I am rudderless — unless I have a goal. Stick a carrot in front of me and I can usually get it done. Case in point: earlier this year I vowed to start using my bike more for utilitarian purposes. To date, I believe I’ve gone for coffee on it twice. Appalling as that is, it became even more so when I pulled up a map of everything within a…

Last week, we published a list of municipalities in North Carolina that we knew had greenways. Turns out there was a lot we didn’t know. Since we published that list we’ve heard from an additional 14 municipalities with greenways, from Whiteville’s four greenways totaling a mile in length to Rocky Mount’s 7-mile system to Pinehurst’s 11-mile. Not only we’re we pleasantly surprised that so many municipalities in North Carolina have…

This weekend highlights some of the best North Carolina has to offer in the outdoors. Coast Not long ago, a biathlon/duathlon typically meant running and swimming. More and more, it can mean pretty much anything. Such as running and paddleboarding. That’s the case at Saturday’s Wrightsville Beach Biathlon, where participants will depart from the dock harbor side at the Blockade Runner, paddle four miles through Banks Channel, hop off the…

The Triangle’s greenway system is a tiny step closer to becoming a complete network. Joe Godfrey, parks planner with the Town of Cary, tells GGNC that a 1.3-mile missing link of the Black Creek Greenway should be finished mid-April. The stretch would extend the existing 5.6 miles of Black Creek Greenway running south from Lake Crabtree to Chapel Hill Road on to Maynard Road. A short stretch of the sidewalk/greenway…

Sunday, one of the kids asked how Daylight Saving Time came to be (a disgruntled kid, I should add, since she’d be waking for school an hour earlier the next morning). I spared her my discourse on a subject I’m peculiarly fascinated by and gave her the short version: Several countries adopted it in World War I as a way to save coal for the war effort. Most dropped it…

It may seem not right to suggest that Thanksgiving won’t be complete without the trots and runs, but it’s true. Imagine going out for a nice run — a 5K, an 8K, a 10K or even a half marathon —before settling in for a day of Thanksgiving feasting. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Hmm, I run 5 miles I can eat guilt-free for the rest of the day. Maybe this guy is…

Congratulations to the cyclists of Chapel Hill and Durham, who now live in Bike Friendly Communities. That’s according to the League of American Bicyclists, which bestows its BFC honor on communities that have made an effort to make cycling safe, not suicidal. Chapel Hill and Durham made the list for the first time this fall, earning Bronze status (out of a possible Silver, Gold, and the coveted Platinum, of which…

I had just said hello to Vic Lebsock when the inevitable happened: A woman walked up and wanted to know the status of a greenway planned through her neighborhood, a greenway years from construction, she knew, but she just had to know the latest. Lebsock excused himself and dutifully walked the woman over to an aerial map of her Lake Johnson neighborhood for “the latest.” Such is the life of…