Race #53 - Run to Victory

I never thought I would ever run a race after running a marathon the previous day. One thing that I have learned after years of running is that its good to get out to do a slow jog after a long hard race. John and I decided to drive two hours north of Charlotte on Sunday to participate in the Run to Victory in Randleman, NC. The funds raised from this race goes to the hole in the wall gang for the disabled. It's a camp that was started in the memory of Adam Petty who was a stock car driver who died in a crash. He had this vision to start a camp for the disabled long before he passed. His dad and the NASCAR community kept his dream alive.

The race started at Randleman middle school and finished at the camp. There big race was the 1/2 marathon which John and I knew we wouldn't or couldn't do. The weather was horrible. It was cold and rainy but there was no turning back for us. We signed up for the 5 miler and we would not let the weather bother us.

Adam's dad, Kyle Petty was the official starter and John "the Penguin" Bingham was also there. John has written many books on the running slowly, but happy. He his an inspiration to many folks that speed is not that important.

My legs were certainly stiff as was John's. We we certainly tired but after hearing an inspirational speech from Kyle Petty at the start, John and I were pumped that we made the trip. We didn't give much thought about the course but that start was a 1/2 mile downhill. If you know anything about running downhill running is worse than uphill running especially after running a marathon. My legs were killing me the first mile and half and then we hit the hills again. Our pace was at least 11 minute miles and content with the speed.

There were no mile markers so we didn't know how much further we had to go but knew we were getting closer to the camp. At our final turn we had a slight downhill and headed into the camp. This camp was huge and the finish was toward the back near the cafeteria. The theme was all race car and extremely impressive. John and I finished in 53:30 and headed right to the food line in the cafeteria. All runners got a nice bowl bowl of chili which was excellent and corn bread. It hit the spot after running almost an hour in a cold wet rain.



We changed into dry clothes and headed back to my car via the shuttle bus. The 7 hour ride home from there was tough on our legs. Getting out at the rest stops was extremely painful.

I think that is my last race of the year. It has been a fun year meeting new people and running with lots of friends.