Runners sometimes can go home again
The USA Track and Field Club Cross Country National Championships at McAlpine Park will be a homecoming of sorts for two competitors.
By Joe Habina
Special Correspondent
Posted: Sunday, Dec. 05, 2010


Few people could have a more nostalgic story about running at McAlpine Creek Park next weekend than Joan Nesbit Mabe.

Now a 48-year-old runner and coach, Mabe was a member of the East Mecklenburg cross country team that helped build the nationally-renowned course more than 30 years ago.

A former Olympic long-distance runner, Mabe will compete at the USA Track and Field National Club Cross Country Championships at McAlpine on Saturday. It will be the first time Mabe has competed there since 1979, the year the course opened.