2014 Race Summary


2014 - 4th Quarter


2014 - 3rd Quarter


2014 - 2nd Quarter


2014 - 1st Quarter


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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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Race #574 - Rocktoberfest Half Marathon - Rock Hill, SC - 10/12/24

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Earlier this year, I decided it would be fun to run 26 half marathons for the year, one every two weeks. I had started the year off recovering from hernia surgery last November 30th, which was followed by six weeks with a Foley catheter. Two weeks after the catheter was removed I ran my first half marathon and felt great just to be somewhat back to normal. At 72, I'm slower than ever, so I felt the need to challenge myself to stay motivated, and I thought it would be fun to at least try to run more half marathons than I've ever run previously in a year. In 2015, I ran 16 half marathons, the most I'd run in any year. This was my 16th for 2024, and I'm registered for two more, so I should surpass my previous record, but the goal of 26 has recently hit a snag. Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina mountains, where my next two half-marathons were scheduled. We're not in the mountains but are close enough that the hurricane affected us, and on the morning my Dav...
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Race #571 - Eastbound Trail Half Marathon - Charlotte, NC - 09/07/24

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Lord knows I'm not a trail runner, although I've been trying to impersonate one for the last few months. In July, I ran the Harbison Trail Half Marathon, the first singletrack trail half marathon I've ever run. In retrospect, I kind of enjoyed it even though I was slow and spent most of the time just trying not to trip over a rock or a tree root. I did the same thing in this race; just hoping I didn't trip and break an ankle or do a faceplant. Luckily, I came out unscathed and didn't fall or twist anything that shouldn't be twisted.  The U.S. National Whitewater Center is about a 15-minute drive from my house. It has 50+ miles of trails, but I haven't been there in over 10 years because trails have never appealed to me. This week, they had the only half marathon within 100 miles, and since I'm trying to run every half marathon I can reasonably get to this year, I figured I'd give it a go.  From what I've heard, the trail races at the Whitewater C...
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Race #573 - Stampede for Student Success 5k - Dallas NC - 09/21/24

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Another local 5k, this one at Gaston College, was my 5th race in the series, for which I have to run six races to qualify for the end-of-season awards. There weren't any nearby half marathons, so it fit nicely into my schedule. Looking back at my races, I saw that I hadn't run this race since 2021 when I finished in 25:16, so it's unsurprising that I finished about 3 minutes slower 3 years later (28:11). Ouch. Losing about a minute per year in my 5k times. I probably shouldn't complain about being slower, though, and I should just be happy I can still run. Looking back at my Garmin data, I saw that I walked 18 times, which is a lot of walking for a 5k race. Still, the data shows that I only walked around 3 minutes total, so maybe it's not so bad. One bit of data that I haven't paid much attention to is my Heart Rate Zones (on the graph below). Seeing that 62% of my run was in Zone 5 (Maximum) makes me think that if I watched my heart rate and kept it in Zone 4 (...
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Race #281 - Huntersville 5k - World Record Tether Run - Huntersville, NC - 12/13/14

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It was my slowest 5k ever, but all for a good cause. According to organizer and Charlotte Running Club president Bill Shires, the world record for the most people tethered together for a 5k race was 116. That was a record Bill was confident we could break and he spent several months planning a strategy and gathering people to run. There wasn't a time requirement but it was imperative that everybody stayed tied together until every runner crossed the finish line. With the great organization and pre-planning we easily broke the record with 178 runners crossing the finish line. We were all tethered together with a system of bungee cords that was well thought out, and the biggest challenge was being sure that nobody tripped or  came loose from the tether system. Any disconnection at all by any runner would have disqualified us. Of course, the speed was dictated by the slowest runner. I was in the front row and everybody up there was wishing we could go a little faster, but there ...
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