Archive for March 2011
A frosty morning! It’s a good thing we have some blazing soles to keep us warm…
Thank you very much and merci mille fois to Christelle and her husband, Steve, for inviting us over for a fun run and great food. We have a candidate for BS mascot! Guinness, who lives a mile down the road from Christelle, shepherded down Teer Road and back yesterday! She was ready to come home with us and join the Soles. Back at Chirstelle’s, we had home-made pizza, home-brewed beer and Jess-baked oreo crumb cheesecake cookies! Then we spent a while picking up cute chicks (and ducklings, too). And Natalie is now the Sole Champion of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!
Merci, Christelle, de toutes les semelles de plomb un poulailler et une grande fête!
Runs this week
- Tuesday: Next Steps @ 6
- Wednesday: NoBo @ 6
- Thursday: Next Steps track workout at 6 – who’s up for firefly at 7?
- Saturday: NoBo/Next Steps @ 8: Tapering for Tar Heel 10
- Sunday: Johnson Mill @ 10: Be there or be home in bed!
- Any other runs?
Rugged Maniacs! Anyone else want to jump over mud and crawl through fire after the Tar Heel 10? A bunch of us (Morelli’s, Hart/West’s, Libby and me, at least) are heading to Greensboro after the Tar Heel 10 for the Rugged Maniac 5k. We are running at 4pm….
Uwharie Rumble: 8k ad half marathon on July 9th! I am sensing some blazing interest ….
Merry Monday mornin’ all!
Johnson Mill had its second Sole-free Sunday yesterday! Too much recovery going on. Let’s get back to the Mill after Chriselle’s next weekend.
Save your Sunday afternoon! Sole Chicken Run at Christelle’s with festivities and food to follow. Further details forthcoming. [Anyone going by the airport @ 3ish on the way to Christelle's? I know that it is on the way :).]
Runs this week
- Tuesday: Next Steps @ 6 is doing 5ish.
- Wednesday: NoBo @ 6 is doing 3ish.
- Thursday: Next Steps @ 6 is doing a track workout. Firefly to follow?
- Saturday: NoBo is doing 3ish? and Next Steps 7 @ 8AM.
- Sunday: Mill run?
I spotted the follwoing greenway news in the CH town email this week. Watch the Chapel Hill VID at vimeo.com/21078542 tor a synopsis.
Subject: Town of Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill eNews
13. Trail to reveal "hidden gem" on Morgan Creek
Work that began in April 2010 on the Morgan Creek Trail is nearing completion later this spring or early summer 2011. The new trail will provide access to a hidden gem of open space to the south and west of Fordham Boulevard, a woodland corridor that James Taylor called "Copperline."
Morgan Creek Trail is located on the north side of Morgan Creek, from Merritt Pasture to a new parking lot east of Kingswood Apartments. The Town of Chapel Hill was awarded $347,000 in federal stimulus funding for the $1.2 million project.
Bill Webster, Town of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation assistant director, said that an exciting development in the project was the installation of two pedestrian bridges over Morgan Creek earlier this month. Watch the Chapel Hill VID at vimeo.com/21078542.
Currently, there is limited public access to the Morgan Creek area, which is protected by a conservation easement. The 92-acre nature preserve stretches along Morgan Creek from Merritt Pasture to the Chapel Hill town limit at Smith Level Road. The land is bounded by Merritt Pasture on the east, the Carrboro Town line on the west, Culbreth Road to the south, and Fordham Boulevard to the north. The open space was amassed in a series of acquisitions that were finalized in March 2007.
The first phase of the Morgan Creek Trail construction will be nearly one mile in length and will extend from a new parking lot east of the Kingswood Apartments to Merritt’s Pasture. The trail alignment was selected to minimize tree removal. The project will include a parking lot on the west end of the trail with access off of Highway NC 54, two bridges and a boardwalk. The majority of the trail will be 10 feet wide and constructed of concrete.
Phase Two of the project is expected to begin in 2012. This will connect Phase One of the Morgan Creek Trail with the existing Fan Branch Trail. The combined trails will be about three miles long and will connect Southern Community Park, Southern Village, Scroggs School, Merritt’s Pasture, and open space along Morgan Creek. Phase Two will likely be completed in late 2012 or early 2013.
