Shiny, happy people laughing at Sea Witch 5K

Happy Together! Beautiful spirits and smiling faces. I don't know if I’ve ever been that happy on a Sunday morning except when I slipped out of 8 a.m. mass during communion to be first in line at the German bakery to snag a butter cake and a dozen chocolate and cream doughnuts. Ashley Jones, 25, Angelina Jones, 26, and Naomi McBride, 20, finished the Sea Witch 5K together in 51:36. The girls are from Maryland. I posted the photo on Facebook. My journalist friend Hilary Corrigan, living in San Francisco then Bend, Oregon, reacted to a posted photo by writing, “I can't look that good when I'm well-rested and dressed to the nines, much less finishing a 5K! These three belong on the cover of Vogue!” Beauty’s where you find it; not just where you bump and grind it. Let your body go with the flow.” – “Vogue,” Madonna, 1990.

Running down a dream - The odd thing about the sport of running is everyone is in the same race. It's like playing pickup basketball with pros that can dunk all in your face. Many get lapped in a 5K race, but it's the spirit within that propels the runner. I caught the juxtaposition of ages at the Sea Witch 5K. We get running down a dream, but what if the dream is running you down. Grace Lucas, 16, beat Louis Dwyer, 81, 27:02 to 27:03. She has a hundredth of a second on him, but he has 65 years on her. Road running is a strange sport. Grace couldn’t hear Louis coming because of her earbuds, but the rumbling was sending good vibrations across the finish line. 

Ian Fleming - Ian, now 55, is a front-of-the-pack runner from England, just like Ian Fleming, the James Bond creator and author. I knew him when he was sighted and still know him after he lost his vision. He ran with a neon vest reading “Blind” and was tethered to a sighted guide. His guide at the Sea Witch 5K was Anthony Swierzbinski, 39, and together they ran 19:11, which is no joke. Before the race, I let Ian know I was there. “Hi, Ian, Fredman here. It’s good to see you.” He extended his right hand. “Was that a dumb way to greet you?” I asked as he just smiled. Anthony’s wife Elizabeth was women's champion in a fast time of 17:48.  

Escapability and elusivity - I’m not covering high school football this season because I have lost scrambling quickness and I’m like a pocket passer with a porous line for protection. The NFL sidelines are ridiculous. I see scrambling stat guys, fat guys and photographers getting wiped out all the time. It’s slapstick funny until one of these cargo-pants-wearing guys fresh off the buffet line doesn’t get back up. I photographed the Fred Thomas at Mariner middle school game Oct. 23. It was the Burton Bowl, featuring the father-versus-son matchup of head coaches – Haywood for the Freds and son Aarin for Mariner. Fred Thomas won the back-and-forth game 30-18, but I didn’t know the score. I was too busy scrambling, worrying about being chopped at the knees. 

“Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.” – Clancy Brothers. In Irish music, it's called diddling, just making noise as a bridge to more cogent lyrics that make a modicum of sense. I’m comparing Group 3 high school football scores that have been weekly whack, and I’ve concluded going into the postseason that all teams who qualified have a chance. I don’t want to do the entire dance, but Cape (5-3) at Caesar Rodney (5-3) has renewed focus after the Riders beat Sussex Central 45-35 Oct. 24. Another crazy score from last weekend was Middletown over Salesianum 16-6, which signaled that it’s a wide-open tournament in the postseason.

Snippets - The lesser season known as lacrosse fall ball pretty much closed down last weekend with friendlies played all over the college landscape. Practice for the spring begins in January with a full slate of games in February. College field hockey is also idling down before conference tournaments and NCAA tournaments. Mason Fluharty stands alone – all pitchers do – as a local muppet who has appeared in the World Series, but quite a few athletes have played on national championship teams across the divisions of college sports. I’m waiting to hear the term Bagel Bomber on national television. “Would you like that toasted, Shohei?” Go on now, git!