RSVP ASAP for Wine Dinner
From: Social Director Rachel:
If you haven’t RSVP’d to the wine dinner on September 27th @ 7:30, Please email me to reserve your spot! – Hope to see you there!
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Volunteers Needed for Delaware Distance Classic 15K
Volunteers will be needed for the DDC 15K on Sunday, October 9th. Jim Steele will be coordinating all volunteer efforts. We will need help with registration, course marshals, traffic, water stops, finish line and food tables. Volunteers who stick around after the race and clean-up will be treated to brunch at one of the fine establishments on the riverfront. Please email Jim at to volunteer! We’re looking for about 20 club members to help out. Thanks for your support!
From President Ray:
Nun Run Recap
Big thanks to the many club members who came out in support of the Little Sisters of the Poor last Saturday. Rachel, Karl, Paula, Dan, and others came
out early to help out while others ran or walked. Among our award winners were David Baca & Lenora Wagner who captured RRCA Delaware State Championship 5K Grand-Masters titles!
See links to photo gallery, results, News Journal article, & Races2Run pics all at www.NunRun5k.org. I was extremely pleased with 328 finishers and a fun morning. Sorry I missed the nice club photo, but I think we were still trying to complete the raffle prize drawings. It’s a unique location for a
5K and we’ll continue to try to make it one of the best, with music, pizza,
Chic-fil-A, chocolate milk, prizes, goodie bags & bake sale.
Next year I promise to have more than just light beer!
Also see this link for PCVRC group picture: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2217337285309&set=o.289855916248&type=1.
From your editor:
Ruminations about the club, friendships and race stories.
Each of us has our own close group of friends. No one pretends that our running club is a close-knit group. Instead it is probably made up of an intersection of a number of smaller groups, sometimes a couple of friends, and lone individuals. Some of us belong to other groups associated with running: Rebel Runners, Traildawgs, Hash House Harriers, Creek Road Runners, Delaware Running Club or even clubs in other parts of the state or in other states. But here, in this bulletin, it’s my intention to post information about whatever athletic activities people engage in. Although I write about my experiences a lot, it’s not my blog. I want others to contribute their thoughts too. Even if your tales have gone out to a sub-grouping of the club or a different website, please send them to me also to that they may be posted for all club members to see and enjoy.
Speaking of friendship and the Hash House Harriers, a group in which I do not participate as often as I used to, I just I found out that a longtime hasher, Stan Cherim, otherwise known as Himalaya, passed away from a fall/stroke at the age of 82. Stan was active in the hash right up to the end and had planned a hash at his house in Springfield, PA. to celebrate his birthday. I just found out in reading about his death that Stan was a Quaker and Chemistry Professor and author. Just this year, he wrote a book: “Large Circles and Bold Lines” about a quest for meaning in the life of a Quaker scientist.
http://www.amazon.com/Large-Circles-Bold-Lines-ebook/dp/B0052THRZK. But for a shorter read from Stan, go to this website and read his post(2nd topic down) on the Mystique of the Hash: http://sohappyh.s459.sureserver.com/hash_history.php. It gives great insights into hashing and also shows that Stan was always young at heart.
Darlise DiMatteo’s story on the Shoreman Half-Ironman Triathlon:
Here is my race report. Its long, but it was a long day, worthy of the extra space! I hope you enjoy it…
The day before…
For this race, I was fortunate to have the company of Tricia Szymanski and Kelly Jones-Reph. Tricia was doing the aqua velo and Kelly was doing the triathlon. I volunteered to drive, so I picked up the girls and we were on our way by 1pm. ROAD TRIP!
Our first stop was the packet pick up at S.Jersey Running Company in Manahawkin, NJ. We were the only ones there, our first hint that this race was not a big one. The goodies bags were full of great stuff- yankz laces, license plate frame, glow stick, all the race numbers you need for a tri, and the best part- the race shirts- they were awesome, long-sleeve technical shirts. We jumped back into the car and head to our next stop- the race venue.
We get to the park and walk down to the water. It was calm, looked clean, but it was rust colored, which was kind of weird. The water felt warm and all I could think was, �oh please let this be cooler than 78 degrees.� After we checked out the water, we walked through the transition area. Not much was marked and again we noticed that not many people were here to check out the venue, hmmm…
After grabbing dinner at a local tavern, the three of us gathered in my room to go through our goodie bags. Trust me, we needed all three of us to figure out how to put the chip on the ankle strap, how to put our numbers on our bikes (not the usual number placard), how to put the number tattoos on our arms (my favorite thing!). All the females were in the same wave, so we all had the same colored caps- white, yucky white. But, Tricia was prepared- she had brought 2 packs of sharpie markers and we ‘personalized’ our caps with our self proclaimed nicknames. Tricia was ‘Trish the Fish’, so she drew a fish on her cap, Kelly was ‘Kelly Fish’ and her mascot was a jellyfish and I was ‘Dar Fish’ so I had a starfish on my mine.
