Running in all of Delaware's counties within a week - Phase 1 - Sussex County, DE

Sunday, May 25, 2008

It has certainly been a long time since I've gotten around to updating and I definitely apologize to those of you who have been loyal to checking up on my blogs.

Anyway, as you may remember from last post, on Saturday, May 24, 2008, I ran in the Chestertown Tea Party Distance Classic 5K in Chestertown (Kent County), MD. 5K is short for "5-kilometers", which is approximately 3.1 miles. I ran about 19:12, which was my best time at that race and I was certainly pleased to have my first sub-20-minute 5K race in since I took a bit of a break from running because of a plantar fascitis injury in my right foot. That was a fun race; saw a few friends and people that I know from other races throughout Maryland and Delaware... It seemed like a huge party, and I certainly felt like I got the "party" aspect of Chestertown Tea Party :) I did that race and it helped kick off my endeavors in the next week to run a race in all three counties (Kent, New Castle, and Sussex) in the state of Delaware within that week. I knew it would be fairly challenging; but also doable. The first county on the map would be Sussex County, which has a lot of the Delaware beaches like Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, and Fenwick Island. The race is called the 15th Annual Masser Five-Miler in Lewes, Delaware. The flat race starts and ends at Cape Henlopen High School and goes through some more rural areas at first, then into housing developments, and then through a more downtown area before finishing back in front of the high school.

I had a nice idea laid out for this. After the Chestertown Tea Party, I would drive from the west end of the Maryland Eastern Shore where Kent County, MD is over to Ocean City on the east side of the shore in Worcester County, MD. My friend Joe lives around there and he was interested in doing hte race, so he would let me stay the night at his place.

I stayed in Chestertown for quite a while and had me a nice crab cake or two (thanks for showin' me where they were Rob)! Afterwards, I still realized I had some time on my hands and I took a scenic little trip to the quaint Chesapeake Bay-side town of Rock Hall, which is also in Kent County. The town is a little over 300 years old now, almost as old as Chestertown, and it has this five mile race on the Fourth of July called the Rock Hall Flat Five, which I would like to do (hopefully this year). I hear it's reputably really hot. I know from past visits if you go more towards the downtown/center of town area, you can see at least some of the faint markings of the course arrows and directions in the ground. It's pretty neat.

After Rock Hall I started to make my way southeast towards Ocean City. I stopped off in Denton (Caroline County), MD to get some munchies from a convenience store, and I saw a couple of people asking for money for medicine. I lent them money and we started talking about some important things; mainly God and faith in Him. They said they had similar beliefs that I did in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Their names were Lori and Sonny, and I told them about how God helped me run a race in every county of Maryland last year and how I was faithful that He would help me in my quest in this coming week to run all three of Delaware's counties within that week. They seemd to think it was neat. I thought it was a terrific interaction, one that I probably wouldn't have had had I not been heading over towads teh coast on this quest.

I got to Joe's place adn we chilled. He decided not to do the race the next day. It worked out, 'cuase he ended up having people over (I think some of which were friends from out-of-town). Needless to say he definitely stayed up really late, and while he was having his party/get-together, I was able to fall asleep pretty nicly in the net room. I woke up in the middle of the night a time-or-two, but not for very long. When I woke up early to hit the 7:30 A.M. race about 40-some minutes away near Rehoboth Beach, I was feeling rpetty tired and not expecting too much, but I preseed on anyone, knowing that I would be beginning this week-long (well hopefully shorter-than-that) endeavor, hopefully in earnest once I started waking up more.

I got to Cape Henlopen High School (the race site) with enough time to warmup and stretch a bit as well as register for the race. I'm glad it started before 8 A.M. because I felt it was already starting to get hot. I figured that probably running in very high 32's, porbably 33-minute range for the five-miler was the best I could reasonable hope for for the shape I was in and having run pretty ard the day before.

The race started and I felt myself build into it. The first mile or so was pretty much on country roads, with fields alongside of us. I went through the first mile in about 6:27, and I thought I wasn't feeling too bad, but I probably wouldn't be able to hold that pace later on in the race. However, when the second mile came up in a sburban neighborhood, I went through it in about 12:54 and I was like "wow, I'm keeping my pace even, because two miles in 12:54 is a 6:27-per-mile-pace." It's neat how math tends to make more sense to me in the context of running. We went back out into a country road again, and I went through 3 miles in about 18:54/18:55ish, and soon after, the 5K in 19:39. Wow, now I had picked it up to under a 6:20-per-mile pace. I was running faster further into the race than when I started; this was so cool! I felt all right, and not only was my 5K split only 27 seconds slower than what I ran in the previous day's 5K race in Chestertown, MD, but I was under 20 minutes and feeling like I still had enough energy to press on.

