Exciting weekend to be in Charlotte

This Saturday, Charlotte is going to notice an influx of runners wandering the streets. Thousands of runners from all over the country will be arriving today and tomorrow for both the Thunder Road Marathon and the USATF Club XC Championships. These runners will make drivers mad when they jay-walk/run diagonally across the street, they will give local Italian restaurants a boost of sales when they flock in for carbo-loaded meals, and they will showcase their finishers' medal after the races in pride. Some of these runners you will not know, others you will know, or should have at least heard of. Friends from out of town, former teammates, and old high school rivals will all be coming to Charlotte for the same reason: our shared passion for running. There will be a slew of professional women out there - Tera Moody, Nicole Feest, Colleen de Reuck, Renee Metivier, Sara Slattery, and many more. I'm sure there are talented men coming out, but I'll leave it to Bill Shires to track them down.

This is an exciting time to be in Charlotte if you are a runner, and I would highly recommend that you take advantage of the events. The expo is going on uptown at the Convention Center on Thursday evening and all Friday. The Thunder Road Marathon starts at 7:45am. It's most likely that if you are a resident of Charlotte that you know of at least one person running the race, so get out there and cheer for them!

The Men's Masters XC Championship race is at 11:30am. The women's XC open race is at 12:45 and the men's start is at 1:30pm. The XC Champs after party starts at 5pm at Whiskey River and makes its way over to Strike City.

The Charlotte Running Club will have a booth at the Expo, which will really give us a lot of exposure. I think it's important for us to promote our club more and more as people are still under the misconception that it's for "faster" runners. We just want people who are passionate about running, and if you have that passion, then you are the best fit for the Club. I highly urge everyone to make it out to at least one of the events listed above!