Cape indoor track teams kick off the winter season

The Cape Henlopen boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams traveled south to the first Snow Hill Invitational Dec. 6, competing against 17 teams from up and down the Delmarva area. When the dust settled after the eight-hour event, the Vikings boys finished second with 83 points to champion Parkside with 86 points. Lake Forest was fifth with 36 points, Sussex Tech was seventh with 29 points and the Smyrna boys were 10th with 22 points.

On the girls’ side of the action, the Vikings finished seventh with 39 points, Lake was fifth with 44 points, Smyrna was sixth with 41 points and Sussex Tech was 15th with 4 points.

Individual athletes leading the way for the Vikings (points are awarded in a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 format) included the distance team led by Greg Boyce. Boyce led off the 4-by-800-meter relay to open the meet with a win in 9:06. He returned to win the 1,600 meters in 4:47. Curtis Purnell won the long jump in 19-feet-7-inches. Cape also captured the final event of the day, the 4-by-400-meter relay in a time of 3:54, while Owen Allen won the 800 meters in 2:16. Ryan Head jumped 9-feet even for second in the pole vault, while Garrett Elgin was second in the triple jump with a distance of 38-feet-9-inches.

The Cape girls grabbed half of their team points in one event, as throwers Ce’yra Middleton won the shot put with a toss of 35-feet-8-inches, while teammate MacKenzie Parker was second in 30-feet-11-1/2-inches. Timesha Cannon was second in the long jump in 15-feet-2-inches and fifth in the 55 meters in 7.98 seconds. Young Taylor Johnson was third in the 1,600 meters in 6:04.9 for an impressive mile, while Bre Kusen was seventh in the 55-meter hurdles in 10.57.  Aya Daisey was third in the high jump at 4-feet-6-inches.  

Both teams will return for the second stop on the Snow Hill circuit Wednesday, Dec. 13, while the girls will travel to Collegeville, Pa., this Saturday to compete in the Ursinus Invitational.

Run with Santa 5K

The Run with Santa 5K will be held Sunday, Dec. 10, at 10 a.m., from the Fishing Pier of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes. The event, formerly called the Jingle Bell Run and later changed to the Snowball Run, will take runners and Santa up to the Fort Miles lookout and back. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. from the Fishing Pier pavilion for $25. Custom Christmas tree ornaments will be given to the top three finishers in nine age groups from 9 & under to 70 & over. The first 72 registered runners will receive a custom Santa hat, getting away from the traditional shirt for a week. 

Special thanks

Organizing an event like the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon and making sure that safety becomes the top concern brings in some of the best in traffic control and first responders that Sussex County has to offer.  A special shoutout goes to the following: Delaware State Police, Rehoboth Beach Police, Lewes Police, Delaware River and Bay Authority, Cape Henlopen State Park Rangers, Rehoboth Fire Police, Lewes Fire Police, John Hall, Sussex County EMT, RACES, and Sussex Mobile Command Center. Several of the nine water stop groups also provided assistance to the runners with water, Gatorade, fruit, energy bars, GU, and other items to keep the runners truckin’ forward. Special thanks to the following water stop groups: Team RBRC, Rotary Club & Team Guida, MERR, Friends of Cape State Park, Seashore Strider Youth Cross Country, Mariner Honor Society, Beacon AVID, Coconut Grove, Cape Leo Club, Cape Honor Society, and Sussex Tech/Cape Indoor Track Team.

Lastly, thanks to the wonderful volunteers who make the marathon run a smoothly as it does. More than 100 volunteers work the course, registration, finish line, medals, T-shirts and so many more behind-the-scenes jobs that most runners never see. How about the great staff at the Cultured Pearl who never ran out of food and always do a top-notch job with the refreshments? 

Marathon reviews

In the past week, several websites have put together race reviews on the Seashore Marathon, and I always make myself familiar with the comments for a few reasons. As a race director, I know no one is perfect, but the better race directors try to be perfect and try to predict outcomes before they happen. For example, if 3,000 runners were coming by a water stop, you would not want two cases of water and three volunteers. The wiser choice would be to have 50 to 60 gallons of water and 15 to 20 volunteers.

So what I do is try to read each reasonable comment and try to make things happen to help produce the race as a quality and safe event for all.

One common item on several sites was the amount of safety personnel on the course for an event our size. Several marathons throughout the country would not spend nearly the amount of time, resources and money as we do on the agencies we bring in. We do it because we want runners to feel safe in our event, and we think it is important to the whole event as well as for the community. The agencies that we work with and the relationship and respect we have with them are second to none.

I spoke Thursday morning to the runner who went down at 25.5 miles due to a pre-existing medical condition that we did not know of beforehand. He was released from the hospital after a four-day Beebe stay, and he seemed in very high spirits. When he went by me at 25 miles, my 27-year race director experience kicked in and I radioed to the mobile command with a prediction and pre-caution about his visible condition. Help was already on the way before he fell into nurse Jane Boyd’s arms at 25.5 miles.

“This was my fourth marathon, and I cannot say enough about the job your team does and the amount of safety, the after-party [which unfortunately he did not attend] and the logistics of the event,” he commented. “I have run Baltimore and Rock & Roll, and though Rehoboth is small, it ranks up there with the best I have attended. Keep doing what you’re doing for the town of Rehoboth and the event.”