Bob, Thanks for such a well thought out answer. I appreciate it.

I am not very good at pacing so I will need to be extra careful the first few miles. I always go out too fast.

I just ran the mercedes marathon on Feb. 12th in 3:28. Hopefully I will still be in pretty good shape for Umstead.

Thanks for the link. I will try to run those trails soon!

Thanks again, Bob.

I will be out of town this weekend, so I will have to try and run those trails sometime next week.

Say "hi" if you see me at the race. Look for a little, red headed girl.

Have a great weekend!

They have the Cedar Ridge Trail at the end of the marathon? Sadists!

With less than a week to go, I have learned that Saturday during the marathon the high will be over eighty degrees! The low the night before is expected to be 60 degrees. I expect the average temperature to be well over seventy degrees during the marathon. Now this puts a damper on things!

Bob

I feel totally recovered from the last marathon, but I am worried that I am not in marathon shape anymore.

That combined with the potential heat, late start, and the tough course has me thinking this will be my slowest marathon yet!

But oh well, that's part of marathoning!

runramy
I'm going to be working at RTP, in Durham. Quite a haul, as I understand it. It looks like my best bet would be 98 west from WF to Durham. I'm not sure it's really doable, which is too bad, because I really liked (most) of what I saw of WF and was excited to relocate there. I do commute off-hours (pre-dawn in the morning, 4-ish in the afternoon). Not sure if that would help.

Nice to hear that there's a trail at Falls Lake! I bought a local Gazateer (DeLorme) while I was down there, and they claim that there is a 13 mile trail in the park. I can't seem to confirm this against the park's website. Can you confirm this? Is is reasonable footing?

Anyway, I had a great trip to RTP. I ran four times in Umstead, and loved it.

I ran a 9.7 mile loop, starting at the front gate (locked when I arrived in the AM), down the park road to the Reedy Creek Lake Trail, then right on South Turkey Creek (big hill!), around North Turkey Creek (more big hills!) and on to the Gralyn trail, the back to Reedy Creek and out the way I came. What a great route - plenty of twists and turns and some nice hills! The trail is in great shape - like a running track in the woods.

Edited to add: Good luck with that marathon, Bob! After running 30+ miles in Umstead this past week, I tip my hat to anyone who has the courage to run a marathon on that terrain! Hills!

We probably crossed paths at some point this past week.

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Batfish

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http://This message has been edited by batfish (edited Mar-06-2006).

Hello all,

This may seem like a random post, but considering the topic I figured what better thread to post this on:

Can anyone tell me about the Raleigh area? I live in the suburbs just outside New York City and am contemplating a move to a less-expensive area of the country. I've been focused on NC for various reasons, but have only been to Charlotte. As a single near-30-something, I thought maybe Raleigh and the surrounding areas would have more to offer than where I currently live. Of course, it's mainly the job thing (not having one down there) that prevents me from packing up and going. Anyway, just thought I'd put the feelers out on this subject that has been plaguing me for a while.

Thanks!

Here is my race report on Umstead.
http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum13/HTML/005827.shtml[/URL" target="_blank">

Bob