The Old Runner

This was my first race since turning 70 in February and also my first race of the year. I hope if anybody is reading this that you'll forgive me for not doing a full write-up on the race. I'm not sure how many races I'll do going forward. I'd like to keep it up, but honestly, I'm not running great, even for a 70-year-old, so it's hard to get motivated for racing and even more so for writing blogs. I do want a record of my races though so I'll at least try to fill in the stats for the races I run. Oh, and if something really interesting happens I'll try to include something about that. Race Name:  Bear Foot 5k Location:  Bostic, North Carolina (Sunshine Elementary School) Date:  March 19, 2022 Race Rating:  104 Top 10 Overall: Course: Predominantly uphill going out and downhill coming back on an out-and-back course. Elevation: Weather at Start: Pace: You can see by the dips in this chart that I walked 11 times. Ouch. That's something I'd like to i...

I ran this race on Thanksgiving (November 25th) and I'm finally getting around to writing the blog entry at the end of February. Posting this race kinda slipped my mind, but over the past few months, I've been dealing with a pretty severe case of plantar fasciitis and decided to not do any more races until I get it under control. The plantar fasciitis has improved some, but nowhere near 100%. Still, I'm thinking of getting back to the races soon although I'm sure I'll be slower than ever. As I write this, my 70th birthday is coming up in just three days so at least I'll have the age excuse for being slower. So regarding this race, my son Joe came down to North Carolina from Michigan along with his fiancee Lindsay and they both ran the race. Joe had started running at the beginning of the pandemic and is running great. Before this Turkey Trot he had only run one race, the Charlevoix Marathon, which he ran in three hours and 31 minutes, pretty amazing for his firs...

This has been one of my favorite races, so it's kind of odd that it's the first time I've run it since 2017. Last year (2020) I had almost quit running so I came down for the race but just watched. In 2019 the race was canceled because of a hurricane, and in 2018 I made it as far as the starting line but didn't like the cold and windy weather so I just decided to get back in my car and head for the hotel. That was a bad decision that I don't want to repeat, but I have somewhat of a reputation as a fair-weather runner. I was determined to run the race this year no matter what kind of weather I had to deal with, and it was a relief when the weather turned out to be just right. Compared to previous years, this year's race was smaller with only 694 runners in the half marathon. In its inaugural year, 2010, there were 2,702 finishers and the size peaked in 2014 with 3,125 runners crossing the finish line. Along with there being fewer runners, there were other telltal...

I've had better weeks. On Sunday night I started having cold symptoms and I was unsure if I had a cold or possibly COVID. I contacted my doctor's office and they told me to wait at least 24 hours then get a COVID test if I still felt sick, so on Tuesday I was tested and thankfully it was negative. Having the Coronovirus would have kept me from going to next week's Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon, which has been the main race I'm planning for the fall, so I should still make it to the race albeit with a cough and runny nose. I thought about skipping this race altogether since I'm still not feeling great and only ran about half of my usual training miles for the week, but decided it would probably be better to see if I could get in a fairly decent run before Myrtle Beach. The Kings Mountain Running Festival consists of four races (5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon). I considered the 10k but decided it would be best to go for the shortest distance instead.  The firs...

This was the inaugural running of the "Gaston College Foundation Stampede for Student Success 5k," which almost takes longer to say than it does to run the race. The TV show The Office outdid it a little bit with "Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure 5k," but not by much.  The race was organized well and run entirely on the 150-acre campus of Gaston College. One nice perk was that they had a table set up with a big variety of items and all of the runners were invited to take whatever item they wanted. There was still quite a bit left over after the awards and people were invited to clean it out and take everything. Beats having to organize a yard sale I guess.  There was a bit of an issue with the awards. Because of the epidemic apparently, they were unable to get the medals that were ordered for age groups, but they said they'd mail them out once they arrived, and after ...

Back in 2009 when I first ran this race it was called the Lungstrong 15k/5k and it was one of the Charlotte area's major racing events. That year there were 929 finishers in the two races combined. Last year (2020) the race was canceled because of Covid and there seems to be a hesitancy for people to come back to the races. In the fall of 2019, just before the pandemic, the race size had fallen off some but there were still about 700 in the two races. Anticipating a packed parking lot, I headed out early to get a good parking spot but I arrived to find an empty parking lot so I had plenty of choices. The parking lot never did fill up, and as we lined up to start the 15k a few minutes before the 5k began, there wasn't a lot of need to jockey for position to get near the starting line. It turns out there were fewer than 200 runners in the two races combined this year (130 in the 15k and 66 in the 5k). That's disappointing, and it leaves me wondering if there will be a next ye...