The Old Runner

I had planned to run the half marathon at this race and I registered in advance for the half marathon, but since the 10k option was the RRCA state championship and I had a chance to win the Senior Grandmasters I decided to switch if they'd let me. I found race director (and friend) Peter Asciutto as soon as I arrived at the race and he switched me over without any problem. It turns out I didn't win. Instead I finished in 2nd place to William Morrell, a speedy 62-year-old who after the race told me he had been a 4-minute miler in college and has at one time or another held the North Carolina state record for most race distances. He's also the father of Mary Marcia Brown, a columnist for Running Journal who I had met last year when she asked me to write the "He" part of the "He Said, She Said" column in Running Journal. They're good people and as much as I don't like to lose in my age group, if I do lose, it's best to lose to somebody nice. ...

This week marked the 5th anniversary of my first race back on September 13, 2008. Since I've numbered every race from the beginning, I guess nobody is surprised that I'm now at 228 races. When I ran that first race in 2008 my intention was to run just that single 5k and no more, but I found out that racing is a lot of fun so I figured I'd just keep going until circumstances forced me to stop. That's still what I'm shooting for. No doubt, one of these days the races will be a thing of the past, and I try to keep that in mind anytime I don't feel like getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning to race. Hit the Brixx was my third race back in 2008 and even now ranks as the slowest 5k I've ever run (28:32). I can still remember almost puking my guts out about halfway through the race the first time around. Fortunately I've learned how to pace myself a little better since then and I finished this one relatively unscathed. This year I ran the 10...

There were a lot of races to choose from this past weekend, but because a bunch of the Gaston County Runners were going to this one Linda and I joined in. The greenway in Morganton is really nice and it's pretty flat too, with nothing more than a few slight inclines along the way. According to the results I finished 5th overall in the 10k, but in reality I was actually 6th. There was a guy in front of me who stayed about 50 yards or so ahead of me for the entire race. He finished about 15 or 20 seconds ahead of me and I talked to him for a minute at the finish line but I didn't catch his name. When the results came out he wasn't listed. He did have a race number (431) so he wasn't a bandit. My guess is that he probably forgot to put his timing chip on his shoe, or it's possible the computer just didn't catch him at the end. Once again I wore my video glasses, and they tell the story of the race much better than I'm able to, so here's the video, follo...

Legend has it that in this 5k race that crosses two sets of railroad tracks, there's a good chance that you'll get stuck waiting for the train to pass. Several people had told me that it had happened to them a number of years ago. As we reached the first set of tracks I thought about the legendary train, and figured I dodged the bullet yet again. But wouldn't you know it, just a minute or two later you could hear the train whistle. I wasn't sure what was going on in back of me but I figured that at least half the runners in the race hadn't reached that point yet, so they were stuck. I also knew that there was another crossing up ahead somewhere that took us back across that same track. Not knowing where that was, I hoped for the best, and by the time I reached the second crossing the train was long gone. Not everybody was so lucky. I heard stories from several runners who had to stop and wait for the train. One lady told me she was one of the first ones stopped ...