Raleigh, NC and surrounding area

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2009 2nd Empire Grand Prix - and a new Spring series (Read 273 times)

rlemert


    Hello, Everybody, and Happy Fall

     

      You wouldn't believe it based on our temperatures this week, but school is back in session and the fall road race season is at hand. Our summer racing season isn't much (gee, I wonder why), but starting next week you could probably find a race every weekend 'til Christmas without having to leave the Triangle.

     

      For me the primary attraction of the season is the Second Empire Grand Prix series. This fall the series consists of eight races, staring with the Magnificent Mile on Sept. 13 and ending with the St. Michael's Jolly Elf Trail Run on Dec. 12 (for a full schedule see www.secondempireraceraleigh.com). Anyone that's familiar with the Raleigh road racing scene will recognize all the events, but there's one significant race that's missing from the fall schedule - The Second Empire 5k! That's because it's moved to May and is now part of the new SPRING Grand Prix series!

     

      That's right, the people at Second Empire have decided that Raleigh can support a spring road race series. This series starts with the Run for Young on January 9, and ends with the Inside/Out Sports Half Marathon on May 16. Local runners should again recognize all the races in the series, although there is one (Polar Plunge) that I'm not familiar with. The only thing that concerns me is that it looks like this is just going to be the front half of a sixteen race series, with points earned in the spring carrying over into the fall's series. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

     

      I'm not sure how heavily I'll be involved in the fall series. I'm just finishing up my first month of moderate running after missing about three months with various problems, so I'm really not in shape for racing. It's for sure that I won't have the base built to race the Anna's Angels 10-miler, so if I do that race it will be as a training run. Otherwise, my only claim to fame is that I'm consistent and persistent - I usually make every race, even if I never make it into a top-five AG finish (and this year several real speedsters are moving up into my AG - drat).

     

      Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to try to revive this group - especially since I've seen some people join that have probably never seen a new post here. If you're going to enter one of the Grand Prix races feel free to either post here are start a race-specific thread. If you're going to run in a race that's not part of the series, feel free to create a thread for that race too. And if you feel like it, go ahead and give some indication of how we might recognize you at the race. I'm sure I've probably seen most of you (from the back, as you left me in the dust), but there's only a few of you that I know I've actually met. And since I'm a cranky anti-social old codger (not really) that never joins any of the running clubs around (e.g. NC Road Runners), this is about the only chance I have of putting a face to a handle.

    dukefan86


      I plan to be at the Magnificent Mile, but am not sure about other 2nd Empire Grand Prix races this fall, as I've got a busy fall schedule already. I'm glad to hear about the Spring series, though!