Race for the Ribbon 5K set for July 19

One of the most popular 5K events of the summer will take place this Saturday morning on Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach beginning at 7:30 a.m. when the seventh Run for the Ribbon 5K takes to the streets. Runners will be treated to a post-race breakfast at the Greene Turtle so they can carb up for the following day’s five-miler. A silent auction will also be held Saturday with items donated by the Cape community. This year's silent auction will benefit a 12-year-old from Millsboro who just this month found out she has osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Over $60,000 has been raised locally since the first Race for the Ribbon, spearheaded by the work of Cape teacher Stephanie Shuttleworth and her team.

The overall, runner-up, masters, and the top three finishers in five-year age groups from 9 & under to 80 & over will receive awards in the race. The popular Clydesdales and Fillies division will award the top three finishers in the race as well.

Striders at XC Camp

Young Blake Hundley of Bethany Beach and Brock Diaz of Lewes, both of the Seashore Striders cross country team, are in Asheville, N.C., attending the Smoky Mountain Running Camp held at the University of North Carolina. Both runners are mixing it up this week with hundreds of the best runners from all over the country. Striders dad Rick Hundley, who is serving as a coach, reports to me that the runners are put into groups based on their threshold. They run with equal or close to kids at their same level with every workout being “effort-based training."  The kids pick a group they are comfortable running with for the day. The runners hit the trails in the morning, while pacing workouts are held on the track in the afternoon. Rick attends coaching classes for a few hours a day while the kids put in the miles. Good luck to the Striders in the hills of North Carolina.

Seashore Y 5-Miler

The Seashore Y 5-Miler will be held this Sunday, July 20, from Deauville Beach in Rehoboth Beach, which is the second of the two qualifying five-milers in the Seashore Striders Racing Series. The five-miler is the longest-running annual race in the Seashore Series at 32 years and was started back in the early '80s. There were several members associated with the race who got it off the ground, and guys like Larry Sharp, Mike Sommer, Bruce Springer and the late Jay Stein are names that come to mind. The race this year begins at 7:30 a.m. with preregistration pickup scheduled for 6:15 a.m. in the Deauville Beach parking lot. Awards will be presented to the overall, masters, and top three finishers in five-year age groups from 9 & under to 80 & over. The Striders will again donate proceeds to the YMCA Children’s Fund.

Splits

When your son turns 17 and you ask him what he wants to do on his birthday and he answers “Skating in New York City,” then as a parent you decide whether to make it happen. Well, we are off to the Big Apple for the day - look for me on "Good Morning America!"

Upcoming races

7:30 a.m., Saturday, July 19 - Seventh Race for the Ribbon 5K, Greene Turtle, Rehoboth, seashorestriders.com.

7:30 a.m., Sunday, July 20 - 32nd Seashore Y 5-Miler, Deauville Beach, Rehoboth, seashorestriders.com.