Labor Day weekend — the last hurrah of summer. Make sure you make the most of it.
Coast | Coastal Plain
Any event of athletic endurance should end with a flourish. Few end with the flourish of the Go Jump in the Lake 5K, 10K and 15 K in Boiling Springs.
If you shy away from multi-sport races because they often include swimming (and you’re a sinker, not a floater) then you’ll like Saturday’s 6th Annual Wrightsville Beach Biathlon at Wrightsville Beach. If you like signs of spring, you’ll like Saturday’s totally awesome program at Lake Crabtree County Park in Morrisville. And if you like an early season road race but aren’t in early season form, then you’ll like the distractions of Saturday’s Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon and 5K on and around the mountain campus of Western Carolina University.
Saturday you’ll be able to get high in Morrisville.
Really high.
Saturday is the grand reveal for the Triangle Rock Club’s Morrisville expansion, an additional 17,000 square feet of climbing surface, some of which reaches as high as 55 feet. That’s more than twice as high as the walls in the existing gym, which opened in 2007. The original gym, which will focus on youth programs and classes, has 9,000 square feet of climbing space.
Last September, TRC opened a gym in North Raleigh with 13,000 square feet of climbing space. Combined the two gyms offer 39,000 square feet of indoor climbing.
“We’re excited about people getting to see the gym,” Managing Partner Joel Graybeal (Andrew Kratz and Luis Jauregui round out the management troika) said on a preview tour this morning.
The expanded gym reflects how far the TRC has expanded the concept of indoor climbing in the Triangle. Before entering the market seven years ago, indoor climbing here was done in converted warehouses with holds bolted into plywood. Amenities? Bathrooms.
For the past week, we’ve been looking at the current explosive growth of the Raleigh greenway system: $35 million to add about 45 miles of greenway. By 2014, Raleigh should have about 116 miles of greenway, with new, vital links along the Neuse River, Crabtree Creek, Walnut Creek, House Creek and Honeycutt Creek.
Since it’s never too early to start making weekend plans, we give you our weekend planner a day early.
Coast
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock —
Scratch that — been spending too much time on all-Christmas-all-the-time radio. Make that Jingle Bell Run, as in the third annual 5K sponsored by the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History this Saturday in Wrightsville Beach. Speed is good, holiday costumes are better in this race that takes in historic WB cottages, “beautiful winter marshes,” and popular Wrightsville Beach hot spots. Registration is from 7:30-8:45 a.m., the race commences at 9 a.m. $30 for adults, $20 for runners 12 and younger.