Most of us know that the race is the reason we travel. 95% of the trips we take have a medal in the souvenir collection. But except for the occasional PR or photo-op, most of our memories are collected outside of the time between the start and finish lines. Raleigh was one of these trips.
We planned to stay an extra week on the east coast, starting with race weekend, and spending the week visiting Susan’s parents in Chapel Hill. In between we had a side trip to Boston to see Rock n Roll superstar, Will Flynn present a paper at the American Association of Geographers.
Friday March 31st
Pre-5K dining isn’t as restrictive as for the half. We don’t bother with carboloading, so Al took us out to Ole Time Barbecue, one of the hole in the wall roadside diners that he’s visited. I have to tell you, this is one you HAVE to visit if you’re in the area. The fried chicken, brisket and the veggie sides were delicious. They had three different homemade desserts to choose from (we chose… well, all three). We highly recommend all of the cobblers.
We stayed at the Sheraton like we usually do. Although they changed the course slightly, we were still right on top of the start line and only a few blocks from the finish. The Sheraton had the balloon runner like they have since the Inaugural 2014 race. Peanut got a ride before we turned in.
Saturday, April 1st
We missed the inaugural 5K in 2016. From what we heard it was a so cold that people didn’t wait around at the finish line festival and huddled indoors with beers and some March Madness games. UNC was playing the semi-final game on Saturday night, so 2017 was just about as perfect as it could be. We lined up for the free shuttle provided by CGI for the mile-ish ride to Dorthea Dix Park arriving just before sunrise.
The highlight of the first weekend for me was meeting Ann’s mother, Vonnie. This was the first time she’d be watching Ann at a race. “Take Your Mother to Work Weekend” was an eye-opener for her and a joy for us. Let’s just say we know where Ann gets a lot of her energy!
The 5K course wound through the park with a few decent hills. I realize with our shorter weekends, we skipped the 5K in Arizona and Dallas so there isn’t a good progress check on the way to San Diego like usual. I was pretty happy to walk an 11:30 pace. We hit the expo before lunch. John, Al and I walked up to the Capitol building to occupy some gyms and take advantage of the PoGo grass event.
Tawni made a last-minute call to swing through for the half, bringing her son Graem along for the ride. We had dinner at Jimmy V’s at the Sheraton. Did I mention how close this was to the starting line?
Sunday, April 2nd. Half Marathon
First things first. I had to check the result of the UNC/Oregon semifinal. Turns out it was a nail biter, but UNC grabbed a last second rebound to secure a 77-76 win to advance to the finals. That gave Susan license to change wardrobe for the day. Oh yeah. John was pretty happy about the result too. They were having a great race hearing “Go Heels” for the next few hours.
Two more for the Peanut Gallery. I’m hoping to add a picture with the third generation Franken girl before the year is over.
This was a decent race for me. I was hoping to walk in the mid 2:30’s on the ramp up to San Diego. Other than New Orleans, it was the fastest half since Seattle. Except for a small out and back at mile 10.5, 2017 was the same course as we had in 2015. The full and half split and converged a couple of times. Lisa and Dorcas were directing traffic at the first full/half split. Beth crushed a downhill to catch me before we split again on Western Boulevard.
I didn’t have any finish line pictures but we had the usual crew at the finish festival. We collected our Six-String heavy medal from Mindy and Ryan and took a Black Sheep group pic in front of the tent. That’s Amy trying to drown out all of the planning talk for RNR Madrid (she wasn’t able to go).
We were able to get cleaned up and were just in time to see Beth finish the full before grabbing lunch. I’m inspired every time I see her run.
Sunday afternoon was relaxed. We weren’t catching a flight home this time, so we had time for a leisurely lunch with Al and Joe at The Pit and caught up with Beth and Jim later at Woody’s. I know this is why we keep coming back to race.
In the week after Raleigh, we stayed with Susan’s parents at Carol Woods, their retirement community in Chapel Hill…
Had dinner with Bethany and Charles at Crossties BBQ to watch UNC beat Gonzaga in the national title game…
Took a day trip to Boston…
…to watch Will Flynn present “Geography of Distance Running Participation: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series Case Study” at the AAG conference. We learned about the best strategy to minimize travel distance to make the Hall of Fame and how crazy some people are to get that goal (seriously, who travels 110,000 miles just for a medal?). We finished the night with pizza at Uno’s and a picture of Will’s future goal – the Boston Marathon finish line.
On Thursday, we caught up with one of our original Team in Training season buddies, Meg and her two kids as we watched the Greensboro Grasshoppers win a chilly season opener.
And as it that weren’t enough, we flew to Nashville Friday. The reason we extended the east coast swing was that I had a Tradesmart University meeting on the 8th. Maybe in the next few years, options trading will pay for this crazy lifestyle on its own.
Two hundred forty hours away from home. Three and a half hours inside the confines of the races. Another few hundred pictures and a basket of memories to bring home and post on Facebook. When you pack for that big destination race, don’t forget to pay attention to what’s going on outside the lines.
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Rock n Roll Raleigh was held for the 4th year in 2017. Attendance is down sharply since 2016 with full marathon participation under 1000 and total in the half and 5K below 4,000. While there was a lot of speculation that this may be the last year of the race, CGI posted registration for April 7-8, 2018 already, so it will continue for at least another year. Unfortunately for us, that’s the same weekend as RNR San Francisco and due to time, distance and cost, it’s a no-brainer for us which one to choose.
Raleigh was our 95th Rock n Roll half or full and 115th including all distances. I need to update the all time list as we have two more big milestones coming up in Seattle and Chicago. If all goes as planned, we hope that San Jose will be a hometown race to remember.
marathoning for life 