New course for the Old Reliable Run

Just learned today that the Old Reliable Run will have a brand-new course when the 25th annual running takes place on Sunday, November 16. Downtown construction always has an impact on the ORR course, but I was hoping that '08 would be the year it returned to the '06 course, where we started and finished on Raleigh's new main drag, Fayetteville Street. Unfortunately, it looks like the '08 course won't even include the loop past Krispy Kreme, the Mordecai neighborhood and the Governor's Mansion, course elements that have been included on every ORR that I have run in.

The new course does a mile-and-a-half loop around downtown, going back down the starting line on McDowell Street -- good for spectators -- and then just does an out-and-back along Hillsborough Street, forgoing the traditional loop around the NCSU Bell Tower and using a loop on the north side of Hillsborough Street instead (Dixie Trail (hill), Clark Avenue and Shepherd Street). That's a big departure from what has been a very familiar course.

Again, I hope that it's just temporary construction that required major revisions to the ORR course. I'm the last to say things should never change, but I will miss the old parts of the course. I remember using the Bell Tower as a landmark for looking for running friends to cheer them on, and runners carrying cash to get boxes of "Hot Donuts Now" when we passed Krispy Kreme. Hopefully in '09 we'll return to those parts of town.