Fall weather in the air.....

Getting closer to cool weather.....and that means getting ready to run longer distances and races. Sept. 11th kicks off our 34th Gary P Lister Bottle & Cork ten miler and 5k. Many run this event as a warm up for the following weeks Philly Half Marathon. For many this is a stepping stone to a fall marathon. Many of these marathons are selling out faster than ever before. The Philly Marathon is about to close out. Locally we have the Cafe Gelato ten miler and the Delaware Distance Classic 15k both held in Oct. We also have a series of 10k events starting with the E Racing the Blues 10k on Oct 31st. Next comes the annual Turkey Trot 10k the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving day the PNC run walk 10k
and 5k. I hope those of you who run our 5k's will step it up a notch and think about the 10k distance. Like they say...step at a time.

World record run....Kip Litton

Check out this website http://www.worldrecordrun.com. You will not see any info on our Delaware Marathon. Why....because this guy Kip Litton was dq'ed. And I am not the only race director who has dq'ed him. Kip is trying to raise money for CF....but who are checks written to? His website. I have a team of 3 runners who have researched this guy. What we have come up with will blow your mind. Yes...he may be capable of running under 3 hours so why cheat? Look at the photo of his shoes as he crossed our DE Marathon finish line. NO D Tag! I emailed him about this and his response was "it was broken so I placed it in my sock". He stated that he has run over 100 races. OK...so he should know know how to put on D tag properly.... right? Before I dq'ed him I emailed our Regional RRCA director who also ran in our marathon and asked him what he thought. He said I have the right to DQ him. I then emailed Kip Litton to let him know that he has been dq'ed from my event. He did not respond back. NO splits....no photos on Brightroom.com...NO pics from the race director taking photos at the turn a round on the riverwalk at 14 miles. HELLO. Why would someone travel this far NOT to run a marathon.....I give up.

Rules

I was doing my water workout in our community pool at 8:30 am the other day when a gentleman walks in with his two young daughters. I yelled out to him, "excuse me...but NO children under the age of 18 allowed in till 10 am." He says, "what do you mean...there is no one here." I answer "community and pool rules." He says...."I don't see anything posted." I say....."look at front gate." He turns around and head to the front gate. Now this guy gets really arrogant and says the F word and starts bitching to me. I reply "listen buddy...there is NO lifeguard on duty and we got a serious liability issue on our hands if you disobey the rules." He says a few more choice words to me. I say "you owe me an apology". He says "what for?" I say for your attitude and your vulgar language in front of your children. He storms off with his kids. Some people just don't like being told NO. Reminds me of those running in my events with baby strollers. Some folks just don't get it.

Ready...set....go.....

I had an interesting email the other day. At the Tour de Lance 5k I was on the PA system and introduced Congressman Castle who said a few words prior to the start of the 5k. With over 1200 runners and walkers at the starting line not all were paying attention to what was being said. When I thanked him for joining us I yelled into the PA system that "Cannon Man" TJ Healy will start the race with his cannon. So the cannon goes off and 1200 folks cross our timing mats and head down Justinson Street. I have used a cannon start for many of my events including the Caesar Rodney Half and DE Marathon. At my Seven Sister series in Dewey Beach we have a couple pirates (Pete & Woody) who start our events using a cannon. The email i received was from an irate walker who was not aware of the cannon start. She stated that she almost had a heart attack when the cannon was fired and that I should reconsider using a cannon start for our events. She went on to explain that she does have a hearing problem and that loud noises are harmful. I am not the only race director who uses a cannon to start events. NYC Marathon and Marine Corp Marathon use cannons the size of a small car to start their events. I did apologize to her via the email. But to be honest with you.....cannon man will most likely continue to start our huge races.

Volunteers are awesome

On Saturday at our Highway One Group 10k and 5k I was fortunate to have a great group of kids volunteer. I received a txt message from their mother letting me know that they would be there to help out. The nice thing about this is we always need help whether it is working the water stops, passing out tee shirts, or passing out ice packs to finishers. These kids are awesome. They get a tee shirt and I sign a sheet of paper as race director stating they volunteered so many hours at this event. This way they can track how many hours of volunteer work each of them do. The more volunteers the better. When i sign their work sheets they always have a smile on their face and they make it perfectly clear to me how much fun they had at our event. Volunteering makes our events run smooth. I can't thank these kids enough for all their hard work. Kids....keep up the good work! We all thank you.

getting closer

ok...i am getting so very close to dq'ing this cheater and have evidence to prove that he did not run our Delaware Marathon. I have been in contact with our district RRCA Representative and have sent him the facts and photos and he too agrees that it is grounds to dq this guy. I have also been in touch with 3 other race directors across the country and have emailed back and forth our concerns. Two others have been doing research of all marathons that he has run and have come up with data that will officially show that he is a cheat. One issue is he is running these marathons in all 50 states under 3 hours as a fundraiser for a certain charity and has raised close to $10,000. Checks are payable to his website not the charity. I have emailed him photos I took of the top 20 runners at the 13.75 mark of the marathon route which is on the Wilm. Riverwalk just past the Rowing Club. I took these photos while there setting up the turn around and making sure my volunteer was in place. No where is this guy shown. I smell a rat. Final proof will come in next blog.

Another Rosie Ruiz?

This is going to be a two part blog. I received a phone call and email from a runner in Missoula, Montana who claims that one of our runners in the Delaware Marathon cheated. He said that he has been dq'ed from 3 other marathons and sent me emails from the three race directors as proof. I called him back and we had a nice chat. Seems like this guy who may have cheated is trying to run a marathon under 3 hours in all 50 states as a fundraiser for a certain charity. I looked up his time from our DE Marathon and also emailed my timing company to get his splits. They emailed back ....NONE. I looked him up on Brightroom.com photos section and guess what....NO photos of him posted. This seems weird since all the top 20 runners had photos posted and ALL had splits. So now what? I am in the process of contacting race directors of marathons he has run (including Boston) and will then email him to get his side of the story. If true he took away a deserving runners award and cash prize. Another Rosie Ruiz!

Seabreeze

Barb and I have a routine when heading to the beach for our Seven Sister Series. We leave late in the afternoon the day prior to the race and stop at the Big Fish Market for take out crab cakes. We then continue into Dewey Beach and head into the neighborhood of Seabreeze to chalk out the next days route. As we ride the route we stop when we see the residents who live in this beautiful neighborhood on the bay. We let them know that our 5k is going to take place and that the roads will be filled with runners from 8 am till approximately 8:30 am. These folks seem to enjoy the parade of runners. Some put out sprinklers to cool off the runners while others line the streets and cheer them on. I did have one neighbor stop me as i was marking the route and he explained that he can't get out to do errands since all the roads are full of runners and walkers. He had a good point and I apologized and told him we would change the route next year. He was cool with that and I did get the ok to do this. A change for the better and keeping those in the neighborhood happy. Once done chalking the route we head to the event location and count shirts so all those who pre registered will get the size they requested. Then it is home to relax and have a nice dinner before getting up at 4:45 am the next day. We are so fortunate to be able to stage these events in Dewey Beach.