What was the Umstead Trail Marathon mascot in 2011?

As you may remember from my race report on the 2010 Umstead Trail Marathon, each year they choose a local animal native to Umstead as the mascot for the race; the animal appears on the race shirts, the finisher pint glasses, the awards and various other signage. The two years I ran Umstead, the animals were a vulture (2008, when the vultures really were circling me) and a rabbit (2010).

Since I wasn't running Umstead this year in favor of the St. Patty's Run Green 8k downtown, I had been wondering what animal would be chosen this year for the Umstead mascot. The answer? It was a tick:


That shirt will definitely stand out in a crowd, both color- and tick-wise. I do like the day-glo colors the last couple of years. Maybe I'll be able to do Umstead again in 2012, when they may be back to a warm-blooded animal.

Here's one marathon mommy's race report from this year.

Skirtchaser 5k Cuts Down Its Schedule

Unfortunately, the Skirtchaser 5k, one of the funnest races and best post-race parties in town the last few years, will probably not be back to Raleigh in 2011 in its usual form. The main Skirtchaser 5k series was cut down to just Tempe and Denver, but local Skirt Sports apparel dealers around the country are being encouraged to put on their own "Skirtchaser Dash" events. Although they won't be as big as the bigger Skirtchaser 5k series races have been, hopefully the dash events will still be a lot of fun and still include hundreds of women running through town. The Dash series schedule should be announced sometime soon.