Volunteer for Delaware Marathon
NEEDED: Delaware Marathon Course Marshals & Packet Volunteers
DE Marathon is 5/15 and volunteers are needed in several areas. The most critical need is for course marshals to ensure the safety of runners. We need a minimum of 8 and prefer up to 16 for things to run more smoothly. As in the past 2 years, PCVRC is responsible for a section of Bancroft Parkway, including several busy intersections. We start at 7:15am, when you receive your volunteer shirt. Kate Fisher-Shute is coordinating our members, so if you’re not participating in the event, please contact Kate asap at or 215-913-3449 to assist.
For other needed areas, contact Ray at to indicate what you can help with or get in touch with Joel Schiller – with specific questions.
Fri May 13 – 4pm -7pm – at Tubman – packet stuffing for the 2250 competitors and general set-up.
Sat May 14 – 9am -11am – at Tubman – general set up continues – pre-pulling the large relay group packets/numbers/shirts
Sat May 14 – 10:30am -1:30pm – at Tubman – first shift of competitor packet pickup
Sat May 14 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm – at Tubman – second shift of competitor packet pickup
Sun May 15 – 5am – 7:30am – at Tubman and on Riverfront – Race Day Packet Pickup and Early Start
Sun May 15 – 7:15am – 10:00 – first shift of course marshals on course
Sun May 15 – 9:30am – Noon – second shift of course marshals on course
We are also looking for more massage therapists to help on race day.
Run The Bridge 10K info
The Run The Bridge 10K (Nov. 6, 2011) race organizers have arranged for use of a discount code to provide Mid-Atlantic LDR members with the $2 Grand Prix discount. When registering, our members can enter RTB11USATF as the coupon code and it will take $2 off their registration.
Valley Forge Revolutionary Run 5 Miler
This past weekend gave club members several options for running. Six people participated for PCVRC in the Valley Forge Revolutionary Run 5 Miler and scored well. Several clubs probably lost key runners, who ran the Boston Marathon instead. Pike Creek had a total of 392.538 points, very close to that of three other clubs. Currently the club is in second place in the series, but there are six teams which could be vying for the top spots in the series.
Time – Age Grade – Name
30:28 81.346 Tom Steenkamer
29:25 79.717 Jay Coughenour
26:53 79.541 Josh Loren
32:29 78.245 Epi Camacho
38:08 73.889 Carole Feole
34:20 72.816 Lisa Jalot
Race Results:
Autism Delaware Half-Marathon, 4/10
1:48:45, Mike Piorkowski, new club member I wasn’t aware of last week
Penn Relays 20K, 4/17
1:19:08, Matt Cutrona, 9th Overall
1:34:31, Vic Zwolak, 1st 70-74, new state age group record
Penn Relays 5K, 4/17
28:13, Jim Durkin, 1st 70-74
Flower Market 5K, 4/16
20:14, Lynn Knothe, Overall and female winner
Boston Marathon, 4/18
Here’s a link to Kevin Tresolini’s article on Boston:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110420/SPORTS11/104200358/Tailwinds-brought-own-problems-Boston?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports
Here’s hoping that one or more club participants send in personal accounts of the race. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect with a fairly strong tailwind and temperatures which didn’t rise above the low 50s. By now most people should know that the winner ran 2:03:02, the fastest marathon time ever by 57 seconds and shattered the course record set just last year by 1:57. Eight men ran under 2:08 and the female winner ran a better time than any female winner in the past 17 years.
3:14:54, Adam Shilling, BQ
3:21:55, Lee Kauffman, BQ
3:25:40, Wes Stafford, BQ
3:27:00, Mike Brown, BQ
3:45:24, Sheri Herrmann, BQ
3:47:14, Theresa Cannon-Kauffman. BQ
4:27:14, Paul Schweizer (was accompanying Doug White)
4:33:03, Lori Culnane
Gansett Marathon, Narragansett, Rhode Island
4:31:20, Dave McCorquodale
As I’ve previously written, the Gansett Marathon was devised to be an alternative to the Boston Marathon, requiring a qualifying time five minutes faster than the current Boston standards in order to enter with -no charity runners or other exceptions for entering. I figured that at the rate I’m slowing down, I’d better do it while I still have a good enough time. At final count, 198 registered and 162 actually attended and finished. Carolyn and I found Narragansett to be a pretty place, if somewhat sparsely populated at this time of year.
However, the weather was problematic. The entire weekend there were easterly winds and during the race they were at a sustained 18 mph with gusts to 27. Much of the course went north to south and back, somewhat ameliorating the wind.
