The Old Runner

What better way to celebrate your 33rd wedding anniversary than by running a road race! I woke up bright and early this morning, dug out a wedding photo that I hadn't seen in years, and fired up the scanner so I could broadcast to the Facebook world that it was exactly 33 years ago today that Linda and I first tied the knot. We had actually gotten married in Gaffney, South Carolina, two days before on June 21st because of a mixup on getting our marriage license in North Carolina, but since nothing I could do or say would convince Linda that we were married until we had our actual wedding in the church two days later, we now consider the 23rd the official date. She's kind of old-fashioned like that. This was the fourth time we've run the Summer Breeze in the past four years. It's got a great atmosphere with the race beginning and ending in Freedom Park, and it's always good to see our Charlotte running friends, especially those who run the Run for Your Life Gra...

We had a good time at this new race set in Cannon Village in Kannapolis just a block from the North Carolina Research Campus. After running through the research campus we raced along the Kannapolis greenway for much of the race before circling back around to Cannon Village. The race was sponsored by the NC Music Hall of Fame and proceeds were to support this nonprofit that honors musicians and songwriters of all genres who are from North Carolina. This was the first race in what they plan on making an annual event, and I think it went well except for a couple of minor snafus mostly having to do with the awards. The awards were excellent -- and unique -- but unfortunately they combined both male and female runners into the same categories, and to top it off there were 10-year age groups. By their reaction to the disappointment with the awards I believe it was more of an oversight instead of trying to penny-pinch and save a few bucks on awards. I think that not being runners themselv...

I only run a handful of nighttime races each year and they're normally not my favorites because I have a hard time with my diet during the day leading up to an evening race, but it's hard not to like this Friday night extravaganza that features great entertainment, delicious food (pizza, watermelon, Cheerwine, etc.), fast runners, a flat course, and a small town that goes all out to create a first class event. It's the fourth time I've run the China Grove 5k and since it's flat and the course hasn't changed at all it provides a good benchmark for how I'm doing each year. Over those four years my times have varied by less than a minute, with a slowest time of 21:51 in 2009 to a fastest time of 20:57 in 2010. In last year's race I was disappointed with my time of 21:44 and it sent me into a frenzy of dieting and deciding to run every day. I'm happy to report that as of this race I managed to run the entire year without taking a day off and aver...

Over the past three years this race has kind of become my homecoming race. It's the premier road race in the city where I grew up, and even though it's like a roller coaster with all of the ups and downs and one of the most difficult races I run, I still love running it and look forward to it every year. Of course it helps that my old high school friend Bob Duckworth is the head of Cheerwine in Hickory, one of the big sponsors of the race, and he's been gracious to share one of the free sponsorship entries with me each year (we're talking about wearing Cheerwine shirts next year, which would be great). But aside from that, I'd be happy to pay my own way if I needed to and it would still be one of my favorites. Running through the streets where I grew up many years ago, past the houses where friends once lived (and some still live), and on streets where I once walked, or hung out, or drove, but never ran, I somehow have this great sense of thankfulness that here I ...

This is my third consecutive year of running Alabama's premier 10k road race, the Cotton Row Run. With more than $10,000 in prize money it brings out some of the big boys, and this year's winner was Julius Koskei, a former US National 10,000 meter champion who defied the Alabama heat by running a 29:25.  I was stuck a little farther back in the pack but did manage to finish 2nd (or was it 3rd?) in the 60-64 age group. Seems like the same thing happened recently at another race (I can't remember which). At the awards ceremony I collected the 2nd place award, and as I write this I'm still listed as 2nd on the awards page, but in the age group listing I'm 3rd. I suspect there was a glitch of some sort and I'm actually supposed to be 3rd so I'll go with that.  This is one of the most spectacular 10k races you'll ever find, with the atmosphere feeling more like a marathon, with a large expo and lots of people. With the three races combined (10k, 5...

It's Monday morning as I write this so I need to keep it short and sweet in order to get back to my real-life job. For the past three years I've been running a Memorial Day race in Alabama (it'll be race #178) but before I leave town I like to run this one, which is always on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. It's a good race just four or five miles from home and there are always lots of running friends there, which makes it more special. This is one of the few races I've run every year since I began running, and going back to check how I've progressed over that time could be a little troubling, but it's probably just a dose of reality setting in. At 60 years old I'm a little slower than I was at my peak. Actually the first year I ran it was my slowest time, but at that time I had just been running a few months and was still getting comfortable with racing and learning the basics. The following year (2010) was my fastest and each year since has b...

Going into what is one of the most popular races in possibly the most competitive running community in the world I knew I didn't have a chance to place in the top 3 in my age group, so my goal was to finish in the top 10. The New York Road Runners publishes what they call the "Honor Roll" in the big races for those who finish in the top 10 in their age groups. When I ran the Brooklyn Half in 2010 I finished in 7th place in the 55-59 age group and made the 2010 Honor Roll and hoped to do the same this year. I'm now in the 60-64 age group and you'd think it would be a lot easier, but in New York there's not really an easy age group. Add to that the fact that this year's race had more than twice as many finishers (14,168) than the 2010 race (7,015) and I knew it wouldn't be easy. The weather was just about as perfect as it could be with a temperature of 58 degrees and no wind. My daughter Nicole lives just a mile or so from Prospect Park, where the r...