The Old Runner

To be honest, what drew me to this race was the cool website, but I really couldn't decide whether to run this one or the Great Waldensian Footrace in Valdese, and since the day-of-race registration was $35 for the Rock 'N Run 5k but only $15 for the Waldensian race, I almost headed out to Valdese. When I woke Linda up she said she wanted to just stay home, and rather than drive the 65 miles or so to Valdese I just headed to Charlotte instead. The race was held at the NC Music Factory, which was in a completely different area than I thought, but luckily the GPS took me straight to the race site. There were a lot of people there but after I had registered and had been there for 10 or 15 minutes I still didn't see anyone I knew. Finally I spotted Steve Austin, then Ken Simpson, then Jerry Sofley, and Herb Berman. A few other familiar faces showed up but I was surprised how few of the regular Charlotte runners that I know were there. This race is kind of a modified out-and...

This was the first Run for Your Life Grand Prix series race I've run this year although the RFYL GP season has been in full swing for several months. After having missed two or three of the early races because of a conflict in schedules with the Running Journal Grand Prix I decided to mostly avoid this series. I planned on running the Summer Breeze in particular because I was carrying around a couple of awards from other races for people who I knew would be here, and also because there's just something about the Summer Breeze that draws me in even though it's never been one of my best races as far as my own performance goes. As much as anything else, I think the big attraction for me is the name "Summer Breeze." I'm notoriously warm-blooded and have always disliked being outdoors in cold weather. Although I've toned it down a little, I've been smirked at more times than I can count on those cold days when I'm all bundled up for a race. To me, anyth...