Before long, it was 9pm, bed time and off to sleep we went.
Race Day…
We all got up earlier than planned and were able to get on the road by 5:15am. It was pitch black on the drive and that is when we realized what the glow sticks were for! We get parked, unload, set up our transition areas next to each other, squeeze into our wetsuits and head over to the water. Here we go…
Swim This was the one event I was most worried about. I had been battling tendonitis in my right elbow and I had not been able to swim as much as I wanted to. At this point, I was just hoping to get out of the water without too much pain. Once I started swimming, I quickly got into a smooth rhythm and saw the buoys passing by relatively easily. Before I knew it, I was back on shore and it only took 40:32. I am stoked. I get to my transition and there are Tricia and Kelly! I am so excited to see my friends but very excited to get on my bike. I tear off my wetsuit, grab my bike and take off.
Bike I had an ambitious goal for the bike. I felt like my bike training went very well and I wanted to do well on this event. It did not take long for my legs to warm up and I was quickly riding at the pace I was shooting for. The course was boring- mostly flat with a few well-placed rollers and nothing but trees to look at. Then out of no where, Rich would show up and that was a big pick-me-up. It was SO cool to see him out there, he had been there for my previous two half ironmans, so it seemed right that he was there for #3. On the second loop of the bike course, I ended up trading positions back and forth with two guys in sperm helmets and a 24 year old girl on a mountain bike. There was no way I was going to let them beat me. With about 12 miles left, I downshifted a couple gears, stood up and I was off. I never saw them again. In that boost, I was also able to pass a woman who was in my age group, woo hoo, I finished the 57.3 mile bike course feeling strong and in 2:53- yeah!
Run Two out of three events completed, both within my goal times. The pressure was on to do well on the run. The sun had come out, unfortunately, but I had raced in warmer temps and just kept counting down the miles to take my mind off of the heat. I finished the first loop feeling good physically and emotionally because Rich and Tricia were there to cheer me on! As I run past them for one more loop I could not help but feel very jealous of Tricia for being done and looking so good with her medal on! But those happy thoughts faded quickly as I saw 2 women ahead of me. I had convinced myself that every woman ahead of me was in my age group and I had to pass them. I focused on them; one at a time, I passed them. The second loop was not marked with miles 7-13, so it was hard to judge where I so I stopped looking at my watch for pace and just ran, focusing on the women ahead of me. I saw Kelly out there as she was getting close to finishing her first loop, she looked happy and strong, go Kelly! Around mile 10-11 my quads were really sore, my back was sunburned (it was night time when we started this journey!) and I really wanted to be done. I kept telling myself- when you cross that finish line, you are done, no more 5:15 am swims or runs, no more all day bricks, no more cytomax and clif bloks. I kept thinking of all of the things I did not HAVE to do when I was done. Suddenly, I was on a road with spectators, uh oh, I am close! I pushed hoping to my legs would keep working. I made the turn for the finish line and see the clock- 5:36 and start crying. I cannot believe it- I am going to beat my goal time of 5:40. And there are Rich and Tricia right there- this is awesome! After lots of hugs and tears, I confess to them my goal time was 5:40 and how excited I was to beat it. It was then that they reminded me that we started 6 min after the gun time and that I had actually just done this half ironman in 5:30. Are you kidding me?! I just set a new PR by 46 min! More tears, more hugs, this was just unbelievable to me. Oh yeah, and my run time was 1:52, two min off my goal time for this event, I think I can live with that. And I can also live with the fact that I was 6th female overall and 1st in my age group.
Race Results:
Shoreman Half-Ironman Triathlon
5:30:xx Darlise DeMatteo, 1st 40-44 and 6th Overall
Shoreman Half-Ironman Aqua Velo (1.2 mile swim, 57 mile bike)
4:03:xx Tricia Syzmanski, 3rd 45-49
Philadelphia Rock N Roll Half-Marathon
1:19:28 Jay Coughenour, 5th in Age Group
(Editor’s note: The company running the Rock N Roll events, Competitor.com, has a lousy search engine on the website, which makes it impossible to look for runners in an age-group or a geographical region, like Delaware. Anyone else who participated and would like your results reported, please contact me with your time.)
AHEPA 5K
20:32 Tara Huang, 2nd Overall Female
Miles for Melanoma 5K
15:38 Dan Suhar, Overall Winner
16:36 Pat Boettcher, 2nd Overall