Greer Earth Day Half Marathon Report

I met up with my running friend and drove to Greer, SC today for their annual half marathon run. Im guessing that there were over 500 total runners for the 1/2 and the 5k. Every volunteer that I encountered was very helpful and friendly.

The race started after the singing of the national anthem (which was a nice touch) close to the middle of downtown. The race began around 8 with a "on your mark, get set, go!" and we were off. The first mile snaked through a lot of small mill type neighborhoods which made for some close contact with other runners. I never mind this type of start since I am warming up slow anyway. Besides, if you were looking to take off fast you could have easily started at the front.

I took the race with a real easy pace knowing in the back on my mind that the 34 mile Buncome trail run is comming up in eight days. It was hot on the blacktop. Somewhere in the high 80's I would guess - maybe even 90 near the end. I did about a mile of walking and still finished around 2:13. At the end of the race they handed out nice square gold medals, cool looking cotton T-shirts and had a good selection of food/drinks to choose from.

Overall it was a fun race. I talked to several nice people along the course. One guy suggested running the Memphis marathon. Another lady suggested icing your legs after long runs by standing up up in a trash can of ice water. That way you don't have to put the family jewels down into the water!

I hope to be able to run this one again. As always the volunteers made for a wonderful race and I would like to say "Thanks!" again to all of you.

I bet you are in the richest 5% of the world

Lately I have been thinking a lot about material "things" and how unimportant so many of them are. I stumbled upon this interesting website. You input your salary and it will tell you how wealthy you are compared with the rest of the world. Needless to say I was shocked! http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Even if you don't read The Book it would be hard to disagree with

Proverbs 23:5 "When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.For wealth certainly makes itself wingsLike an eagle that flies toward the heavens. "

After taking up running for the past nine months material stuff has suddenly become very unimportant. This is not to say that I don't work hard and support my family, but I can easily walk by the 60" LCD Tvs, expensive clothes, nice computers, and sparkling car lots with out drool forming on my face. And yes - I still want "stuff" from time to time - like those new Sauconys, but people are far more important now.

I suppose runnning takes us back to primal animals with the simple needs to be met. Maybe life would be a lot different (better?) if I were thinking like this more often. Just another reason to keep running and find out.

Bucombe 34 Mile Trail Run 5/3/09 Pre-Race Thoughts

Yesterday I decided to go ahead and run the 34 mile trail run hosted by Terri Hayes. Since I have only been the marathon distance once (26.2 Miles) I thought it would be interesting to get my thoughts down about what this run will be/mean.

I have stayed in marathon running shape since January so I have somewhat of a base. I have not lost the weight that I wanted to lose (still around 240 6'2), but I am back on track with that at 2,000 calories / day.

I do feel nervous about the distance, but I think that is the buzz of the sport for me. Pushing the buck is rewarding spiritually, mentally, physically, and other ways that runners seem to sense.

I plan on walking 2 minutes for every 10 minutes that I run and probably walking a lot of the hills. I am definately bringing the camera because I want to take the memories home from this one for sure!

So going in my plan is to start off slow. Do the run/walk thing and keep snacking/sipping all day long. I would love to finish under 8 hours.

I will be running the Greer Earth Day 1/2 marathon this Saturday and will report on it with pictures afterwards.

20 Miler That Felt Like 26.2 on Saturday

We were off and running early at USC Upstate around 6 AM on Saturday with a 20-21 mile training run in front of us. After two laps of the campus I was reminded that hills would be in abundance today. It was finally light enough to hit the USC portion of the Palmetto Trail around 6:45 whith about 5 miles behind us. We ran about 7 more miles on the trail and eventually got lost as usual exploring some new areas. After gaining our bearings we decided to take a break from the trail and finish the run around Milliken and HWY. 9. All was well until we hit about mile twenty near the end of the run. I bonked kinda hard and it was a struggle to finish out - but I did. I took a quick rest on the ride home and went out to do some yard work for a few hours. After that I took my son fishing for a few hours. I was pretty well spent later that evening, but I felt more confident about the 50K comming up on the Chattooga in June.

Should YOU run a marathon? Ever thought about it?

Ever wondered why people run marathons? Although I have only been in the sport about a year - I get the "why run a marathon" question quite a bit. I have several personal reasons that I will share, but this seems to cover the question from a unique point of view:

(WARNING! READING MAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE!)

http://old-nc-runner.blogspot.com/2008/11/who-would-ever-run-marathon.html

21 Miles at USC Upstate Spartanburg Saturday

We are going to get an early 6 AM start on Saturday for a mix of road, grass, and trail running at USC Upstate. A great part of the Palmetto trail runs through the middle of campus and there is even a make shift obstacle course that will be fun to do early on. We plan to use the 2 miles run/ 2 minutes walk routine again. It seems to work well on the trails.

19 Miles on the Cottonwood trail in mud

We had a fun run on Saturday in the mud. I lost footing and landed hard on my left hip in the middle of a big mud puddle. It hurt my pride worse than my leg.

Cottonwood Trail Lawson's Fork Creek 18 Miler

Planning on an 18 miler for Saturday at the Cottonwood Trail. Website Here. I am going back to the strategy of running two miles then walking a minute to try and keep my legs a little fresher for the comming weeks. I hope to total 32 miles this week.

Croft Passage Was Tough

The run on Saturday started off great. Once we hit the paved road the hills kept growing and it made for a tougher run. The weather was perfect around 50 and sunny. We saw about eight huge deer near the end of the run which was pretty cool. This 14-15 miler toasted my legs. There was a lot of deep mud and I took my customary nose dive into the trail early on.

15 Miles Palmetto Trail Croft Passage

Saturday we will be running part of the Croft passage in Cedar Springs..