February is a great time for runners to establish a baseline. Perhaps you’ve been training for month now, you’re eager to see where you are, where you need to be. That said, we present three great options to do just that, with either a trail run at the coast, a greenway run in the Piedmont, or a road race in the mountains.

Coast

When we look for a trail run, we look for a trail that’s wild, but not too wild. Wild in that it must be a relatively foot-friendly natural surface (we make an exception for the rocky and rooty Uwharrie Trail Run), be gently rolling at best, and take you through spectacular terrain. A trail run such as this Saturday’s BNP Trail Jam at Brunswick Nature Park near Wilmington.

BNP — which officially is in Town Creek Township, which is not far from Leland, which is just west of Wilmington — is 911 acres of wild. It’s coastal and lush, a mix of dense vegetation and wildlife in several ecosystems (there’s even a view or two). And miles of trail run through it. Saturday, those trails will link to offer races of 3.5, 9 and 18 miles. There’s also a relay option. And Saturday’s weather couldn’t be better for a trail race (see Saturday forecast, below).

Logistics: BNP Trail Jam, Saturday, Feb. 18, 9 a.m., Brunswick Nature Park, Town Creek. 3.5-, 9- and 18-mile options. $45-$99. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 55 at start time, peaking around 70.

* * *

Looking ahead: Nature Hike on new terrain at Hammocks Beach State Park, March 4, 12:30 p.m. More info here.

Piedmont

Maybe you have a thing about dirt: the notion of a trail run appeals, but getting your favorite pristine running shoes … less pristine? Sends a chill, eh?

If so, consider the Charlotte 10-Miler. It’s 10 miles of trail running, but on paved trails, specifically, the paved greenways of Charlotte’s McMullen and 4-Mile Creek greenways. This is a point-to-point race, and if the thought of 10 miles this early in the season is daunting, there’s a 4-mile option. And again, ideal race conditions are forecast (Saturday forecast, below.)

Logistics: Charlotte 10-Miler, Saturday, Feb. 18, 7:30 a.m., Earth Fare, 12235 North Community House Road, Charlotte. $60 ($40 for the 4-Miler). More info here.

Saturday forecast: Race time temp of 46 under somewhat sunny skies.

* * *

Looking ahead: Hike to Tory’s Den, Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury, Saturday, March 4, 2 p.m. More info here.

Mountains

One of the great things about winter races? They typically start at more civil times (the Charlotte 10-Miler aside). Take Sunday’s Frostbite 5K & 10K in Fletcher: not only will you be able to have coffee and read the paper beforehand, not only will you be able to go out for brunch, but you’ll also be able to watch a little college hoops before the 2:30-in-the-afternoon start!

Unlike today’s other recommendations, this is a true road race.

Logistics: Frostbite 5K and 10K, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2:30 p.m., Lelia Patterson Center at Howard Gap and Naples roads in Fletcher. $40, $55. More info here.

Sunday forecast: High of 63 and mostly sunny at race time.

* * *

Looking ahead: Flight of the American Woodcock, Feb. 25, New River State Park, Laurel Springs. More info here.

* * *

Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below. 

Coast

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The post This weekend: Da you run, run?  appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

The standup paddlers takes to the chilly waters of the Intracoastal Waterway, runners take to the trails of the National Whitewater Center, and nature lovers learn a thing or two at Grandfather Mountain. There may be a little rain in the forecast, but that’s no reason to stay inside on an active North Carolina weekend.

Coast

Think of it as a race and go for the cash prizes, think of it as a tour and get a wintry view of Wrightsville Beach by water.

It’s time again for the Cold Stroke Classic out of the Blockade Runner at Wrightsville Beach. The race begins on the protected waters behind the beachfront Blockade Runner and takes a meandering loop on the Intracoastal Waterway. The Short Course is one lap, the Long, two. There’s a $1,250 cash purse for the Long course, $5,000 in prizes for both the Long and Short. And, this year they’ve added a Run What You Bring (shouldn’t it be “Brung”?) category: “ … surfskis, outrigger canoes, unlimited paddleboards, kayaks, etc. If you can paddle it, you can race it.” Water temperature as of Thursday morning: 54 degrees.

