Return of RITNY

A few years ago I got started running in the annual Run In The New Year (RITNY) 5k at Lake Crabtree. The race was an event organized by the Cary YMCA and was usually run the second Saturday in January. I really enjoyed the parts of the race that ran through the Lake Crabtree trails, plus the t-shirts were very nice. (I have one saved for my next t-shirt quilt.) Unfortunately, low turnout and trouble getting enough volunteers brought about the end of the 5k, and it hasn't been run the last two or three years, but from 2004 to 2006 I was a regular participant. I know Steve ran it with me at least once, and maybe Kip did as well.

However, I didn't know that it was the second incarnation of the RITNY 5k. The race originally -- 2001 through 2003 for sure -- had been a midnight-on-January-1 race, so that at the stroke of the New Year, you could start running. Great idea for a race, and one that I was used to from New Year's Eve / New Year's Day races growing up. In fact, it was around for ten or eleven years as a stroke-of-midnight race. Then in 2004 it moved to the first Saturday of January, and in 2005 it moved again to the race date that I was familiar with.

And now, after a hiatus of a few years, the RITNY 5k is back as a midnight-on-January-1 race, this time using the new Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary as a focal point and using two laps around Cary Towne Center for the majority of its distance. The Miracle League, which gives kids with special needs the opportunity to play baseball, will be the primary beneficiary of the race, and the runners will go by the Triangle Miracle League field during the run. It's good to have one of these races return from the "RIP" stack, and the Cary mall should be a good venue since it will be well-lit at midnight and familiar to the runners. In fact, if you really want to get your 2010 off to a good running start, you could do the RITNY 5k at midnight, get a few hours of sleep, and then hit the NCRC's Resolution Run 5k later in the morning! That's a pretty good 10k worth of running for the first day of the year!