The inaugural 2010 Tobacco Road Marathon and Half Marathon are in the books. Our own FGump gives us a very nice race report.

This race was planned as a tuneup race for Boston. As such, I wanted to simulate a few things in preparation for that adventure. I had a few goals for this race.

1. Race healthy / DO NOT GET INJURED
2. “Live off the course”, and
3. See if I could PR a half.

Unfortunately, about 10 Saturday morning, I began feeling sick. No energy, aches and pains, mild fever, etc. So things were not looking good at all for Sunday. I rallied late in the day, and Lainey and I took the boys to Pittsboro to the Carolina Brewery. We had a great dinner (and a pint), and headed back home. So, back home, in bed by 10pm, and ready to give Sunday a try.

I awoke to the alarm on my watch beeping frantically. I also felt worlds better, so decided to give this thing a go. Being a 7am race start, and there being some traffic logistics to work out, I set three sequential alarms; 5 a.m., 5:10, and 5:15. Fortunately, the 5 a.m. alarm was sufficient. I had loaded my mountain bike on the car the night before, along with all sorts of “just in case” supplies in my backpack. Here’s what I was toting: official race shirt for post-race (bad ju-ju for wearing it before the race!), cycling jacket, helmet, gloves, toboggan (?), run gloves, arm warmers, cable, lock, Gu, Chomps, handbottle with Gu Brew, racebelt, smartwool socks (in case I chickened out and ran in them). Loaded for bear!

I was out the door at 5:20. Enroute, I ate a Clif bar and swigged on some Gu Brew. Mmm, breakfast of champions. I drove over to the Wimberley Road ATT access, unloaded my bike, attached my lights, and proceeded to pedal on over to the race site. It took about 20 minutes or so of riding, but I was able to ride right in, lock up my bike, check my backpack at bag check, and mingle. I ran into Bald Eagle, KarenG8r, and several other friends planning to run the ½. I had other friends in the full that I hoped to see later while on my bike. At about 6:35, I decided to run a short warmup, so I ran out 4 minutes, then ran back to the start, doing a few sprints along the way. I took a Gu 15 minutes before the race start. I had my handbottle with me, and did a last-minute dash back to bag check to drop it off. This was a big step for me, running empty-handed! I seeded myself pretty near the front, as I did not want to be caught up in the melee in the middle or back in the darkness.

A few minutes after 7, the command to start was given, and we were off. You’d have thought it was a 5k the way some folks sprinted out of the gate. I decided early on that I would NOT fly out of the chute like normal, and that I would NOT try to keep up with the fasties. My goals were simple, and I had decided to stick to them. So I ran my race. As usual, I get blown by on the downhills, only to make it up going uphill. Umstead, anyone? So I settled into a nice pace.

The first mile came up pretty quickly. The water stops were approximately every 2 miles, which is a stretch for this every-mile drinker, but I managed. It was a rolling first mile, with a pretty nice climb about 4 minutes in.
Mile 2 came up pretty quickly too, just before some rolling hills leading to the ATT, and I took a cup of water. This was a net downhill mile, and it allowed us to stretch our legs a little.
Mile 3 passed, and we were on the trail. That’s a slight grade uphill for about the whole mile, so it was a good place to get settled.
Mile 4 came up and I took a cup of water on the fly. Some down the hatch, some down the back. This took us past the White Oak parking area, with a nice crowd.
Mile 5 and I was in a groove.
Mile 6 and I took a Gu, then some water. I like the new section of the ATT, as it is “different” than the Wake County section. Not necessarily better, just different. I stripped off the gloves in this mile, ready to toss them to Lainey past mile 7.
Mile 7, I saw my wife and kids in a flash, then came the turnaround and I was headed back down the ATT. This was up at Pittard Sears Road, near the Old Chatham golf course area.
Mile 8 saw the wife and kids again, and then I missed mile 9 somehow. Must’ve been while dodging 2300 runners trying their best to run me over!
Mile 10 I took Gu #2, and hit some water. Now we were off the ATT and heading back towards Brooks Park.
Mile 11 came and went. It was my slowest mile, with some steady climbs and camber/terrain to deal with. I backed off a tad here when I saw I could almost coast to the finish and hit my goal.
Mile 12 and I took a cup of Gu Brew, then kept the cruise control on.
Mile 13 I heard a few footsteps during one of the last uphills, and I decided to put just a little distance between us. Then it was pretty much downhill from there.
Had a fun duel with one of the local female triathletes down the finish chute, which was a hoot!
Crossed the line, made the left-hand turn, and played roulette with which medal-placer I’d choose. I know it’s some sort of game with them, who gives out the most medals, kind of like the volunteers issuing Gu keep a tally. I got a bottle of water, a banana, and some cinnamon chip Great Harvest bread, then collected my backpack from bag check, grabbed my bike, and headed up to cheer on some friends. Once a few of them finished, I headed out on the bike to reverse-ride the course. I rode all the way up to the turnaround in Durham, and headed on back towards Wimberley.