Logistics: Ninth Annual Cold Stroke Classic, Saturday, 10 a.m., Blockade Runner, Wrightsville Beach, $55 Short Course ($25 kids), $75 Long ($25). More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 67, storms developing in the afternoon.

* * *

Looking ahead: N.C. Birding Trail Hike, Feb. 16, Halyburton Park, Wilmington. More info here.

Piedmont

If you’re a runner, it’s nice to establish a baseline at the beginning of the year (translation: your times can only get better from here). We can’t think of a better place to start than the Charlotte Running Company Trail Race Saturday at the National Whitewater Center. Haven’t been running much? Do the 4-mile race. Gotten the year off to a pretty good start, training-wise? Perhaps you’re up to the task of the 9-miler. Feeling particularly bold? There’s a 13-mile option as well. All on the well-groomed, nicely rolling trails at the whitewater center.

Logistics: Charlotte Running Company Trail Race, Saturday, 9 a.m., National Whitewater Center, Charlotte, $50, $55, $65. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 66, 13 percent chance of rain at race time.

* * *

Looking ahead: Cupid’s Undie Run, Saturday, Feb. 11, Uptown Charlotte. More info here.

Mountains

It’s one thing to ID a tree by its distinctive leaves, quite another to identify it by its more subtle bark and limb patterns. That’s why we recommend you head to Grandfather Mountain State Park Sunday for its Winter Tree ID Hike on the Profile Trail. “Participants will learn how to identify local trees without the aid of leaves by learning differences in bark, limb, bud and branching patterns.”

Expect to hike a mile and a half over about two hours.

Logistics: Winter Tree ID Hike, Sunday, 1-3 p.m., Profile Trail, Grandfather Mountain State Park. More info here.

Sunday forecast: High of 52, pretty good chance of rain.

* * *

Looking ahead: Winter Boat Tour, Feb. 4, Lake James State Park, Nemo. More info here.

* * *

Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below. 

Coast

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Coast

Here’s the perfect way to make amends for today: the Wilmington Roadrunners Club Turkey Trot Trail Race at Carolina Beach State Park. First, it’s only four miles, so there’s not too much penance but you’re not getting off easy, either. Second, it starts at a civil time, 9 a.m. on Saturday. And third, it’s a trail run through Carolina Beach State Park.

That third item is a huge plus because there are so many distractions at Carolina Beach. You run along the banks of the sprawling Cape Fear River (check out the container ships heading in and out of the Port of Wilmington), you run through pine savannah, you run with meat-eating plants nipping at your heels (a slight exaggeration; the Venus flytrap and its carnivorous kind generally go for smaller prey), you climb a mountain (the 60-foot-high Sugarloaf Dune). Before you know it, you’re done.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 29, 9 a.m., Carolina Beach State Park, Carolina Beach. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 56, mostly sunny.

Piedmont

We can’t count the times we’ve mentioned Medoc Mountain State Park to someone and they’ve responded the way your dog responds when you say just about anything: cocked head, puzzled brow, “Ruh?”

Medoc Mountain sits on 2,300 acres of land just an hour and a half northeast of the Triangle. It’s rolling Piedmont woods divided by the lovely Little Fishing Creek. In the midst is 300-foot Medoc Mountain. Maybe it’s not Roan Mountain or the Shining Rock Wilderness, but it is a great little escape close to home (provided home is the Trangle).

It’s also the site of Saturday’s Trek to the Summit, a four-mile hike to the rounded summit of Medoc. The hike is described as moderate and will allow plenty of time for oohing, ahhing and picture taking.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 29, 2 p.m., Medoc Mountain State Park in Halifax County. Free, but registration is requested, by calling 252.586.6588.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 51.

Mountains

One of the great things about North Carolina hiking is that you’re constantly discovering new favorite hikes. In September, for instance, we discovered Cedar Rock Mountain up US 276 in the Pisgah National Forest north of Brevard. Saturday, you can discover this scenic hike as well, with the Carolina Mountain Club.

