Chips....not sticks.

It's good to be home. I had a fantastic time in Ireland. I flew into Shannon and stayed 4 nights in Killarney, County Kerry. Played golf and continued on to Lahinch, County Clare for 2 more days of golf. Three sunny days and three rainy days. And yes....it was a wee bit breezy. I visited the pubs and chatted with the locals. The pubs are all NO smoking. The salmon is delicious and the Guinness is a bit warm. In the last few years 1500 pubs have closed. Some say due to the no smoking laws....others say it is the 30% tax on beer and 33% tax on alcohol. I only saw one runner in Killarney but did see a local running club on a training run on the way to the airport. There must have been 12 or so running on a sidewalk all wearing their club colors. The roads over there are so narrow that if two cars pass each other there is no where for the runners to go. The countryside is beautiful. Cows, sheep, bulls, and horses all grazing in the fields. I saw my fair share of castles and was able to explore some of the shops in these small towns. I saw more rainbows in a day than i see in a year here in the states. If you like french fries your in luck....they are called chips and are served piping hot with all entrees. Put a little vinegar on them not salt and ketchup. Pretzel sticks are no where to be found...too American i guess. So it is back to the real world here in Wilmington.....i better get back to work now....

The Bucket List

Maybe you saw the movie? I did....and one one of the things i wanted to do in my life time was play golf in Ireland. So......off I go on Saturday flying into Shannon for a week of golf with my golf pals. So how do i handle 5 events while away? Here's how...... get organized and delegate to my other teams. I will handle the 5k to Fight Cancer in Drexel Hill Saturday morning since my flight does not leave till 9pm. Chip and Doris Bixler help me out when i have mulitiple events. They will handle my other event on Sat at Pro PT in Middletown. My other team is my friend Jon Clifton. Jon will be working the 5k in Newark on Sunday. Chip and Doris will be back in Middletown Sunday for the Variety Club 5k. Next Sat. Jon will assist my Barbie at the 5k for DE Hospice. I am back for the DE Distance Classic on Sunday. To stay organized I always put a bucket together for each event. By bucket i mean a USPS basket to hold the following: race numbers, pens, pre and post race signs, check payable to sign, time machine timer, score sheets, bandit tags, safety pins, cash box, course map, camera, shoe box to place day of apps in and anything else that may be needed. With rain due this weekend chalking the route with white field chalk or spray chalk will not work. Thus i also have stocked for both groups my directional arrows that you stake in the ground. Results for these events will be posted on my website when i return. Let's see.....if race is at 9 am here.....it is 2pm in Ireland.....give one hour to awards ceremony so now it is 10 am your time and 3pm Ireland time...or time for a Guiness! See you when i get home.

The 3 B's (no pun intended)

The 3 B's......Beer, benedryl, and a bagel.....that is what i needed following the 10k portion of the Dog Fish Brewery race on Sunday in Rehoboth. Since i continue with physical therapy on my hips (tendonitis) i decided not to run in the 5k but to walk the 10k. I was really excited to be able and walk the new "trail" that was part of the race route. For the 8 am start i decided to start at 7:20 am. This way i would not hold up volunteers etc with an expected finish time of hour and a half. I had my fanny pack with water, cliff bar, and power gel. The course was well marked so i had no problem finding my way.....the trail is really peaceful. Listening to my i-pod I was walking a 14:20 pace. At the turnaround a group of women was setting up the water stop......I said thank you for your help and continued on my way back to the finish line. I figured i would get a good look of those running the 10k since i was heading home and they were heading out. The lead biker came by and a pack of 3 followed. I really enjoyed cheering on my friends. I looked at my watch 14:17 mile pace from mile 3 to 4. I rounded a bend in the road when out of no where a swarm of bees (hornets?) got me. I sprinted to get away from them but got stung pretty good on my hamstring, hip, thigh, groin, and butt. Ouch....To make matters even worse I dropped by I-pod nano and had to go back to where the bees were to retrieve. Once back to the finish i got some ice and started to ice down the areas where i was stung. I waited for Barb as she too ran in the 10k. When Barb came in we went over to the para medics who told us to go purchase some benedryl. Barb went to the 7-11 down the street. I went inside the bar to have a beer and a bagel. The benedryl and advil seemed to work. I would say that over 50 or so runners got stung...it was the talk of the post race party. Too bad since the race itself was a blast. Not sure what a race director can do.....Maybe change the route next year? I guess time will tell but i doubt i will partake next year if route is the same. Mike Holloway, XC coach at Sanford School said it best, "talk about a real pain in the ass" was his comment as he iced down his butt.

Heads up ladies!

This was emailed to me by the RRCA (Road Runners Club of America).

