The Old Runner

This Memorial Day we were back in Huntsville for the Cotton Row Run, the last stop for the Running Journal Grand Prix season. It was already hot and steamy at 7:30 a.m. for the start of the 10k, and the heat was even more oppressive for the 9:00 a.m. 5k start, which Linda ran. Not too far into the first mile I considered just dropping out since I had a lead in the 55-59 age group of more than 100 points in the Grand Prix, but I figured instead I'd just take it a little easy and walk all of the water stops, which is what I did. I think all of the walking might have helped my time since I ended up winning my age group in the race with a time of 44:42. It was a minute or so slower than last year's time when I finished 3rd in my division but the heat seemed to take a lot out of the other runners as well. The Cotton Row Run has been a Memorial Day fixture in Huntsville for more than 30 years and is one of Alabama's premier road races. With around 4,000 runners in the 10k and 5...

photo © 2010 The U.S. Army | more info (via: Wylio ) I don’t believe that “you’re only as good as your last race,” although you’d never know it by the way I kicked myself around all week after running a disappointingly slow 10k last weekend at the Midnight Flight in Anderson, SC. It’s not that it was really all that slow, but at 47:07 it was 4 minutes slower than I ran the same race last year. This week I decided to get back out there and run another 10k to see if I had actually slowed down that much in a year’s time or if maybe I could do better. Fortunately it was a better race and I finished in 43:32. There were a lot of races to choose within about a 60-mile radius of home, but this was the only 10k. It was definitely worth the 60-mile drive. The race was centered around the Catawba Meadows Park in Morganton and it’s got to be one of the most beautiful parks and greenway systems in the state. The entire race was on the greenway, with the 5k and 10k races starting together but th...

If race #101 is any indication of future race results, it could be a long journey for the next 100 races. It wasn’t all bad for me at this year’s Midnight Flight 10k in Anderson. I did manage to finish in 2nd place in my age group this year, which is higher than my 3rd place finish last year. However, I was also 4 minutes slower in this year’s race, finishing in 47:07 as opposed to last year’s 43:12. Ouch. The time and temperature sign near the starting line said it was 84 degrees at the 11 p.m. start of the race, but I’m not sure that was correct since those things seem to be wrong a good portion of the time. I’m still wearing a big brace on my right knee and a smaller one on my left knee. I’m not sure if that could be slowing me down but it’s definitely not making me any faster. I could probably think of a half dozen more excuses but I have a feeling that I’ve just slowed down quite a bit due to a combination of factors and probably either need to shake up my training routine or get...

I could write a whole book about this race. Fortunately for my readers, I just drove 400+ miles from Huntsville to Gastonia and I’m so exhausted and it’s so late that I’ll limit my enthusiasm to just a few sentences. Runner’s World ranked this race as one of the Top 100 road races in the United States, and it really was a spectacular race. Almost every aspect was outstanding. The 10k had 2,048 finishers and the 5k almost as many. Most notably for me, this was the final race of the Running Journal Grand Prix. I finished 3rd of 82 runners in my age group in this one, and for the season finished in the top 3 runners in all seven RJ Grand Prix races that I ran, and at the awards ceremony I received a plaque as “Male Grand Masters Champion” for the year (that’s ages 50-59)! I’d love to take a few minutes here to blow my horn, but it’s lights out in 20 minutes so I’ll just say it’s a biggy for me. I won’t be chosen for the next Olympics and probably won’t knock the top out of the New York C...

Linda’s best friend from college has been going to White Lake her whole life, and in fact, now owns a cottage there, and when they recently got back in touch for the first time in many years we looked for a race in the area so we could do a little multitasking by visiting and running a race on the same weekend. It worked out nicely this weekend, so off we headed the approximately 180 miles to White Lake, North Carolina, which is about 30 miles east of Lumberton near Elizabethtown. We didn’t really know what to expect in the area but were pleasantly surprised that the area is a beautiful and laid back summer hideaway that time seems to have forgotten. There are no big hotel chains but quite a few mom and pop motels and cottages that line the shore, many with a private beach of their own. We rented a really nice cottage for the night at Carolyn’s Cottages, much more than we needed as far as space (it slept 10 but there were only two of us) but the price and location were perfect. We had...

Wow… Race #80… a milestone of sorts, or at least a number divisible by 10. This was my second time around the hills and valleys of the Black Mountain Greenway Challenge 10k. The hills are brutal pretty much anywhere in the Asheville area, but it kind of makes the hills down in the Piedmont a lot easier to run when we get back home.  In last year’s race ( Race #26 ) my time was 49:47 and I walked a total of 10 times using the Galloway method. I’ve learned a little since then and am in better shape than I was a year ago so I expected to run a little faster this year. The Galloway method has been replaced by heart rate monitoring, so now instead of checking my pace throughout the race I try to run at about 92% of my Maximum Heart Rate. Nothing terribly scientific about the 92%, but after experimenting for a few months that just seems to be where my body feels most comfortable.  Something I’ve noticed in my last couple of races is that I’m gravitating towards a little higher hear...

Quickly becoming one of North Carolina’s most popular road races, the Hot Chocolate 10k in Asheville is a tasty mid-winter treat for runners at a time when good races are few and far between. The race is held as a fundraiser for the Isaac Dickson Elementary School, which is one of only two “Foxfire” elementary schools in the nation that specializes in creative teaching and learning methods. This year, only the third year of the race, registration had to be limited to 800 runners to keep things from getting out of hand. No doubt hundreds more would have been there if they hadn’t waited too long to register. I’m not sure if they’ll increase the size of the race in the coming years, but either way, if you’re able to make it next year be sure to register early and head to Asheville for this outstanding running celebration! About the hot chocolate… Linda and I ran this race last year and the hot chocolate distribution hit a few snags — the lines were long and there probably wasn’t enou...