Delaware Marathon Festival of Races recap
The Delaware Marathon, Half Marathon and 4 Person Relay were held on Sunday, May 15 at the Wilmington Riverfront. The weather news turned out to be both good and bad: Possible thunderstorms and lightening, which had hit the area at about 12:30 A.M., did not reappear during the events, allowing participants to proceed without fear. However, the humidity was quite high, making for tougher runs, especially for the marathoners once the air temperature got up to about 70 degrees.
Race splits show most everyone in the marathon slowing, sometimes by a lot during the second half of the distance. Perhaps the temperature was more sparing for those doing the half-marathon and the relay, since they either weren’t still running after the temps warmed or weren’t in it that long in the relay. A count of the participants below reveals at least 29 club members participated. Apologies if I missed your time and please let me know.
Delaware Marathon:
4:31:33 Dave McCorquodale
5:22:01 Steve Thorpe
6:54:06 John Schultz
Delaware Half Marathon:
1:33:15 Adam Schilling
1:38:11 Chris James
1:42:56 Michael Peyton
1:44:25 Sheri Herrmann
1:50:10 Wes Stafford
1:51:29 Elena Kupchik
1:55:15 Jim Steele
2:05:41 Lori Culnane
2:13:43 Gelsomina Paolini
Four Person Marathon Relay (club members on team in parentheses)
2:35:12 New Balance Racing Team (Matt Cutrona, Jay Coughenour, Josh Loren), 1st Overall
3:20:40 Creek Road Runners (Bill Farquhar), 2nd Co-ed Masters
3:25:51 New Balance Angels (Kelly Horowitz, Theresa Kauffman), 3rd Female Open
3:27:18 Zwolak Attack (Vic Zwolak), 1st Family
3:37:46 Silverside #3 (Darlise DiMatteo), 2nd Coed Open
3:41:42 Silverside #1 (Kristen Stump, Jack Horowitz), 3rd Coed Open
3:46:53 Sole Train (Dirk Sweigart, Nina Smeltzer, Don Ropp), 6th Co-ed Masters
3:51:03 Silverside #2 (Kelly Horowitz), 9th Coed Open
4:06:40 The Fast, the Slow & the Pretty (Lenora Wagner, Jim Bray, Rachel Bleacher & John Culnane), 12th Coed Masters
4:45:33 WICU Fantastic Four (Linda Lavelle) 7th Christiana Care
Going into the events yesterday, John Schultz and I were two of only 16 people who had completed the previous seven marathons. Now we are two of only 12 people who have completed all eight marathons. Lori and John Culnane, Jack Horowitz and Rich Szymanski are four out of only nine other people who have competed in one of the events of the festival in the previous seven years.
Marathon Mama
Tara Huang, having recently gotten back into running shape after having a child, ran the Pittsburgh Marathon in 3:32:58, easily re-qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
President’s News:
Early Morning Runs
Wes Stafford is seeking running partners for early morning weekday runs in the Newark area. Contact him at to see if your schedules coincide. Also feel free to post such items at our Facebook Group. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=289855916248&ref=ts
Road Runners Club of America
Since PCVRC is a member club of RRCA, we are, in turn, members as well. I attended their annual convention this past weekend and will include a report in next week’s bulletin. Their mission statement:
Founded in 1958, the Road Runners Club of America is the oldest and largest national association of running clubs, running events, and runners dedicated to promoting running as a competitive sport and as healthy exercise. The RRCA’s mission is to represent and promote the common interests of its member clubs, events, and individual runners through education, leadership, programs and other services.
(see www.rrca.org for more info or contact Ray)
Marine Corps Historic Half
The RRCA convention is always timed to coincide with a large race, so while many of you were running or volunteering at the DE Marathon, I ran this race in Fredericksburg, VA. Drew Carey (a former Marine) was our celebrity runner and ran his first Half in under two hours. We enjoyed the same warm, humid conditions as Delaware. 6,000 finishers (plus some relay folks) ran a sometimes rolling course featuring downtown historic Fredericksburg and plenty of Marines. The funny thing is that the guy I roomed with (from Maine) drove up here to run the marathon, before driving back to DC to catch a plane home.
Being a sister race to Marine Corps Marathon, of course the logistics were handled wonderfully. It’s a good race to consider, with decent spectators, choice of beer at the finish and Gatorade available at every water station. The loop course features mainly downhill for first couple miles, with a complementary uphill just when you don’t need one at mile 10-11. The hills help me relax a bit, since it seems pointless for me to worry about maintaining a steady pace. Shooting for around a 1:40, I was pleased to finish in 1:37:20 and am happy to brag about placing 10 of 403 in my 40-49 age group! Details/photos will take until next week to appear at www.RunMarathonMan.com
When you run a big race (or even an interesting 5K), send it to Dave to include in this eBulletin so others can consider running it in the future!
I hope to see everyone at Dirk’s fun run on Friday.
Fun Run Friday 5/27
Below is information posted by Dirk Sweigart if you haven’t already seen it. The picnic will go on rain or shine. The Loop may be sloppy from the rain, but running it is optional.
What: PCVRC and Rebels “Run the Judge” – Trail run of the Judge Morris “5K” loop and picnic
When: Friday, May 27th, 6 PM (run), 7 pm (picnic)
Where: Sweigart’s, 108 Dewalt Road, Drummond Hill, Newark, DE (close to McGlynn’s and the Polly Drummond shopping center)
Event details: Come for the run at 6 or the picnic at 7ish (after). RSVPs requested for counting but you can surely come even if you did not reply. Event is rain or shine (run will be canceled for mud or rain but picnic still on). Kids and spouses are welcome. Bring a side dish, dessert or weird beverage. We will have burgers (yes Theresa, and turkey burgers!), hotdogs, cole slaw and macaroni salad, beer and wine, water and sports drink. And what people bring.
Run details: Run starts from the open space at the corner of Dewalt and Old Coach road (side entrance) at 6. Park at Dirk’s house and walk up to the start. There will be water and sports drink there. Timing (and direction of run) is up to you. For those wanting to clean up, we will have towels and washcloths at the house after.
Course Details: this portion of the White Clay preserve is the former estate of Judge Hugh M. Morris, a Delaware native, respected attorney and distinguished federal judge. The property also belonged to the University of Delaware for some time and contained a course for the UD cross-country team. The loop will be well-marked with a “cutoff” for anyone wishing to shorten the debated length of 3.1 miles ( bring your Garmin and tell us what you think the distance is). This is a mixed use trail so you need to beware of mountain bikers (like Josh) and hikers. You also need to be aware of the usual trail run hazards such as tripping over roots or rocks (Jerry, Dirk). Immediately when you enter the woods, you will need to decide whether to go left or right around the loop. There is no right answer! But if you miss the entrance/exit (or if you just want to), you will run the loop twice (or more).
Directions:
From Kirkwood Highway – go north on Polly Drummond Hill Road. Take a right at the first light onto Old Coach Road. Take first left onto Dewalt Road. 2nd house on the left after the stop sign.
From New Linden Hill Road – Turn off of New Linden Hill Road onto Chadd Road directly across from Polly Drummond shopping center (Zingo’s). Take right at first stop sign on Dewalt. House is on the right, just before next stop sign.
From Mark Deshon: UDXC-TF Forever 5K, Sunday, May 22, 9:00 A.M.,
Laird Campus, U. of DE, out Creek Rd. If you’ve been following the plight of the UD men’s running programs at all, you’ll realize this is worth supporting. I’m not associated with the race, but am supporting it (just found out about it yesterday). I hope you will do the same. Attached is the info and race form.