The venerable CMC’s Cedar Rock Mountain Loop is an 8.5-mile route that starts from the Pisgah Fish Hatchery, crosses Butter Gap, bushwhacks up the south ridge of Cedar Rock Mountain and Cat Gap before taking a lunch break on the sunny exposure of Cedar Rock.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 29, 8:30 a.m. (carpool meetup time), Pisgah National Forest north of Brevard. To sign up, contact hike leader Bruce Bente at 828.699.6296 or bbente@bellsouth.net. For more on the hike route, go here.

Saturday forecast: High of 56, sunny.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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When I get lost on a hike, the first thing I like to do when I get home is dig out the appropriate USGS map and figure where I went wrong. I call the exercise a topopsy. Similarly, after a race I like to take a few minutes to figure out what went right and what didn’t. Thus, a few minutes looking back at Saturday’s River Bound 15K at the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte.

Right Good positioning at the start, in the third row. Trail races are tricky: ideally, there’s a funnel start where you can, quickly, jockey for position and fall in with runners of similar pace. Once you hit the singletrack opportunities to pass can be rare and dicey. Thus it’s crucial to make the most of the 200 yards or so of double track before the trail narrows and disappears into the woods.

Wrong At the 1 Mile mark I glance at my watch: 7 minutes, 24 seconds. Yikes! At best, I’m a 9:10- to 9:20-minute miler on trail. Throttle back, buddy.

Wrong In theory cutting back is be a good idea. Yet here I am, at 57, bounding through the woods with a bunch of 20 and 30somethings. I feel great!

Wrong Mile 2: 14:48. Really, It’s hot, humid and I’ve got more than seven miles to go. My training has been OK, I tell myself, with three or four runs a week and four over 10 miles. But this pace: can it last?

Wrong Mile 3: 24:14. Better, but still just over 8-minute miles. It occurs to me that my 9:20-minute pace is for a six-mile training run. For a 10-mile run I was flirting with  a 10-minute pace. I shouldn’t worry about the guy who’s been on my tail the last half mile: ease up and let him pass.

Wrong Mile 4: 33:18. Hmm, that guy’s still on my tail. If he’s half as spent as I am, he’ll drop soon.

Wrong Mile 5: 42:14. I can’t remember the last time I walked this much in a race, at least in a shorter race. True, most of it was an intense hill — Goat Hill, I believe it’s called. I’m sure I walked it faster than I could have run it. Still, walking … . Shoulda let that guy pass a mile and a half back.

Wrong Mile 6: 52:53. In trouble. Walking anything exceeding a moderate incline. My hill training was pretty good; this feels more like a nutrition issue. I haven’t bonked in a long while, but I’m sensing that that peanut-butter-and-banana toast I had more than four hours ago is long gone. While it’s not crazy hot — probably only the low-to mid-80s — it is crazy humid. I’m drenched, my glasses keep slipping down my nose and  I can hear my feet squishing in my shoes. I don’t feel so well.

Right Mile 7: A friendly woman and her son are manning the water stop. “You look great!” she says. I cough out a laugh. Unlike the previous three water stops, where little plastic cups were flung aside 20- 30- 40-yards up the trail, the only cups here are right at the stop. “People making this a rest-stop?” I ask. “Except for the fast ones,” she says. “They don’t even need water.” At 57, stopping is risky because it’s so hard to get the body moving again. Still, I need water. I drink one cup, ask for a refill, down that and take a third. The woman who will win the 20-24 age group comes from behind, slows, takes a cup, keeps moving. When she’s 40 yards down the trail I rev up the machine and lumber on.

Right Mile 8: The water has worked wonders. I’m not flying; in fact, my sweat-stung eyes make it hard to read my watch, so I have no idea how I’m doing, timewise. But I have run the entire last mile, including a gradual climb, and it’s felt pretty good.

