Coastal Delaware Marathon Report

[Fast Eddie]

Finished my 49th state and 86th marathon yesterday at the Coastal Delaware Running Festival. First take away is that my 60-year-old body does not like running full marathons four weeks apart with the competitive urges in me pushes me to try to run as fast (relatively).
Started on my road trip from Toronto to Rehoboth Beach, DE on Friday morning with a visit to PCR Covid test just before crossing the border at Buffalo/Fort Erie. Didn’t need a Covid test to enter the U.S., but needed it to come back to Canada. More on this later. Road trip took about nine hours by mainly toll roads, New York TPK and PA TPK. Arrive in Rehoboth Beach just before 6pm to check into the motel and heading to the kit pick up.

I opted to do the Tower Challenge with a 5K and Saturday and full marathon on Sunday. 5K ended up as a tempo run, finishing in 26:27. After showering back at the hotel, went to walk the tourist area of Rehoboth Beach and check out the Start/Finish area on the boardwalk. Bought some saltwater taffy, and had a Lobster roll for lunch and some custard for dessert. Did a little shopping afterward, and bought a cheap massage gun at Marshalls. Drove a little bit of the Coastal highway to the south. Then settled in for the night with some take out sausage penne from a local restaurant.

Race time was 7am, so wake up was 5am for the usual pre-race meal of peanut butter bagel, banana, and sport drink. Unlike yesterday’s 5K morning weather of a comfortable tee shirt weather of 65F, the Sunday morning weather wake up weather was just above freezing and slated to go up to 50F by noon. So it was a heaver ¼ zip long sleeved top for the marathon. Got to see the sunrise over the ocean and then we were set to go.

Decent first 10K, but noticed my right hips, glutes were starting to tighten up. Normally it’s my left glutes which bothers me. Some piriformis syndrome I self diagnose myself and have been working on stretching and strengthen the core muscles, but now it seems the right glutes need work. Or it could be that I had two falls recently. One on Monday where in the dark I made a overshoot step reaching for a light switch and fell down a small set of house stairs. I fortunately was just able to grab the bannister just enough to swing my body around and land somewhat easier on my back. Just hand some noticeable bruising on my forearm stabbing for the bannister. Secondly on Wednesday when I fell off my bike going around a corner that had a bunch of wet leaves. Had a couple of scrapes and light bruises, but continued on my ride to work. Took no chances and took transit to work on Thursday.  Left glutes/hips progressively got tighter through the second half and I was fighting it the rest of the way. Three washroom breaks, firstly a #2, then a couple of #1s.

Course was great, basically flat, and two thirds on forested or wetlands recreational and bike trails, with a couple of small out and backs, but mainly a loop course.

Hit the halfway in 2:04 and finished in 4:30.17, just over 10 minutes slower than my PEI Marathon time four weeks ago in a strong headwind. Overall 374/621. Post race buffet at a local pizza joint with salad, pepperoni pizza and chicken fingers, then loaded up the car to start on the journey home.

In normal post-covid times, I would have probably not headed home right away, and would of spent some time perhaps in Wilmington or Philly before headed home, but as mentioned I had to get a covid test to be able to re-enter Canada or be subject to a two-weeks quarantine without. Covid test had to be done within 72 hours, so my window to get back would be Monday 8am. Took the more scenic route through Dutch area of PA through Harrisburg, Williamsport, up to Corning, back up to the NY TPK near Rochester. Sunset was 5pm now and ran into snow flurries, sleet in the dark through the Finger Lakes district, which meant some white-knuckle driving. But made it without incident back home to Toronto just before midnight.

Alaska will be state #50, hopefully in June. My sibling said they are interested in traveling up with me to cheer me on and check out the view of Russia from Anchorage.

Alaska will be state #50, hopefully in June. My sibling said they are interested in traveling up with me to cheer me on and check out the view of Russia from Anchorage.

[Arrojo]

Excellent job! Very impressive, you’ll have to have a big party for number 50

[safedba]

Nice report and congratulations. I'm envious of you. It must be fun to get to travel like that, especially when you get to run into other people who like to do the same things.

[glwestcott]

Wow. One to go. That’s pretty amazing FE.  For sure a major celebration after Anchorage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro