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Race #566 - Run the South Half Marathon - Charlotte NC - 06/29/24

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Touted as the "Hottest Half Here," the Run the South Half Marathon lived up to its billing this year. The temperature at the beginning of the race wasn't unbearable at 77 degrees, and even the humidity wasn't 100% (it was 88% according to the weather app). I think maybe the culprit was the dew point, although I don't know what it was. I do know that I was sticky and sweaty before the race and didn't even do a warmup.  I'm not sure I've explained how I use the Jeff Galloway Run Walk Run technique. I keep my watch set to alert me every 20 seconds, so I can run 20 seconds then walk 20 seconds, and that's how I do most of my training. In races, I run however many 20-second intervals I'm comfortable with and then just walk 20 seconds in between, so I may run three 20-second intervals (1 minute) or six 20-second intervals (2 minutes) then walk 20 seconds before running again. I just go by what feels right at the time, so if I'm going downhill I m...
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Race #489 -- Red Carpet 5k -- Albemarle, NC -- 04/25/21

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With the Academy Awards being held on this night, Vac & Dash decided to celebrate the event with a 5k for those of us who weren't invited to the gala in Hollywood. No acting was required although some might accuse me of trying to act like a runner these days. As is the case with most Vac & Dash races, it was a lot of fun. V&D owner Peter Asciutto (pronounced uh-SHOO-toe) says that his main goal is that when runners drive home after an event they smile and think, "That was a fantastic event." It's an almost 2-hour drive from home for me to get to Albemarle so I don't go there as often as I'd like, but I've run quite a few of the Vac & Dash races over the years and have never been disappointed.  This was the third and final race of the Vac & Dash Trifecta, a series of races all held on Sunday afternoons in March and April, and the weather was perfect for all three races. For those runners who competed in this race as well as the Easter Eg...
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Race #567 - Koala Bottle Harbison Half Marathon - Columbia, SC - 07/07/24

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Well, that was interesting. In my zeal to run at least 20 half marathons this year, I found this one at the last minute and signed up. It was only about 100 miles away, so I could click off another half marathon with just a couple hours of driving.  I signed up right away, not bothering to read the race description. The next day (the day before the race), I found out it was a singletrack trail complete with plenty of roots, rocks, and obstacles that a roadrunner like myself is not used to running.  It was hot and muggy, with a dew point of 75, although being a warm-weather runner, I'd prefer that over 40 degrees any day. Before hitting the actual trail, the race began on a dirt road, and I could have stopped to walk but decided to try to keep running until I saw someone else walking. The green lines on the graph below represent walk breaks, so you can see that I didn't take a walk break until I was more than 2 miles into the race. By about 5 miles into the race, I was done. I ...
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Race #463 — 08/09/19 – Slam the Dam 10k – Lake Lure, NC

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Nice 10k race over the dam and along the mountain roads beside Lake Lure. Lots of hills (683 feet of elevation gain) but great finish on the beach at Rumbling Bald Resort. This is the first of three races in three days in the Lake Lure Olympiad. Lots of great food after the race… plenty of homemade salads and pastries as well as ice cream sundaes! Race Name: Slam the Dam 10k Location: Lake Lure, North Carolina Date: August 9, 2019 Race Rating: 103 Winners (Top 10 Overall): Course: Elevation Per Mile: Weather at Start: Click Here for Race Results Click Here for Race Photos from Willie Lowe on Flickr Click Here for Race Website For me, one of the best perks of running races in the Rutherford Outdoor Coalition Race Series is the free professional quality photos for most races provided by Willie Lowe. My Stats: Time: 51:00 Pace: 8:12 Age Group: 1 of 4  Overall: 43 of 218 Average Heart Rate: 164 Maximum Heart Rate: 176 Age Grade Perce...
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The Finish Line

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After 15 years of having fun (mostly) at the races, it's finally time for me to hang up my running shoes. The last race I blogged about was #574, but I ran two more after that: the Ocean Isle Beach Half Marathon on October 25, 2024, and the Police Donut 5k the following week on November 2, 2024. After the half marathon, I felt generally fine, but the following week, I began having some back pain. I managed to run the Donut 5k without too much of a problem and felt pretty good despite having to eat a half dozen donuts halfway through the race. The day after the donut race, I took the day off since my back was hurting, and my right leg had also become painful. To make a long story short, over the next couple of weeks, I became unable to walk or even stand without extreme pain. I ended up seeing an orthopedic surgeon, who did an MRI that revealed a stress fracture in my right tibia, and a spine doctor, whose MRI showed a severely pinched nerve at L4. I ended up in a wheelchair for the...
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