Cape Henlopen Triathlon set for June 10

The Cape Henlopen Triathlon will take place Sunday, June 10, at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes beginning at 7:30 a.m. It is the 18th year for the event, managed for 17 of them by Piranha Sports. The Seashore Striders purchased the event this past fall and will now manage it. The turnout this year will be just over 100 athletes. The goal for 2019 will be to find a date that does not conflict with other multi events. It is a race for everyone and the perfect event at the beach. The goal is to have a safe, enjoyable and fun triathlon on a fast and scenic course perfect for all athletes. Plenty of awards will be presented. 

The 1/4-mile swim will be in the ocean just off the park bathhouse, while the 9.7-mile bike will take athletes out of Cape Henlopen State Park onto Cape Henlopen Drive and out to Savannah Road. Bikers will cross over the drawbridge and take a left on Gills Neck Road out to Kings Highway. Then, the course will follow Kings Highway to Freeman Highway, over the bridge, back to Cape Henlopen Drive and on to the transition area in Cape Henlopen State Park. The 5K run will take runners to Fort Miles and onto the north end of the Gordons Pond Trail, turning around at the 1.55-mile mark on the out-and-back course.  

The duathletes will run two miles, bike the same 9.7-mile course, and finish with a 5K run.

Registration will remain open through Saturday evening and will reopen on race morning from 6 to 7 a.m.

Packet pickup will be from 1 to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 9, at the main beach parking lot in the southwest corner.

Bruce Clayton of Tricoach will present a first-timer clinic beginning at 2 p.m., followed by a swim clinic at 2:30 p.m. 

Tri side note: All-American runner and former Olympic Trials qualifier Emily Ritter of Millsboro is lifeguarding for the Rehoboth Beach Patrol and is entered in Sunday’s triathlon. Emily, a graduate of Rider University and Sussex Tech, is a runner by trade, but has been improving in the bike and swim, and could be an interesting addition to the triathlon world if she chooses that path. 

1,300 and counting

When I started working at the The Whale back in the late ’80s covering the running scene and even a few Cape Henlopen teams, I really did not think that I would still be writing 30 years later. In the early ’90s, the Cape Gazette was born, and I was asked to start a running and racing column, and each week, four times a month, 12 months a year, I have written a column. Last week was my 1,300th column in a row for the Cape Gazette. I’m not much into streaks, unless it is the Beacon track girls, which ran off like 72 in a row until we lost to coach Kenny’s Mariner team last year by a point.

Jack of all trades

Jack Huxtable of Rehoboth Beach has arrived. Fun-loving and always happy, Jack has arrived at the door of a new age group – 80-84. Most 80-year-olds are not walking much, let alone running 5Ks, but then there is Jack. Jack recently ran a chip time of 28:57.5 and a gun time of 29:01.2, averaging 9:20 a mile. Jack knows about hard work, as the Cornell graduate spent 45 years in the foreign service living overseas. Jack also knows how to have fun around all his friends, as he sometimes treats the crowd to an 80-year-old cartwheel after receiving his trophy. Congratulations to Jack for reaching a milestone birthday and setting a new Delaware 5K record, breaking the old record of 31:55 set in 2014 by John Button.