To say I felt somewhat unworthy of being in the field was an understatement. I had the highest number for a male (125), indicating the slowest qualifying time in the field (4:06 ++). Having only recently recovered from the injury I sustained in February, I knew I could finish, but didn’t know how well I could do. So when we lined up for the start, I took a position near the back. A guy I had met the evening before, who had told me that he was also running Boston and was just going to jog this course, was near me. It was small consolation that I knew I wouldn’t be the last male finisher.
For the first mile of the race, the wind was blowing right off the Narragansett Bay. I felt my cap about to lift off my head and had to take it off and tighten it up so it would stay on in the wind. We wound along the Ocean Ave. past some large estates, each one having a low rock wall, no doubt gathered from the plentiful stones lying around this part of New England. A couple miles in, I decided to have the first shot of the gel (brown rice syrup) I had put in a small plastic flask. Unfortunately, I had apparently used this particular flask a little too much and ridges that kept the pop-up top in the cap of the bottle had worn down. As I pulled on it with my teeth, the top came out and some of the gel splashed out on my face and gloves. All of this got caught by the event photographer, who got a hearty laugh at my expense, and which can be seen in pictures 175, 176 and 192 here:
http://digitalphotoconcept.smugmug.com/Road-Races/Gansett-Marathon/Mile-2/16641349_Cr43nv. Thankfully, he left out a few that were even sloppier.
The course was basically two almost ten mile loops, with a couple of deviations the first time through to add over six more miles. After 4 1/2 miles, we ran into an out and back area to add some of the mileage. It wound around, hitting the first little hills on the course, but more importantly, putting me directly into the wind out near a lighthouse. I felt a little sapping of energy. Getting back to the main road, we turned off in another third of a mile, running west for a while. This was the easier part of the course, but I knew the payback would be having to run back into the wind. First we hit a residential area which had a series of little rolling up and down sections. More energy sapping.
Leaving that I hit a section from about 10.5 to 12 which was wide open, going due east into the wind with a hill about a half mile long at the end. Dealing with that definitely took some more energy out of me and after 12 miles I had already slowed to a point I usually don’t reach until 20 or more miles in a marathon.
Turning on to the main road, there were two miles of gradual uphill and the right shoulder I was running on still had gravel on it from the snow season (the other side of the road was clear). I felt myself slipping and got on the concrete sidewalk to finish this section, which I repeated the second time around on this loop. At 14, i turned off the main road and went into a wooded section, where there was finally some shelter from the wind. Two more miles and I was approaching the start-finish area. About 2:40 had passed and I wondered aloud where the front runners were. Sure enough a couple minutes later the top two blew past me.
The finish of the race circles a block and heads back in the opposite direction of the course. I can truthfully say that after the winner and runner-up crossed the finish line, I was the next runner to cross. The only thing was – I was headed out on the second loop with 9.8 to go! At about eighteen miles, I was passed by a woman who said, “Only eight miles to go! How bad can it be?” Hmm…!! At mile 20 the course turned from slightly downhill to slightly uphill – but the uphill went on for four miles. Every mile got slower and I slowed to a 12:00 pace by the last mile of the hill. But it was a little easier when I hit the woods again. I covered the last mile in less than 11:00 minutes.
In an unintended bit of cruelty, the last .2 mile circles a block, going right past where the race had started. At this point I was very near the bay and the sea wall. By then, the wind was really blowing and I was cursing the effort I had to make just to keep jogging. Then I turned the last corner and hit the finish line. Pictures 741 to 745 here http://digitalphotoconcept.smugmug.com/Road-Races/Gansett-Marathon/Finish/16641369_7Q2C4X capture my discomfort.
If you check out other pictures, you might see some of Keith Straw, dressed in his signature pink tutu. He ran both Gansett and Boston: the first in 3:18 and the second in 3:14!
After the race, we went to The Mews Tavern of get a free beer, have some food and meet other runners. My only complaint about the event was that there wasn’t an area of the establishment set aside just for the runners. So it was difficult to meet and talk with others. The director said he would rectify this by next year.
I definitely recommend this event as an alternative to Boston (or even as a companion event for those so foolhardy or in shape enough to do both). With a low entry fee, there is no expo, so the numbers were given out at the pasta dinner at the host hotel, which is less than a block from the start. We didn’t choose to do the pasta dinner. There are a couple of nice restaurants nearby – one where you can sit at your table and overlook the bay.