I wrote the following article for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh; it appeared in both papers on May 15. It appears here in expanded form, with links. OK, time for your daily workout. Put on the sweats, lace up the sneakers and now to get limbered up with some long, deep stretches … . Not so fast there, Jane Fonda. It wasn’t long ago that…
Sunday, Day 4 of the MST Endurance Run, began on schedule for Diane Van Deren with a 3:45 a.m. wake up call. After getting off the trail the previous evening at 9:36 with Annette Bednosky, her trail guide for the weekend, she’d gotten her first good night’s sleep — 4 hours. She arrived where the Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes the Folk Arts Center in Asheville ready to rock a 43.8-mile day….
A large building loomed out of the dark woods to our right. “Is that the Folk Arts Center?” Annette Bednosky asked slightly perplexed. It was — the very same Folk Arts Center we’d set off from 15 minutes earlier, at 5:01 this morning. “Well,” said Diane Van Deren, “we just did a 14-minute warmup lap.” To Van Deren, it was a “so-what” moment. When you’re spending up to 20 hours…
A year ago today, I wrote about all the things I planned to do in my 55th year. 55 things, in fact, all tied to the number 55. My inspiration came in large part from a National Institutes of Health report noting that men generally start dropping weight and, the report added, start falling apart at 55. If that’s the case, I thought, then I need to start working extra…
Today, Thursday, May 10, marks the start of elite ultra runner Diane Van Deren’s effort to run across North Carolina, a roughly 1,000-mile journey that will take her along the work-in-progress Mountains-to-Sea Trail from Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee border to Jockey’s Ridge at the lip of the Atlantic. Her objective: to finish in 21 days, beating the current speed record of 24 days, 3 hours and 50 minutes set…
Mother’s Day means time spent with mom — preferably in the great outdoors. Take mom on a coastal hike, unravel the mysteries of Grandfather Mountain, or run with her through a vineyard. Whatever you do, it’s bound to be memorable. Coast Nothing says Mother’s Day outing more, to us, than a relaxed ramble through a coastal wetland. Which is no doubt what the folks at Goose Creek State Park outside…
The entry in my workout log yesterday read, “Run for Diane, 7.4 miles @ Umstead, hot — and slow.” Frankly, it was 7.4 miles I likely wouldn’t have run — in upper 80-degree heat — were it not for Diane Van Deren. Diane Van Deren, ultra runner, elite The North Face athlete, and former women’s tennis pro will spend most of this month running across North Carolina. On Thursday, she’ll…
A run with romance! A walk/run/bike for a cause, a wild hike for wildflowers highlight the action in North Carolina this weekend. Coast Did you know that before Nicholas Sparks was making women and girls misty-eyed with his tales of romance he ran track at Notre Dame? Surprised by that plot twist? That being the case, though, it shouldn’t surprise you that a 5K and 1-mile Fun Run are part…
I was talking to Steven Wheelock, a wellness instructor at Rex Wellness in Raleigh, about stretching for a story coming soon to a McClatchy Newspaper (Charlotte Observer/News & Observer) near you when he sought to put the practice in perspective by anatomizing the four phases of the workout: 1. Stretching/warmup, 2. Evaluation period, 3. The workout itself, 4. Cool down. 1, 3 and 4, I was familiar with but 2…
A 5K/10K kicks off the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, there’s a ride with lunch in the Triangle and at the Nantahala Outdoor Center they’ll be celebrating hiking and long trails. A good cross-section of sweaty fun this weekend in North Carolina. Coast What better way to kick off a festival than with a run? This Saturday’s Azalea 5K/10K/Fun Walk, for example, which kicks off Wilmington’s annual Azalea Festival. (Kicks off…