Blue-Gold 5K Run/1-Mile Walk takes off June 9 at Irish Eyes
The Ninth Annual DFRC Blue-Gold All-Star 5K Run/1-Mile Walk is scheduled for 8 a.m., Saturday, June 9, at Irish Eyes in Lewes with more than 200 runners and walkers expected to take part. The 5K is a featured event in the Seashore Striders Summer Series, while the mile walk is open to participants of all ages and abilities.
Visit the Seashore Striders website for additional race information. Runners may also register in person at Irish Eyes from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday, June 8, or on race day starting at 6:30 a.m. Online registration is available until 11:59 p.m. Thursday, June 7. For general information, call 302-454-2730 or email info@dfrcfoundation.org. Parking will be behind the Beacon Motel or at Lewes Beach. Keep Anglers Road open to traffic. Come out and support a great cause in the DFRC organization.
We’ll miss you, Betty!
The Seashore Half-Marathon held in mid-April was run in honor of local teacher, friend, wife and mom Betty Gooch. Betty and I worked the last eight years together at Shields Elementary School, where she was the computer teacher and I am the physical education teacher. On Tuesday evening, June 5, the Cape family lost a great person as my friend Betty Gooch lost her two-year battle with cancer at the young age of 60. Betty always told me that when her time was up, she would be ready to go to a better place. Betty would tell people, including her husband Ralph, and my wife Monique, that I was her boyfriend. One time this fall, a little first-grader looked at Betty and said, “The way you fuss with Coach B, I think he might be your husband.”
Betty and I worked closely with a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students this year and produced a full-color, 48-page first-class yearbook for Shields Elementary in which Betty, whom we featured on the retirement page, wrote a brief letter to the students and staff basically saying goodbye and that it hurt to leave, but she had to go. With the task of getting it completed in the midst of teaching responsibilities, the yearbooks went to press about a month late and were not expected until late June. It was a touching moment for many people when, on June 5, the yearbooks arrived at school and we were able to get most of them to students and staff as so many exited the school at 3 p.m. with their yearbooks under their arms. It was like Betty had something to do with the books' arriving. Hours later, when I was informed of her passing, I thought to myself, “Well, Betty made sure those yearbooks got to the kids before she left us.”
I saw Betty for the final time on Monday afternoon; she rested peacefully and I was able to say a final goodbye and show her that I was studying, as Ralph put it, my cheat sheet, John 3:16. You see, Betty was always on my case because I could not recite the verse as fast as she could. I do know that God loved Betty and she was a believer, and the spirit of Betty Gooch will live on inside so many in the Cape family. RIP, Girlfriend - I’ll miss you!
Race calendar
8 a.m., Saturday, June 9, Ninth DFRC Blue-Gold All-Star 5K Run & 1M walk, Irish Eyes, Lewes (Seashore Striders Series).
8 a.m., Sunday, June 10, 10th The Ivy 5K (formerly Venus on the Half Shell 5K), Dewey Beach (Seven Sisters Series).
7 p.m., Friday, June 15, Eighth Georgetown Library 5K Run/Walk & 1M Walk, North Bedford Street Park, Georgetown (Triple Crown Series).
8 a.m., Saturday, June 16, Second Irish Eyes 5K Dash, Irish Eyes Milton (Triple Crown Series).
7: 30 a.m., Sunday, June 17, 22nd Father's Day 5K Run, Rehoboth Ale House, Wilmington Avenue, Rehoboth Beach (Triple Crown & Seashore Striders Series).
