There’s no lack of options this weekend for working off some excess energy.
Coast
Two races Saturday in two beach towns where you’ll want to linger afterward.
5K Race for the Planet at Fort Fisher. “This flat, mostly asphalt course is scenic with views of the ocean, maritime forest, and historic Fort Fisher Civil War site,” according to race organizers. Run the race at 8 a.m. (registration begins at 7) then hang out and tour the aquarium and hike out to the Fort Fisher Hermit’s old digs. $25 to race. Music and refreshments follow. 910.458.7468 for more information, or go here.read more
There’s a 5K at the coast,
Umstead’s got a paddle trip.
They’ll be hiking up at DuPont
Where the views are bright and crisp.
It’s the first week-end in April,
Spring is firmly underway …
Plan to get out and pla-ayread more
For the past two weeks I’ve been hitting local bookstores to promote my just-released “Backpacking North Carolina” (UNC Press). I talk for a few minutes about the book, show a slide show if I can figure out the projector, and, in a new twist added last night at Quail Ridge Books & Music, cooked dinner. The highlight is when I pipe down and the audience starts talking.read more
Dry out this weekend by running over a bridge at the coast or through a warrior-making forest in the Piedmont. Or head to the mountains and get to know an experimental forest.
Coast
Technically, Saturday’s Run Like a Kid 2011 10K Bridge Run(and 5K and family run) is the inaugural Run Like a Kid across the bridge linking Morehead City with Atlantic City. But it’s not the first race across a bridge linking Morehead City and Atlantic City — though it may be the first on a bridge not at the bottom of the Intracoastal Waterway, which the bridge spans. That honor would go to Discovery Diving’s annual 4th of July Underwater Bike Race. That race is now run on the deck of the Indra, a landing craft repair ship intentionally sunk in 65 feet of water off the coast as part of the state’s artificial reef program. But in the early days, the underwater bike race was run atop the old bridge that once linked Morehead City and Atlantic Beach. But I digress … .read more