Chapel Hill is creating a network of more than 38 miles of linear open space. The total land area of Chapel Hill is 21.3 square miles, and about 11 percent of this is dedicated to parks and open space. There are about 1,200 acres of park, open space, and greenway easements totaling 12 miles of trails.
For more information, contact Bill Webster at bwebster.
1. No Blue Ridge Half for the Soles! I completely forgot to check the calendar. Kathy is hosting a Sole Party on the 16th! And we all know which takes priority…
2. How hard is it to run on sand? I will be heading to Florida to visit my dad for the weekend after this (26th) and there is a local Beach Bum 5k. I would love to run it, but only if it won’t kill me. Thoughts?
Hi, again, Soles! This email just came in and I wanted to pass it on!
PS Joan is one of the Tour de Carrboro organizers. Thanks, Joan, for all your hard work! I am looking forward to earning my second jacket this year (hopefully without the fever!).
The Roanoke Soles are back!!!! Sore and muddy, but not too much worse for wear. The course was beautiful, the town unexciting and the company great! Nineteen Soles and Trail Goddesses came, fifteen ran the half, two the 8k and two cheered us on. And the shirt is cool…
What’s up this week?
- Tuesday: 5ish @ 6 wtih Next Steps
- Wednesday: 3ish @ 6 with NoBo
- Thursday: Firefly?
- Saturday: NoBo/NS @ 8.
- Sunday: Run the Mill @ 10
VisionWalk: Soles for Sight?
Would the Soles be interested in walking to raise money to fund the Foundation Fighting Blindness? This is the bunch that is helping to fund the clinical trial of the possible treatment for my eye condition (Startgardt’s Disease). It would mean a lot to me! The walk is on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at Lake Lynn Park in Raleigh and starts at 10.
A bit presumptuously, I signed up a Blazing Soles team @ http://www.fightblindness.org/goto/bs2011 . Please let me know if you would like to walk. I will be sending out emails with more details as June gets closer. Thank you!
Blue Ridge Half
The Blue Ridge Half (http://blueridgemarathon.com/) is on April 16th, just a month away. This could be a good preview of the Blue Ridge Relay as the half has a "Total Elevation Gain/Loss = 2528 ft."! It may be too soon, but is anyone interested? Check out the video: http://vimeo.com/12566952
The Blue Ridge Half Marathon course is not quite as difficult nor as long as the full marathon, but it is still a challenging run. The course begins and ends in downtown Roanoke.
Runners will start in the heart of the city in front of the magnificent Taubman Museum of Art. The course begins easily with one mile of rolling hills, before taking its first turn upward as runners begin the two-mile climb up Mill Mountain. While full marathoners will continue on to the brutal but beautiful climb up Roanoke Mountain, half marathoners will ascend Mill Mountain to the famous Mill Mountain Star, overlooking the beautiful Roanoke Valley and — much of the course still to be run!
From the Star, runners will encounter a major 2-mile decent down Prospect Avenue – also known as the “old road” to Mill Mountain. Back on the valley floor the final seven miles is rolling with several challenging hills, but no additional significant climbs.”.
The terrain flattens out for the next 3 miles as you emerge from the neighborhood and make your way along the Roanoke River on a portion of Roanoke’s greenway system. After a few miles on the greenway the course will head toward the finish line. The final two miles return you to downtown where the course takes you past the Virginia Museum of Transportation and back to the Taubman Museum of Art.
I’ve been thinking about planning races after Roanoke, possibly heading for a full in the fall. To get my head straight, I put together a list of longer (>5k) races in the area that I have heard of plus a few I borrowed from the CTC list (http://runwellnc.com/). Any additions, thoughts or suggestions? There are too many here for me to do, but I thought it might make a good reference for all the Soles. June, July and August are a bit skimpy on races.
2011 Races
Ten dedicated Soles hit the Mill for a soaking 4+ miles yesterday! No picnic, though, with the downpour, so plan for another try in a few weeks. A few more Mill newbies this weekend; Rob, Anne and Emily. I tried in vain to keep up with Emily who politely waited for me at each signpost. I have not been this sore after a run in a while! Besides the newbies, Tracey, Jess, Diana, Kim, Kelly and Mary H., plus me and the mutt, made our shoes squelchy. I should have brought Shadow’s shampoo as he was already soaked and needs a bath. Ah well.
