The Old Runner

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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

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 ...

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...