I ended up meeting all my goals, and was very happy about that. The course is 6 miles of rollers on either end of 7 miles of almost flat. It’s very gentle on the joints when on the ATT. The volunteers were fantastic. The event was well-organized from my perspective, fantastic for a first-year event. I’d like to run the full in 2010 at this point, but it’ll be a tossup between this and Umstead. And I do love Umstead…

Congrats to my Mitterling Miler friends who also raced. I hope you enjoyed the course as much as I did! Next up: 5k on 4/18

Bill

Where: Bridge to Nowhere

When: 6:30 AM

Weather: Update

Come cajole, tease, encourage, laugh at, support, mock, photograph, pace, or any thing you can think of, to those 2010 Umstead Trail Marathon runners!

So now we know what Rap Master Sass does in his free time. He likes to think of imaginative ways to get all his friends together to do crazy things that involve crossing the state line (don’t worry, none of the activities are illegal, I think).

The 2010 Blue Ridge Relay starts in Grayson Highlands Virginia and wraps up in Asheville NC.

We need 12 runners. We could probably also take a few people in the “maybe” slot as alternates.

Update – 4 to go (Hurry folks this race *WILL* sell out )

Check out the website – looks like a ton of fun!

#1 – Rap Master Sass

#2 – Sandbagger

#3 – Squeeky

#4 – Stabu

#5 – Dr Seuss

#6 – KarenG8r

#7 – Litl’ Bit

#8 – Terp

#9

#10

#11

#12

Alt 1

Alt 2

What: Final chance to snag a very few remaining slots on Active.com

When: January 11, 8:00 AM (I would try at 7:45, 7:50, etc to see if you can jump the gun)

Who: Sandbagger, Squeeky (maybe), [fill in your name here], Bueller? Anyone?

January 11th 2010 8AM – Active.com will have a second sign-up period for the Umstead Trail Marathon, with the number of slots available matching the number of people that dropped out. After those slots fill, there will no longer be any refunds, transfers or waiting lists. The fee for that race at that time is $65 ($55 registration with a $10 donation to the Umstead Park water fountain). Note: We have not kept a waiting list, so you MUST go to Active.com on January 11th and sign up. Also, we will do our best to accomodate T-shirt size requests, but sizes cannot be guaranteed for these late sign-ups.

Congrats are in order for Mitdog! Hope he can give us a nice race report here when he gets a chance.

Track him here by name or bib – 22302.

Our own Forrest Gump shakes off the remnants of a cold and hits (I have to believe) his deep down dark secret goal.

Looks like he had a heck of a race!

Please post a race report and more photos when you can!

Good luck to Dr Seuss and the brave souls running the Umstead Trail Marathon. Looks like the weather is going to be great! At least not as rainy as it was last year. Click here for the 2008 Umstead recap.

Just remember at mile 20, you get a great shirt *AND* a beer mug to die for.

And if the race on Saturday isn’t enough for you, you can join FGump at Shamrock Marathon the following weekend (*edit – after one more. Sorry to scare FGump!).

** Update **

Squeeky snapped a pic of Dr Seuss on his iPhone – smiling at mile 19!

More photos here.

Come to my 6th annual 40th birthday party
to raise money for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
through my 10th Running of the Boston Marathon in April 2009

Party is Saturday, February 21st, 6:00-8:30 PM
Mitterling Home
9404 Kirkhill Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27615
Regrets only, (919) 847-7861

Join me for a night of celebration and fellowship.
Donations accepted via mail, online, or at the party;
Come whether you contribute or not!
If you like, bring a bottle of wine or a dish to share.
I look forward to seeing you!

Come to my 6th annual 40th birthday party
to raise money for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
through my 10th Running of the Boston Marathon in April 2009

Party is Saturday, February 21st, 6:00-8:30 PM
Mitterling Home
9404 Kirkhill Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27615
Regrets only, (919) 847-7861

Join me for a night of celebration and fellowship.
Donations accepted via mail, online, or at the party;
Come whether you contribute or not!
If you like, bring a bottle of wine or a dish to share.
I look forward to seeing you!

Come to my 6th annual 40th birthday party
to raise money for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
through my 10th Running of the Boston Marathon in April 2009

Party is Saturday, February 21st, 6:00-8:30 PM
Mitterling Home
9404 Kirkhill Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27615
Regrets only, (919) 847-7861

Join me for a night of celebration and fellowship.
Donations accepted via mail, online, or at the party;
Come whether you contribute or not!
If you like, bring a bottle of wine or a dish to share.
I look forward to seeing you!

The best running group in Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham and Morrisville turns 2 today. Happy Birthday!

Thanks to all the runners, triathletes, swimmers, cyclists, stand-up comedians, and psychiatrists for keeping us all healthy, fast, and laughing our lungs out!

Whats in store for 2009? A lot of us are doing our umpteenth marathon, an Ironman (our first or our dozenth, definitely not our last), open water swims, half marathons, sprint triathlons, international triathlons, group spin class, triathlon clinic, brick, or otherwise.