This week is Roanoke Rapids week. Between the Soles and TGs, there are eighteen of us heading north for the trail half!. Saturday’s NoBo and NS will be short mentors, so please lend a hand if you can.
This week:
- Tuesday: Next Steps is doing 5ish at 6
- Wednesday: NoBo is doing 3ish at 6
- Thursday: NS’ track workout at 6, location TBA
- Saturday: NoBo’s 3ish and NS’ 8.5ish
- Sunday: Feel free to run the Mill without me!
Have a blazing week!
Anyone want a hill workou? I just ran across Trailhead Randy Young’s article in the CHN (http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2011/02/02/62275/unto-these-hills.html) about the Laurel Hill Challenge in early February. In the sidebar, Randy lists a few local hill workouts, including distance and elevation. It there a Blazing Hill Tour in our near future?
Where There’s a Hill, There’s a Way
Locals need not search far and wide for hills upon which to walk, run, or bicycle. Even here in the relatively low-altitude central Piedmont of North Carolina, ancient undulations give Chapel Hill its name. Here are a few choices for those looking to get "Up, up," without going "away."
Battle Branch Trail
Length: 1.5 miles.
Net elevation: 251 feet
For those "inclined" to incline, Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation’s Battle Branch Trail provides a decent climb from behind the Chapel Hill Community Center and running all the way up to the northeast corner of the UNC campus. Investigate Battle Branch and a host of UNC campus trails through the UNC Recreation’s wellness site: http://www.uncwellness .com/
Borland Hill
Length: 2.72 miles.
Net elevation: 324 feet.
Ask any avid bicyclist in the area for a challenging hill close to home but far from traffic, and they’ll likely name this notoriously long incline off Arthur Minnis Road northwest of town. Set the bike for little gears and get ready for some serious burn in the quads.
Lone Pine Hill
Length: 0.32 miles.
Net elevation: 112 feet
What this narrow neighborhood road lacks in length, it makes up for in steepness. Dangling innocently off a hillside at the eastern end of Rosemary Street, the precipitous nature of this hill evoked one member of the local women’s running group "See Jane Run" to equate scaling its height to "delivering a baby."
Hillsborough Street
Length: 0.68 miles.
Net elevation: 157 feet.
Most of us have driven this route from the intersection with Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard up the long hill to Rosemary and Franklin Streets, but even a tired engine doesn’t tell the whole story. Traffic is daunting, but the sight of campus at the top is a welcome reward.
Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area
Length: 3.0 miles.
Net elevation: 867 feet.
For those looking to hit the heights, the highest point in Orange County is accessible through the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area off Orange Grove Road in western Hillsborough. The area features 190 acres of natural beauty and even a couple of ponds for fishing," according to www.visitchapelhill.org/ .
Strowd Hill
/ East Franklin
Length: 1.43 miles.
Net elevation: 210 feet.
From the intersection of Estes Drive to the UNC President’s house at the corner of Raleigh Street is a route as picturesque as it is tiring. A reward at the top is the aroma of Franklin Street’s finer eateries, coffee, and, of course, Krispy Kreme donuts. For a few extra feet of steepness, you can start it from the eastern terminus of the Bolin Creek Greenway at the Community Center and tackle Roosevelt Drive.
UNC Botanical
Garden Trail
Length: 1.5 miles.
Net elevation: 146 feet
Located off old Mason Farm Road, this 1.7-mile trail offers view of deer, beaver, fox, rabbits, salamanders, and a wide array of birds.
And the accompanying article…
Unto These Hills
We all have climbs to accomplish, some steeper than others
Runners approach the last stretch of Laurel Hill during their practice run Saturday morning.
PHOTOS BY RANDY YOUNG |
We are going BYOBL&B+ (bring your own bag lunch and beverage plus a little something to share)! This will be a bit simpler than potluck on Sunday. Let’s plan to run at ten and eat afterward (around 11:15 or so) at the site of the old mill near the Turkey Farm Road lot. [You can RSVP via Facebook if you want: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203746119636575]. Sound good? Everyone is welcome and no one is obliged to run (or even walk).
PS I can’t make a Firefly tonight. My back is acting up and I dont’ want to take any chance with Roanoke around the corner.
PPS The Blazing Soles are on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_146830852034096&ap=1]
Blazing Soles 