Not the boat you'll be sailing in Adult Learn to Sail.
Sail the not-so-high seas, run with the lions and tigers and bears, take a long bike ride in the mountains. You’ve got all sorts of options in North Carolina this weekend.
Coast
You’ve taken the local learn-to-sail class on the local lake, and it was fun. It also made you wonder what it would be like to sail the high seas. Or if not “high” — because, frankly, that sounds a little scary — then at least the salty spray, because that taste in your mouth is what tells you you’re really sailing. Sunday, you have a chance to get a sense of that Columbusian sense of adventure at the North Carolina Maritime Museum’s Adult Learn to Sail program. “Learn the basics aboard stable sailboats” — doesn’t get much more reassuring than that. The course runs from 1-5 p.m. $95. Reservations are required.read more
Explore Wilmington — quickly — by foot; explore the Triad at 18 mph by bike; or take a mountain hike frequently interrupted by plunges into a cool mountain pools. Those are but three of your options for getting out and exploring North Carolina this weekend.read more
After Saturday’s BluePoints 5K at the Ballpark, I ran into Lew Borman milling about in the post-race/pre-awards-ceremony crowd. Borman hadn’t run — he was there supporting his son, Elliot — but he had the air of a man who had been exposed to race fever.read more
Today, I have a story in both the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer about the new breed of obstacle 5Ks — 5K races that throw up everything from a gauntlet of tires to a mud pit to a wall of flames to curtains of live electrical wires between you and the finish. They’ve become enormously popular in the past three years, drawing upwards of 25,000 participants. You can check out the story in either paper today, or return to this space tomorrow for an expanded version with links.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
