The Old Runner

Races are like pizza: when they’re good, they’re really good; when they’re bad, they’re still pretty good. We knew in advance that they were calling for lousy weather this Saturday morning, but as a card-carrying weenie when it comes to bad weather I know I have to get out occasionally in the elements and run, just so I won’t feel so out of my element when the time comes that I have to be out in the elements. Over the past week all of my runs were on the treadmill, and while I love basking in temperatures in the 70s while I run, this ain’t Florida, and the treadmill can get a little unrealistic in the middle of the winter. Thus I decided to run outside today come h-e-double-hockeysticks or high water. Last night’s hour-to-hour forecast called for about a 60-70% chance of rain at race time, but when I got up this morning and checked it the chance of rain had dropped to 10%, which was a welcome surprise. Linda and I ran this race last year and it was one of the coldest of the year, not ...

I intended to take some photos to post here but never got the camera out of the car. It was freezing outside and didn’t seem to warm up any at all. I think it might have been about 35 degrees when the awards were handed out about 10:30 a.m. >>Click Here for the Race Results<< The course was up and down (lots of hills) through a maze of local nondescript neighborhoods and was centered around a gazebo at Patriot’s Park near the middle of town. Luckily Kings Mountain is a small town and it was easy to find the park at the edge of downtown KM because no actual address was given for the race other than “Patriot’s Park at the gazebo.” The race was sponsored by the YMCA, which would have been a better place to have the race and would have provided some shelter from the freezing cold. There were also no porta-potties and the only nearby restrooms were in the theatre up the street (which I think might have been providing care for small children during the race). On the bright side,...