Now at this point we had reached another housing area, and there were more houses and buildings. I got the sense that perhaps we were entering a more downtown/central section of Lewes. I think around here I saw a water tower, maybe a factory/plant or two, and some telephone lines. We made a left turn soon after the 5K point, and we kept straight on this road through the town. It was nice to have people cheering for us as we ran by. I think I remember going through four miles in aobut 25:20-something (probably in the high 25:20's) or 25:30's. At any rate, I was feeling confident that I would probably be able to break 32 minutes for five miles, which was a lot faster than I had been expecting and a sign that I thought I was getting into better shape than I had been. However, at this point I was feeling pretty tired and there were some people a good ways ahead of me, and quite a few not-to-far behind. Still, God helped me and gave me strength to press on . My right foot maybe felt a little tender, but it was not hurting as much as it had in the past recently.

I was grateful to see the school come into sight, because I knew the race was almost over. With the people behind me gaining on me (at least that' what it sounded like), I was able to dig down a little more and get enough energy for a strong kick at the end. As I bolted through the line, I looked at my watch and saw that I had run it in about 31:45. WOW! That was terrific :) I had not only run faster than I expected , but I had started out running the first couple of miles at a 6:27-per-mile pace, but then built into it more from there to where I was running a 6:21-per-mile pace on average. The clock time had me at 31:47, which was fine, 'cause I started a little ways back in the pack and it took me a couple of seconds to reach the starting line, which is where I start my watch.

I couldn't believe that I had run that time for five miles. Yea, I know it's flat, but I had been getting back into consistent running and I had run what I thought was at a pretty tough pace for a 5K the previus day, so id did not thing I woudl be able to even really run under 33 minutes, if so barely.

It was a terrific morning to say the least. Aftwerwards, I hung out and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had earned an age-group award (3rd in the male 25-29 age group category). I saw a lot of people and friends I've met through college and the Maryland and Delaware Eastern Shore races. The gentleman that won it in 27 minutes-and-some-seconds was a former teammate of mine from Salisbury University's cross country and track & field teams. He had always been a strong runner and I was glad to see that he was still running some solid times. I am happy for him!

I had to leave the race soon after that, 'cause my friends from college, Erica and Josh were getting married later that evening at their local church in Reisterstown (Carroll County), MD, so I had quite a few hours worth of driving ahead of me to get back to my place in Baltimore County to get cleaned and dressed up, and then head over to Reisterstown for the wedding (which was just within an hour or so of where I lived).

The wedding was an awesome one; one of the most lavish and beautiful ones I've ever seen. They even had a worship cermeony as part of the wedding ceremony with some dancers at the beginning of it. My friend and I carpooled from the church to the receptoin and we kinda we were following a coupla other people there, but I think they made a couple of wrong turns. It was funny, because we kept having to turn around in the road, which fortunately was not that big or crowded. The reception was at this country club or maybe it was a very nice hotel. Great food, dancing, and company there... I saw a lot of people and friends from colllege, especially from Campus Crusade for Christ, and on-campus ministry that I was a part of at Salisbury University. Wonderful times; terrific photos were taken and lots of fun was had. I am very happy for Josh and Erica.

I didn't stay up that late I felt, I think I was back at my place by midnight. I didn't want to stay up much later, because I knew tomorrow (Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2008), I would be heading up to the University of Delaware in Newark (New Castle County), DE to run in the 7th Annual Friends of Mary Husty 5K. Of all three counties in Delaware, at least this would be the closest one to where I was living at in Baltimore County, only taking a little over an hour to get there if the traffic wasn't that dense. I knew this one would probably be fairly hilly. Having run two races two days in a row, I didn't know how much energy I would have for next day's 5K. At least I was thoroughly happy with how I had run this weekend so far, and I'm sure whatever I would run in the next day, would not change that.

Stay tuned for my next installment of the Delaware Counties running trilogy!

Delaware Counties I have run in the week of May 25 - Saturday, May 31, 2008

Kent County

New Castle County

Sussex County

- 15th Annual Masser Five-Miler - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - Lewes - 12th overall (3rd in male 25-29 age-group division) - 31:47 (clock), 31:45 (watch - My pace got faster later in the race :)