Sober at sunrise - Anyone who has personally survived the fog of addiction will admit the best part of their new days is the first morning light. Except for nocturnal animals, all others get up at the crack of dawn, not the crack of noon. I’m in the sleep-at-night, prowl-in-the-morning phase of my life, so I’m usually parked somewhere when the sun comes up waiting for a race to start. On June 27, it was 300 runners snaking away from Jungle Jim's Safari Park, an elephant over their right shoulders and a giant parrot over the side. I thought, "Where else along the coast can a person with my skills photograph such a moment?" And yet the underbelly to the FitBit crew is wasting away in the Margaritaville crowd, which is a fun group sporadically but deleterious to overall health if it becomes a habit. Neurologists, nephrologists, psychologists, phlebotomists, radiologists, cardiologists, oncologists and gastroenterologists – I know all these people – tell me all the time about working with patients just trying to survive and stay in the game while others are wantonly destroying themselves. This paragraph started with 300 runners exiting a water park. Later in the day, the unofficial Running of the Bull in Dewey Beach attracted 1,200 young and relentless storm chasers.  Life is all about mixed messages. How come there’s no chasing of the cow? 

Smith and Schmuck - It does sound like a law firm for fallen runners, but here it's 5K runners Greg Smith, 65, and James Schmuck, 80. Near the finish line of the Jungle Jim's 5K, Greg got wobbly-legged and crashed to the concrete. I saw his face hit and head bounce. I yelled to Martin Rodriguez to go get him. Martin and an unidentified young guy lifted Smith and shadowed him as he crossed the finish line unassisted. Nine minutes later, Schmuck had that dangerous forward lean thing going on. I suggested Martin shadow him. A heat wave will settle over Sesame Street by the Sea over July 4 weekend. The Runner's World formula for competing in hot weather is, “If the air temp and humidity add up to over 160, don't race or do endurance workouts."

Remembering Bobbie Redefer - Bobbie passed away June 27. On a Saturday afternoon in May 2009, the Cape girls' lacrosse team was about to face St. Andrew's for the state championship. Steve Judge, a relative of the Redefers, was in the parking lot talking about the sun field and the importance of making the right decision at the start of the game. I interrupted him, “Hey, dad, you’re crazy. You know that, right?” Fast forward to the final minute. Cape was about to win. Leigh Ann Redefer was in goal. She was crying and cranked her head 180 degrees like a barn owl. She saw me along the fence and said, "Shut up, Fredman! I can’t help it!" I thought, "She is her mother's daughter.” I was stunned with the news of Bobbie exiting the planet for heaven's pressbox. I think of that moment and the song, "Don’t let the sun catch you crying.”  

When TJ Redefer passed, the John Prine lyric inspired me to write. "The moon is down all over town, the sky is gray, since you went away.” In our solar system, Bobbie and TJ were the sun and the moon. It's so great to know people who know you back – people who get what you are all about. Son Jack, a left-handed quarterback, played at Mariner for the Saez brothers and at Sussex Tech for Bill Collick. Both teams and schools were the right fit for Jack. Challenge Bobbie, "Why is Jack at Tech and not at Cape?" and get a good dose of the “what for!”

“How far is heaven?” The launch site is Rehoboth by the Sea in downtown Dewey Beach.

Snippets - A couple of Kiwis from Auckland, New Zealand, were snapped on the running scene last weekend. Holly Manning, 29, was first female in the Jungle Jim’s 5K, running 18:27, and the next day, her husband Darian Sorouri, 30, won the Beebe Heroes 5K in 15:34. Sorouri is a native Delawarean. Kiwi Brad Danehy, a New Zealander living in Milford, ran as a guide to blind runner Joe Aukward in 29:32. Brad said of Joe, "Who needs sight when you have vision?” Go on now, git!