Right Mile 9: We emerge from the single track and there is Kimberley Hefner of Rock Hill, S.C., who finished about 10 minutes earlier to win the women’s overall division in 1:15:17. She’s returned to yell encouragement — well, selective encouragement. “You go, girl!” she yells to Catherine Quinn of Matthews, the soon-to-be 20-24 women’s winner who I’ve somehow managed to keep in sight. “Don’t let these boys catch you!” Hefner adds. Quinn explodes in a comic sprint.

Wrong Mile 9.3, the Finish. I finish strong, too strong. I once boasted about finishing strong in a race and was told, “Guess you didn’t leave it all on the course. You should finish with nothing.” Well, shoot: I have to finish with something — I still have to walk to the car and drive to Cary.

In the end I could have trained more, but for a 15K I was pretty comfortable with the number of miles I put in (between 22 and 36 per week over three months). But I certainly could have trained better. I have no training plan: I just go out and run, my distance typically dictated by how much time I have. Nutritionally, I may have been slack on race morning, and I certainly needed to do more to hydrate before the race and stay hydrated during the race.

With a smarter training program I could have shaved a couple minutes from my time.  But 3 minutes and 51 seconds — the amount I would have needed to edge out Ludwik Zon, who won our age category (55-59)? Ludwik, I’m guessing, takes a different approach to training. It turns out he’s an accomplished ultra runner; last year he completed the Leadville Trail 100 [mile] race, much of which is above 10,000 feet, in just over 29 hours. A year earlier, he completed the mountain biking version of the Leadville 100 in just over 11 hours.

Standing on the podium looking up at Ludwik a thought occurred: This guy probably doesn’t wake up and decide on a whim whether he’s going to run or ride that day.

The post A race run, right and wrong appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

It’s a big weekend in North Carolina for runs, especially those of the trail variety.

Coast

One thing runners love about trail races is that natural surface trails are easier on the body, especially everything from the waist down. One thing runners aren’t always crazy about: the races tend to be in hilly areas where the prospects of a PR are slim. That’s not an issue with Saturday’s Roanoke Canal Half Marathon & 8K, with follows the historic, flat and natural surface Roanoke Canal Trail. Promises event organizer the Tar River Running Company: “It is honestly a course that is waiting for you to set a PR.” Also recommending the race is the great scenery, both natural and human: the trail takes in the Roanoke River and several lakes, crosses an aqueduct dating to the 1800s, and passes the remains of an old power generation plant. Lots of distractions.

Logistics: Saturday, March 8; the half marathon begins at 8 a.m., the 8K at 8:30 a.m. $65 for the half, $35 for the 8K, registration ends TODAY! More info: 252.443.4566, tarriverrunningco@gmail.com

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 59.

Piedmont

The Charlotte version of the River Bound Race Series (there’s also an Asheville series) begins Saturday with a 5K and 8K at Renaissance Park. The four-race series is put on by North Carolina Outward Bound; other venues and dates in the series are Fisher Farm Park (5K, 10K), May 18; U.S. National Whitewater Center (5K, 15K), July 20; Anne Spring Close Greenway (5K and half marathon), Sept. 21.

Logistics: Saturday, March 9, 8 a.m.; $30 for the 5K, $35 for the 8K, tack on another $5 on race day. Register here. More info: Luiz Leonetti 704.239.2121, lleonetti@ncobs.org, and here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 64.

Mountains

Rounding out the weekend running schedule is Saturday’s Healthy Parks, Healthy You 5K Fun Run at the Buncombe County Sports Park in Asheville. This is a mellow event — it’s not even timed. Mellow pricing, too.

Logistics: Saturday, March 9, 8:30 a.m., Healthy Parks, Healthy You 5K Fun Run: March 9, 8:30 a.m.-noon, Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle, Asheville. $12 for adults, $7 ages 4-15. More info: Jay Nelson at 828.250.4269 or jay.nelson@buncombecounty.org or by going here.

Weekend forecast: Clear, high of 61.

* * *

Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

U.S. National Wildlife Refuges
Rundown, by month, of regular activities at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuges in North Carolina.

* * *

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