Rehoboth Beach Half-Marathon

Why would anyone want to travel to Rehoboth Beach in December to run a half-marathon?  Good question, the answer is because Dave Kelly would.  Dave starts training and shares his plans with myself, Danny Clarke and Tom O'Reilly.  Of course we are in so we register right away and start running.

Training went fairly well for two us.  Come race time Christy (Danny's daughter) takes his bib # and runs the official fastest half-marathon Danny will ever run in his life.  To his credit, Dave still ventured down to Rehoboth to support us.  Tom successfully ran his first half-marathon and is looking for more.  And I ran my fastest half-marathon as well, and am paying dearly for it.

Pre-race with Christy

Dave's not wearing his running clothes

Tom's a little nervous but ready

This is the look of someone who knows she's fast

13.1 miles is a long ways .. a long long ways.  I went on several 5 mile jogs around the neighborhood and failed miserably whenever the path went "up".  So I decided to spend a bit more time on the treadmill at work while watching Punisher episodes on Netflix.  I highly recommend this activity.

My long run training consisted of a single 9.4 mile run from home to WTW, around the fields, around the track and then home.  I also ran the Chesapeake Bay Bridge 10k and completely fell apart at mile 5.  Oh, and there was the Frost 5K run at Jordan's middle school.

Although I'm not the true "specimen" as is Danny Clarke, I still managed to suffer through the run and post a legitimate time for me.  The run through 6 miles was just fine and no issues.  I started to feel a tight calf at mile 7 and managed it the rest of the way.  Mile 7 was about the time I saw the winner blaze by me in the other direction.  Sort of knocked me to the side with the wind wake he was laying down.  Turns out he was just shy of being twice as fast as me .. that's a win! :-)

But holy smoley's I was getting a little tired come mile 9.  The last few miles were difficult.  I just kept trudging along while trailing a lady with "Oileey" written on the back of her shirt.  I never did catch up to her to ask what that meant.

Post race with our proud medals.  I've never felt worse.

Post race meal of champions

Fortunately I have a great family who was willing to come down to Rehoboth to pick me up and spend the post-race victory with me.  I had reserved a cabin at Cape Henlopen State Park for Friday and Saturday nights.  Danny and Christy left Sat AM so it was all mine.

I'm not sure Danny and Christy appreciated the luxurious amenities at the State Park.  Geez, this cabin had a small fridge, heat and cooling, plus 2 rooms and 6 beds.  To me it's Glamping, to them, it's prehistoric.  

The family found me dead asleep late Saturday afternoon in the cabin. Let's just say I was in no hurry to move at all, much less get out of bed and go to the outlet stores.  But I did, and we had a great meal at a 50% off for runners and guests pasta place.

Cape Henlopen cabins

We made it down to the beach Sunday afternoon.  A little overcast so we left our swimsuits in the car.

Overall I think it was a great weekend.  Next time I really should train up a bit more so I don't feel so incredibly poor after the run.  I did recover pretty well on Sunday and rode into work on Monday.  I had planned on running the Holiday Half Marathon this Sunday, but I have a new appreciation for being able to walk and I'm not ready to forgo it at this time.

Family Portrait

Happy running to all!

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