*Thirty* years of racing

It's 1979. "Rocky II" is showing at the movie theater. Gas is 86 cents a gallon. "Happy Days" is on ABC and "I Will Survive" is on the jukebox. And I ran my first road race.

Yep, it's been thirty years since the 1979 Rock City Road Race 10k, my very first road race. I know that it was held in February, but I didn't write down the exact date, so I'll have to take the whole month as the anniversary. I remember it being pretty chilly and even having some precipitation on race morning, but my father, who was active in the Chattanooga Track Club and the race director for the Rock City Road Race, encouraged me to have fun and not to push myself to the point of getting hurt. I had been "training" through cross-county and track practices, so I knew I could do the distance, but running in a mass of people in a real, official timed race (with t-shirts!) was a new experience for me.

The Chattanooga Track Club's extensive records, which they have online, show that 335 runners finished the 10k (only 43 women) with another 115 finishing the 1.5-mile fun run. The field was heavily skewed towards the younger runners; my time of 49:51 -- which I'd gladly take these days, BTW -- was only good enough for 37th in the "19 and under" division. I do see a lot of other names from my high school's running teams in the finishers, so more than likely most of my team showed up to run along with the best from our rival high schools.

The Rock City Road Race t-shirts were also very prized because of all the color they used, usually in a depiction of a hot-air balloon, which was Rock City's usual advertising element at the time. I ran in this road race the following year as well, improving my time to 46:03, but I don't recall why they were my only two years in it, since Dad was race director at least a few more years.

Hard to believe it's been thirty years since I first pinned on a bib and took out onto the road. I hope that thirty years from now I'm still doing it.

Seventeen years of the Franklin 5k

I started running the Zeta Tau Alpha Franklin 5k in March, 1993 when I was a graduate student at Carolina. Back then, the race started near the bell tower and football stadium, worked its way down South Street, around the Ginghoul loop, on through campus and finally all the way down Franklin Street to finish at the Granville Towers apartment complex. I remember it having a very nice post-race party with lots of good food and music, and it was a nice t-shirt, so I decided to make sure and come back the next year.

That was seventeen years ago, and I've been back for the Franklin every year. Out of their twenty annual races, I only missed the first three. The course was reversed a few years ago to start at Granville and finish at the bell tower, and the last two years the course doesn't even hit Franklin Street, and we usually get colder weather now that the race is in February instead of March. Jason has run this race with me, Steve has run this race with me, Kip and Jessica have run this race with me, and I've run it alone. But the fun has stayed, and the women at Zeta Tau Alpha have always put on a good race.

For the last several years I've worn my 1995 Franklin shirt when running this race, but it's nearing the end of its life and I have to save it for this 5k. The '93 and '94 shirts got away from me, and the '96 and '97 shirts were worn to death, but I bet I still have all the others. Many times they're a bit nicer than your average race shirt, and that counts for something. Big kudos have to go to ZTA for being able to pull this breast cancer fundraiser together on what must be a shoestring budget and tons of volunteer hours.

I hope I'll be able to keep my Franklin streak going for many more years. It's always fun to be back on campus, even if my race shirt is older than some of the freshmen that are out running.

Krispy Kreme Challenge 2009 -- Glaze Your Own Trail!

Today's Krispy Kreme Challenge was one of the best running-related events in a while around here. Their exponential growth continued again, with 5,200+ folks signing up and $35,000+ raised for the UNC Children's Hospital this year. The weather forecast for a sunny, warm day in early February certainly contributed to the turnout and to the fun spirit in the air. Once again, they had both the "Challenger" category (run 2 miles, eat a dozen donuts and run 2 miles back in less than an hour) and my "Casual Runner" category (run 2 miles, receive a dozen and run back; eating the donuts is optional).

The KKC organizers had to join up with Setup Events in order to manage an event this big, including timing chips and computerized results, but they managed to keep the fun, seat-of-your-pants spirit behind the race. When they ran out of the original, printed race bibs, they started making them by hand. It's great that an event this big can keep its ability to not take itself too seriously.

Costumes were back in force this year. I saw vikings, including six folks running together inside a big cardboard boat; Superman, Wonder Women, Flash and Wolverine; gals running in prom dresses and tiaras; guys running in prom dresses and tiaras; hobos; Homer Simpson; banana suits; folks with inner tubes decorated like donuts; guys running in business suits and ties; Santa Claus (Santa's girlfriend was hot); Richard Simmons; Red Running Hood; an Army guy running in full camo and a 60-pound backpack; an ROTC unit jogging and singing cadence; guys dressed as big coffee cups; three guys running in Speedos; Thing 1 and Thing 2; runners in long red flannel underwear; and one guy with his leg in a cast being pushed in a grocery cart. A guy carried a donut strung to a long pole as inspiration to keep going (there was a bite out of the donut on the way back). One group of runners had their chests painted to spell out "DO IT FOR THE KIDS" and another group, inspired by the presence of ESPN video teams, spelled out "SPORTSCENTER" and wore equipment from different NC State sports teams. (I also got a kick out of the woman asking "what time is it?" at the base of the NCSU bell tower, the biggest clock in Raleigh.)

Although a lot of my running friends were taking the morning off, I was lucky enough to see Chris, Amber, Rachel, Anne, Gary and Mark (I beat Mark on gun time but he beat me on chip time); another Chris was also there but I couldn't find him. Amber made a great picture of Chris and me pre-race that ended up on a radio station's blog about the race. I was wishing I had brought my own camera; the view looking down Hillsborough Street at 5,200+ runners was very cool.

Setup Events did a great job managing the Challenge; there was a tiny bottleneck at Krispy Kreme when we all got funneled across a timing mat, but otherwise no problems. It did eliminate some pushing at the start since the timing chips allowed for measuring individuals against the hour time limit. A great group of volunteers made the race possible, and it wasn't until I saw pictures afterward that I considered the clean-up job at Krispy Kreme after all the donuts and runners were gone. The entertainment at the turnaround, watching all the different people working on their own strategies for putting away a dozen original glazed, was great as usual. I did see one SportsCenter camera crew videotaping the eaters, but as of yet haven't seen any of it on ESPN.

It was a fun run, more for entertainment than speed. I certainly wasn't in shape to run for a course record, so I jogged along as best I could and took in all the sights and sounds and smells that I could. Carrying a box of a dozen donuts is quite a test since you can't swing your arms like you're used to! But it was a lot of fun and definitely shows quirky, fun races can still find a very willing field out there. And I did manage to beat the guy in the grocery cart. :-)

Here's a time-lapse video of Saturday morning around the bell tower. Very cool how all the people roll in, suddenly mass in the street and then take off! And another inspirational video with a lot of the costumes. The NC State student newspaper has a great slideshow of pictures and a great hi-def video (you can catch a glimpse of Gary in his NCRC shirt around the 2:43 mark).