third time to run the Komen NC Foothills Race for the Cure 5k. Originally we were planning to run the Hopebuilders 5k in Charlotte, partly because it's a little closer and also just for some variety, but when I found out my old high school buddy John Cushing was going to run it with his wife Diane, we decided to come back to Hickory to run the Komen race. It was John and Diane's first race and they decided to go along with the untimed runners and stay together, which is probably a great decision for their first race, and they finished standing up and smiling, so I'm hoping they liked it enough to catch the running bug. For me, of course, I'm a little on the competitive side so I lined up as close to the front as I could behind a flock of determined 10-year-olds. I knew that I'd spend the first half mile dodging them, which I did, but before long things cleared out and I could count the runners ahead. I could see that I was 11th overall and thought i

Drew Walker Newspaper Article

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My good buddy from Greenwood, South Carolina, Drew Walker, recently had a write-up about his running exploits in the Greenwood newspaper. Check it out. Drew is an outstanding runner and an avid racer, having already run 52 races just this year! He qualifies as another "old runner" at the age of 52, but he looks about 20 years younger. Here's a link to the article... http://gwdtoday.com/from-the-cooper-river-bridge-run-to-the-boston-marathon-p27755-1.htm

Race #147 - LungStrong 15k - Cornelius, NC - 10/08/11

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What a great sport this is! Where else can you gloat over a record of 1 win and 146 losses? It was inevitable that my winning streak would end at 1 today, but I wasn't deterred. Win or lose, I'm addicted to getting up on Saturday morning and heading to a race. This was only the 3rd time I'd ever laced 'em up for the 15k distance. My first was this same race in 2009, when I finished in a time of 1:08:16 for 3rd place in my age group, then back in March of this year I ran the Gate River Run 15k down in Florida and was disappointed with my time of 1:10:04. My goal for today was to beat my time from two years ago and hopefully finish under 1:08. A little more lofty goal in the back of my mind was that it would be nice to finish in under 1:06, which would be 22 minutes for each of the three 5k segments of the race. It was great to see and talk to a lot of Charlotte area runners at the starting line. This was the final race in the Run For Your Life Grand Prix series so

Race #146 - Stanley Creek Massacre 10k - Stanley, NC - 10/01/11

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Y A Y !    I    W O N ! -- Sorry for the inordinate amount of horn-blowing, and I hope I didn't startle anybody, but I'm kinda giddy about the fact that I finally won a race. It's always been in the back of my mind that it would be so cool to actually be at the very front of a race. I'm a pretty fast guy for my age (59) and usually finish in the top 10-15% overall in races, and I've done pretty well in my age group, but when it comes to actually being first overall in a race, that's a position normally reserved for the very fastest and usually much younger folks. Since I only started running at the age of 56, I've never had to worry about whether or not I might actually win a race, and I've been quite content to just do well in my age group. A few times I've been fortunate enough to finish 4th or 5th overall, but there are almost always a few young guns out there who are more than happy to keep me firmly anchored in the reality of my advancing age