There’s a bike ride in the east, a biathlon in the west, and a survivalist 5K in between this weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
The northeast corner of North Carolina may be the best-suited part of the state for cycling: two-lane country roads meandering past forest and cotton fields with little automotive traffic to compete with. Yet how often do you find yourself riding a bike there? Not very, I’m guessing. Usually in a case like this it’s because you simply haven’t had a good excuse to explore the area. An excuse such as this Saturday’s Country Roads Bike Tour. Starting and ending in Scotland Neck, the CRBT offers routes of 20k, 50k and 100k — basically a k for every style of riding, from not-much-at-all (20k) to long greenway rides on the weekend (50K) to the hardcore recreational rider who gets in 100 miles a week (100k).read more
This morning while in the car and listening to the BBC World Service I was reminded of why I like to run.
The story was about a study revolving around two questions: At what age do you you consider yourself to be old? At what age do you stop considering yourself to be young? The question was put to people in several countries and the results differed wildly depending upon local. The British, for instance, stopped seeing themselves as young at 35 and officially old at 59. The Greeks, on the other hand, thought themselves young until 51 and not teetering into geezerhood until 68. Speculation abounded among the experts interviewed about the discrepancy. (I’ll post a link to the story when it’s posted by the BBC.)read more
“I ran a 5K in Raleigh on May 1st called Race of Grace,” writes Dixon, who when she’s not running is executive director of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. “The prizes are cakes home baked by members of the churches that organize the race. Anyway, I have never been so motivated to run harder than I would have in hopes of winning a prize.”read more
I was momentarily discombobulated when they couldn’t find my registrastion, recovered when they granted me an-on-the-spot sponsor exemption, then rediscombobulated when I was standing at the starting line with less than a minute to go and realized I’d never gotten a timing chip. Well, rats, I thought. The race won’t count.read more
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 two-mile radius of my Cary house and discovered my bank, Starbucks, REI, Performance, Harris Teeter, Home Depot, the Galaxy Cinema, two malls and a Taco Bell. My basic needs, all within two miles.read more