The Old Runner

Photo courtesy of Bobby Aswell Well, this one got off to an interesting start. First there was Kalib Wilkinson , from Lynchburg, Virginia, who went out like a bolt of lightning, leaving everybody behind right from the beginning. He never looked back and never was challenged, finishing with a time of 1:10:06, more than 12 minutes ahead of second place. It's not too surprising since he finished 22nd OVERALL in the 2011 Boston Marathon with a mind-boggling time of 2:19:53. The women's winner, Molly Nunn , is one of North Carolina's best known runners, and she finished fourth overall with a time of 1:22:40. Molly recently missed qualifying for the Olympic Trials by less than 1 minute. But to me, the really interesting thing about the start was that as we were going down what was quite a bit of downhill in the first mile, I was in about tenth place overall. I'm the first to admit that I always start out too fast. That's just the way I roll. It's not ideal but i...

Jonas runs with dad (our son Dave) in his first official race. This was a special race for us -- the 1k was our 3-year-old grandson Jonas's first race ever. We'd been hoping we could take him to a race all summer and it didn't work out until September, but it was a great first race for him. Add a petting zoo, moon bounce, clowns, balloons, and lots of other excitement for kids and it was a perfect Saturday morning at the races. The 5k was a good one for me as well. I finished with my second best 5k time of the year -- 20:13 -- and was 5th overall in the race, winning the Grand Masters and a $50 Omega Sports gift certificate. Proceeds from this race go to the Ronald McDonald House (thus the "Big Red Shoe" moniker) and Myers Park Baptist Church does a good job with it. All participants get a free pancake breakfast after the race, and there were other goodies available such as watermelon and frozen yogurt. Click Here for Race Results Click Here f...

This was my third straight year of running the Midnight Flight 10k, the first race in the Running Journal Grand Prix. After running a disappointing time of 47:07 in last year's race I hoped to redeem myself by running under 45 minutes this year. Things worked out well for me and I chopped about 4 minutes off last year's time, finishing in 43:09 (with a chip time of 43:04), finishing in 1st place in the 55-59 age group. It was a little sad not having some of the Charlotte area guys there who I've run the RJ Grand Prix with over the past two seasons, but a couple of other Charlotte runners are there this year -- Butch Holt and Louis Messina -- so we've still got some representation from the area. I'll be switching age groups on February 27, 2012, before the end of the current season, so the only points I'll get will be in races before that date. I told Linda last year that I wouldn't run this series this year, but since I'll still be eligible for point...