We are traveling and competing around the country, around North Carolina, mostly getting together for the classic Saturday morning run at either Umstead Park or Shelley Lake, with some American Tobacco Trail runs, Whole Foods / Meredith College runs, and our Spring/Summer/Fall bricks out at Jordan Lake.

I hope everyone has a great 2009 year running, swimming, cycling, and triathloning. Check out the 2009 racing season post to see what everyone is up to!

Herbs PR NYC Marathon

Fgump chugging along at the City of Oaks Marathon 2008

A big congratulations to the various crew who ran their hearts out today!

Pics? Posts? Humorous anecdotes?

Please post!

Congrats to Dr Seuss who ran the Columbus Marathon in 3:46! Very impressive!

Anyone think of a suitable Dr Seuss rhyme to honor the occasion?

Off he goes! It hardly seems more than a few weeks ago – there was Alfonso pulling up short with a calf pull at mile 4 or 5 on the Greenway Trail. Blink a few times and he is humming Weird Al and beating Squeeky to the top of Cemetary Hill at mile 17 of 20. This guy is an animal! Maybe a Leprechaun!

Best of luck Alfonso – your training has been prodigious – the improvement has been rapid.

Looking forward to having another Mitterling Miler join for the Duke Half !

Will get pics and stories up soon.

www.flickr.com TriRunWith.Us’ Umstead Trail Marathon 2008 photoset

So it’s going to be windy, rainy, and downright crazy tomorrow. For all of you who ran OBX, is it worthwhile to run with an umbrella? How about galoshes?

In honor of the 45MPH gusts we will be facing for those of us running 4+ hours after we start, I bring you the Candle Cannon.

The weather forecast looks good for Saturday! Hopefully it will be at least in the upper 40s. Leave the running tights at home.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Let’s keep our prayers and positive healing energy flowing to Litl’bit – hopefully she will get good news from the Doc just in time for the race Saturday.

If you guys have photos from Brightroom or any others, email me and I will link them here.

Click for more:

Why would you want to do it? According to the info, ‘the coolest technical shirt you will ever own’. The 2008 Official Website is live. Head on over to check it out.

Click through for more details

Event Newsletter
September 6, 2007

As a registered participant in the November 10 SunTrust Richmond Marathon, NTELOS 8k or
Richmond Times-Dispatch Kids Run, you are receiving this e-newsletter to let you know about this year’s event.

Free Course Tours Provided

As America’s Friendliest Marathon, we are excited to provide FREE marathon course tours to our runners and their family and friends. Members of the Richmond Road Runners Club will be leading bus tours of the SunTrust Richmond Marathon course on Friday, November 9. All buses will depart from the James Center Atrium located on Cary Street next to the Omni Richmond Hotel, site of the race expo/packet pick-up. The first bus departs at 11:30 am with the final bus departing at 3 pm. Seating is limited and we usually fill up most buses so sign up today at www.richmondmarathon.com to guarantee your spot.

Trying for a PR? Take Advantage of a Pace Group

Trying to qualify for Boston or set a PR? The Richmond Road Runners Club is proud to offer Pace Teams for the 2007 SunTrust Richmond Marathon. There are two ways to join a Pace Team for accomplishing your finish time goal:

1. Visit our website and use the online form;
2. Visit the Richmond Road Runners Club booth at the Race Expo for details and to sign up!

We’ve Got the Best Place for Friends and Family to Watch the Marathon

The SunTrust/NBC 12 Party Zones make it real fun and easy for friends and family to support marathon runners along the route. Located near miles 7, 13 and 19.5, the SunTrust/NBC 12 Party Zones feature live music, refreshments, giveaways and an on-air personality. There’s no better way to watch the marathon – especially for our out-of-town visitors not familiar with the Richmond area – then to drive from the start and hit each party along the way and still have time to make it back to the finish. For a complete list of locations and driving directions from one party to the next, please visit our web site at www.richmondmarathon.com as race day approaches.

UPS Bag Check Available to all Participants

On race morning, UPS will provide a bag check for your gear at the starting line. Look for the UPS trucks at the intersection of Broad and 8th Street. Volunteers will be on hand to help you clearly mark you bag with your race number. Once you have finished the marathon, you can pick up your bag at the Finish Line Festival in Shockoe Slip where the UPS trucks will be parked at 13th and Cary Streets – a few blocks from the finish line.

March
3/31 Azelea Festival Tri in Wilmington – currently closed
Registered: Christophe, Jon, Alex, Rama

3/31 Cooper Bridge Run in Charleston, SC

April
4/28 Riverwood Golf and Athletic Club Triathlon – Clayton, NC
Registered: Karen, Kendal, Alex, Rama

May
(no events yet)

June
6/3 Kerr Lake Triathlon – Henderson, NC
Registered: Karen, Alex, Rama

June
(no events yet)

August
(no events yet)

September
9/29 Wilmington YMCA Triathlon 2007 – Wilmington, NC
Alex, Rama

October
10/28 Tempe/SOMA Half Ironman Arizona
Registered: Christophe, Alex, Karen, Kendal, Rama

November
11/10 Richmond Marathon
Registered: Karen, Alex, Rob

December
Anybody?