I love Raleigh

I've been living here since fall 2009, so just over 3 years.  My brother Michael just moved into a new house down in Charleston SC and it's a really nice place.  Morgan and I went down to help him get moved and we had a blast.  It's always fun when the three of us get to hang out.  We haven't done a brothers road trip together in a few years so this was going to be EPIC.

Friday night I got off to a later start then I wanted to, and ended up not leaving Raleigh until after 8 pm, putting me in charleston around 1 am.  Now I'm too old to be anywhere at 1 am besides asleep in my bed, so I turned around and headed back to the house.  As I pulled off the highway the exit I took put me out back in downtown Raleigh. Something about coming back into downtown like that really drove home how much I love this town.  I'm amazed at how well I know my way around and how comfortable I feel with the other people here.  It may actually deserve some bullet points!

• My sense of direction is so bad I've actually gotten lost inside of a restaurant before.  I even got lost in a swimming pool once, stopping my swim on the wrong side.  But I know Raleigh.  I can get anywhere around here.
• Kelley is about the only person I know in Raleigh who is from here.  Everyone else is a transplant who thinks that Raleigh is better than where they came from (no offense SC readers).  My boss moved here from Oregon almost 9 months ago and absolutely drools when we see sun this time of year
• Friday it snowed here so I worked from home
• There is an unbelievable amount of technology here.  Work for days!
• Saturday it was 70* so I was in shorts playing outside.
• Sunday got up to 72* so I went running outside (6 miles, slower than the last time I ran out there)
• It didn't actually snow enough on Friday for the kids to build a snowman or anything, but it felt good to see it fall.  so pretty!  And like every other southern town the entire place shuts down where there is a threat of three flakes. 
• The race environment here is so large and competitive!  It's a great landscape for all kinds of races both running and multisport.  Plus lots of coaches, great retailers and plenty of other good people to go race against.
• The city is bike friendly.  It's not Portland, but you can really get around on wheels here.
• The city is big!  Wake county actually has a higher population than Mecklenburg county (where Charlotte is), but the Charlotte metro area is larger.  So they got the pro football and basketball teams, and we got the NHL team.
• I'll take the Hurricanes over the Panthers and Bobcats any day of the week.
• Running races actually compete for weekends now.  A great half marathon that we ran in 2012 might get pushed out of the calendar because the Rock & Roll marathon people might be putting together a race here for the same weekend?  And Ironman is putting on a 70.3 this year?  That's putting Raleigh on the national race scene.  I'm glad we're getting that kind of attention.
• That also means that every weekend is full for races.  Everything from trail ultramarathon 100 milers down to 5k's there is a way to push yourself.  And I feel like we take full advantage of that.
• I love that I can run over the winter for spring marathons, bike in the spring and fall (even local century rides), and race open water swims in the summers here.  Triathlon can be scattered from March to October, which is an incredibly long season.  I'll take it all.

Finally I want to drive home that this city is just cool.  Being here is cool.  It's big enough to have anything you would ever want, but small enough to expect to see someone you know anytime you walk into a restaurant.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

And if anyone is considering moving here, you would be welcome.  and I hope you know who you are.

The next day (Saturday) morning I did head out to go to Charleston again.  Charleston is also quite a cool city if you ever get the chance to go.  We got Michael moved into his new house, which was only about half a mile down the road from his old house.  Morgan came down friday night, and we all had a blast hanging out.  That house is going to serve his family well for many years to come.  and there's enough room for me to go and visit more often, so that's going to happen now.