Dear Running Leaders,
Today, while reading the Washington Post, I was reminded about the importance of continually sharing the RRCA Running Safety Tips. The following is an excerpt from the news article written by Dan Morse, Washington Post staff writer:
"A 30-year-old jogger was raped Monday night after being pulled into a wooded area of Rock Creek Park just south of Kensington, marking the second time in the last week a Montgomery County woman has been taken into woods and sexually assaulted, police said. Investigators are examining whether the events are related, but thus far have found no evidence to that effect. In the most recent incident, the 30-year-old started her run about 7:45 p.m., wearing a portable music player. As she jogged along a footpath in the area that crosses under Connecticut Avenue, just north of the Beltway, a man came up from behind and grabbed her. After the attack, she was unable to find help from passing motorists, so she walked home to Kensington, and was driven to a local hospital, where she was treated for the assault and trauma to her face, neck and shoulders, police said. She remained hospitalized today."Our sympathies go out to this women as she recovers from this tramatic incident.
As a result, I emplore everyone in the running community to email their members or email event participants and remind the ever growing number of runners to practice safe running which includes leaving the headphones at home.
The RRCA offers a varity of running safety tips that can be found on our website. We encourage RRCA members and the running and fitness media to cirulate these safety tips in newsletters, on websites, in print, radio, and visual news broadcasts as widely and as often as possible.

a side note:
This also happened a month ago in Bridgeville, DE....so please be carefull when running.

He is doing what?

A couple years ago Marathon Man Dean Karnazes came into Wilmington to run his 47th consecutive marathon in 47 days on his way to running all 50 states in 50 days. I got to chat with him that day and to tell you the truth.....he is the real deal. Today I was riding a stationary bike at the JCC just prior to my physical therapy appt. On the tv above was the Regis and Kelly Live tv show. I never watch this show unless i happen to be at a gym that has it on. Kelly comes on to let us know that Dean Karnazes was in New York getting ready to start a 48 hour run. Yep....you heard me....48 hours. And on a treadmill no less. He is trying to run 241 miles to set a new world record. So for those of you who can't sleep and want to check on his progress here is the link to the web cam following the action.
http://blogs.liveregisandkelly.com/behind_the_scenes/
Just click on the icon on the right hand column. Don't fall asleep watching.

Delaware Marathon on Facebook

A good friend of mine who has participated in our CCHS Delaware Marathon relay asked me if she could set up our Delaware Marathon on Facebook. I gave her the ok....Stacey Haddock is now in charge of administration of this new feature on our Delaware Marathon website. (btw...our new url is www.delawaremarathon.org). For those of you not familiar with Facebook ...it is basicly a photo sharing website that you can join and ask friends to join. You can post all kinds of neat stuff and keep in touch with friends and family. This will take you to the DE Marathon Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=30531231839
Feel free to make comments....send photos.....be cool.....

A close call with Huricane Hannah

A close call..... I remember back about 12 years when the sceduled Bottle & Cork race was threated by a huricane. I'll never forget leaving Wilm. Friday morning in rain and wind only to arrive in Dewey in sunshine and warm tempertures. I left a voice message on my work number letting runners know to call back with updates about the event. Over 100 phone messages were left on my voice box. Dewey missed the brunt of that storm and the Cork race continued on schedule. This past weekend a similar storm call Hannah was approaching the beach just in time for our Cork ten miler / 5k. We had 435 pre registered runners and walkers as of the Thurs. prior to race date. I arrived in Dewey Thurs. evening and once again left a message on my work voice box letting folks know the weather conditions in Dewey. On Friday I met with the Rehoboth Police Dept and Dewey Police Dept.. Both gave us the ok to continue with the event but in case of a State of Emergency we would have to cancel. I called the Delaware State Police and they too said ok to proceed. I left a message on my voice box letting folks know that we were prepared to run ....but I could not make the call till race morning. I woke up at 4:30 am Saturday and walked outside. Hot and humid but NO rain. The heavy rain we got in Dewey Friday pm had moved to the north. The weather channel showed heavy rain to the south. It looked like we had a window of ok weather till about 10am. I had 79 voice messages from 9 pm Friday till 5:15am Sat. I left a new voice message telling folks that the weather was hot and humid with NO rain and the race was on as scheduled. From 5:15 am till 11 am Sat. I received 102 phone messages. These were runners looking for the latest updates. Why not just post on my web page? I did but i asked folks to call my voice box with hourly updates. It is just easier for me to make a phone call with updates on a day when i am dealing with these major issues and just can't stop what i am doing to power up my laptop. We lucked out with the weather.....450 total finishers......147 no shows. I had many runners come up to me thanking me for the hourly updates. Communication is the key.