Tag Archives: North Carolina

An Elfie on the Polar Express

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The Christmas spirit is alive and well in Spencer, North Carolina. Our family decided to kick off the holiday season with a day trip to the N.C. Transportation Museum and take a ride on The Polar Express™. It was a magical time that the kids enjoyed (and the adult kids may have enjoyed more). Let’s reflect on a great 2018 Thanksgiving Day weekend that involved a Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving lunch, Carolina Hurricanes hockey, NC State at UNC Chapel Hill football, and more. Continue reading →

Lacing up the 2017 running season

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After three half marathons in the spring (Wilmington, Raleigh, OBX) and my first two Sprint Triathlons in the summer, I was excited for the fall race season this November and December. After miles of training in September and October (~150 miles) with warmer days leading to cooler mornings, November was a great month to run in North Carolina and enjoy all my races. Continue reading →

Highlands for the Holidays: The Final Pour

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The last day of our trip in Asheville was another beautiful day, a little windy with lots of sun. We wanted to stop by New Belgium before having lunch at White Duck Taco. Our ride back to Raleigh would be just under four hours and we had a few last minute things to check off our list before the end of our trip. Continue reading →

Highlands for the Holidays: Exploring Biltmore and Beer

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The first full day of our adventure in Asheville started at the Biltmore Estate, where we spent most of the day touring the house and gardens, having lunch, and sampling some wine. Then, later in the evening as the temperature dropped into the 30’s, Merri Beth and I walked to downtown and sampled some craft beer at Catawba Brewing, Twin Leaf Brewing, Burial Beer Company, and Wicked Weed. Continue reading →

Highlands for the Holidays: Arriving in Asheville

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The holiday break this year looked a little shorter on the calendar than past years. As many of you know we like to escape the holiday madness to a tropical location and come back on Christmas Eve. Flights are usually very affordable and we avoid peak season prices. Over the past few years, we’ve been to Turks and Caicos, St. Martin, Hawaii, and Costa Rica. And I traveled a lot in 2016, so having another trip at the end of the year wouldn’t have mattered that much.

Instead of taking a flight we hopped in that car and decided to try something different in 2016. For our holiday break this year, we headed to the highlands for a few days in Asheville, NC. Continue reading →

Achievement Unlocked: 2015 Holiday Half Marathon Challenge

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20151216_105124On a hilly course and unusually humid day in Durham, NC, I completed a holiday half marathon challenge that included finishing three races starting in early November and concluding in mid-December. While my times may not have have been stellar, the goal was to finish and get that new shiny medal that I saw in an email a few weeks ago. Continue reading →

Half way through the 2015 fall race season

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The fall race season started on November 1 with a warm weekend in Raleigh after ending Daylight Savings. Which meant most people got an extra hour of sleep, but that meant I had an extra hour of anxiety before race time.

City of Oaks and a new course

jhibbets_city_oaks_2015The first race of the season was the City of Oaks half marathon. This is a hilly course with multiple races happening at once. This year, there was a 10k, half marathon, half marathon relay, full marathon, and full marathon relay. The weather was a little on the mild-to-warm side, but humid. Rain was on the way and it was hard to breathe. Continue reading →

Raleigh Snow Day with the Family

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DCIM100GOPROIt snowed all day in Raleigh on February 24, 2015. Merri Beth and I were wakened at 6:30 am with a call from Wake County Public Schools announcing a two hour school delay—later to be followed up with canceling of school for the entire day.

Merri Beth left with Coco to head to daycare, but was back after a short while because they were closing for the day as well. Zander and I headed to Red Hat Tower for the day. We left the house around 9:30 am and were in the office in about 15 minutes with snowy conditions. There wasn’t much traffic in our direction and we made good time in slushy and icy conditions with steady snow coming down. Continue reading →

Race Season Begins in the City of Oaks

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city_of_oaks_half_04A cold blast of winter arrived yesterday, making the morning temperatures for the City of Oaks marathon a bit brisk. The forecast was for the low to be in the mid 30’s. Luckily, race time starting temperatures were in the low 40’s. And the wind was just a little ca-burrrr in a few spots!

I dedicated this race to my friend Thomas Crowder, who we lost a few weeks ago to cancer. Thanks for the inspiration Thomas.

This was my eighth time running the City of Oaks half marathon and my 23rd half marathon overall. Last year, I finished in 1:43:08, and my time goal was to beat that. I wasn’t feeling that elusive 1:40 half marathon time today. Continue reading →