The Old Runner

This was my 25th half marathon, and if there's anything I've learned in those 25 races it's that 13.1 miles still feels like 13.1 miles no matter how many times I run it. Seems like I'm always running out of gas about 10 miles into the race but so far I've managed to have enough fumes to cross the finish line. I'm not sure I've mentioned it in the blog until now, but one of my goals this year is to run at least one half marathon each month in 2011, and so far I'm on track... January:  Resolution Run Half Marathon - Travelers Rest, SC - (01/08/11)(Time 1:45:46) February:  Myrtle Beach Half Marathon - Myrtle Beach, SC - (02/19/11)(Time 1:34:21) March:  Germantown Half Marathon - Memphis, TN - (03/20/11)(Time 1:36:38) April:  Knoxville Half Marathon - Knoxville, TN - (04/03/11)(Time 1:59:08) May:  New River Half Marathon - Todd, NC - (05/07/11)(Time 1:46:37) June:  Charity Chase Half Marathon - Hickory, NC - (06/04/11)(Time 1:42:15) July:  ...

This was my third year in a row to run the Soldiers Reunion 5k in Newton. It's actually a pretty big 5k by small-town race standards, and it's also one of the longest running races in the state. I've always thought of it as a pretty fast and flat race too, but after the race a couple of people mentioned to me that it's not as fast as, for example, the hilly Waldensian Classic held a week earlier in Valdese, and their times were slower here by 30 seconds to a minute. After running two 5k's last week with times of 20:20 and 20:29 I was hoping to get into "20-minutes flat" territory, but I didn't quite make it, although my time of 20:43 was 1st in my age group and a minute and 5 seconds faster than last year's memorable showdown between Steve Staley and me where we finished 1-2 in the age group, both at 21:48 and with me ahead only by a few hundredths of a second. Two years ago I ran this same race at 22:10, so I'm really happy with this year'...

To be honest, what drew me to this race was the cool website, but I really couldn't decide whether to run this one or the Great Waldensian Footrace in Valdese, and since the day-of-race registration was $35 for the Rock 'N Run 5k but only $15 for the Waldensian race, I almost headed out to Valdese. When I woke Linda up she said she wanted to just stay home, and rather than drive the 65 miles or so to Valdese I just headed to Charlotte instead. The race was held at the NC Music Factory, which was in a completely different area than I thought, but luckily the GPS took me straight to the race site. There were a lot of people there but after I had registered and had been there for 10 or 15 minutes I still didn't see anyone I knew. Finally I spotted Steve Austin, then Ken Simpson, then Jerry Sofley, and Herb Berman. A few other familiar faces showed up but I was surprised how few of the regular Charlotte runners that I know were there. This race is kind of a modified out-and...

This was the inaugural Dog Days Twilight 5k and it turned out really nice. The race starts and finishes at Patriot's Park in Kings Mountain, which is a place I associate with the frigid Jingle Bell Run that is hosted in Kings Mountain in the middle of December. It seems to always be one of the coldest races of the year and after running it for two straight years I remember when it was the only race on that cold Saturday morning this past December I decided to just stay in bed. The Dog Days Twilight 5k was much different, of course, and the temperature seemed just about perfect to me. This was the second week in a row that we ran a race that was organized by one of our running friends, this time Margot from Kings Mountain, and she did an outstanding job for the most part with the course being clearly marked and having volunteers at all turns, great T-shirts, a top-notch timing company, etc. There were a couple of minor snafus though -- they ran out of water, and somehow they also ...

I decided to bypass the Blue Points 5k in Charlotte today and instead headed for Casar, North Carolina, population 308, for the Run From Knobby 5k. The town of Casar was originally named Caesar (as in Julius Caesar or Caesar salad), but when they applied for a post office the name was misspelled and it officially became Casar. Knobby is the area's legendary ape-like character who seems to be a distant cousin of Bigfoot, and over the years there have been numerous Knobby sightings by area residents. About a month ago Angie, one of the Shelby runners who we've become friends with through the local races, asked me to post an event for the race on Facebook. It was her first attempt at directing a race, and since then she's been transferred to Florida and has already moved, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out that it's nice to have friends who are willing to help and are knowledgeable about races, and the race went over without a hitch. My own thought was that i...