Ed Dean 4 Mile, Sundance Sashay make busy weekend
The 5th Sundance Land & Sea 5K Run, Biathlon, Open Swim, and 1 Mile Walk will be held at 8 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 24, beginning from Rehoboth Avenue and the Boardwalk. All four events will take off at the same time with the 5K and biathlon going all the way to the Gordons Pond entrance for the turnaround at the halfway mark.
Awards will be presented to the top three in each age group in the 5K run, while the biathlon and the open swim will present awards to just the champion of each age group.
T-shirts will be guaranteed to all preregistered participants, and the post-race party will be held at CAMP Rehoboth. A pre-race pickup will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Saturday at CAMP Rehoboth on Baltimore Avenue.
Cross country news
Austin MacElrevey, a freshman at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., has made the cross country team and is currently completing his preseason training. The opening meet for MacElrevey is Saturday, Aug. 30, at Fairfield College in Connecticut. According to the team website, the roster has 14 runners including 10 freshman, three sophomores, and one junior. MacElrevey took a trip to historic Van Courtland Park in the Bronx for a training day last weekend with his team and will compete on the tough 5-mile New York course in his second meet of the season Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Fordham Fiasco. Good luck to MacElrevey in his first collegiate cross country season, while sister Maddy will lead the Lady Vikings in Henlopen Conference high school action.
ALS Challenge
The ALS Challenge is sweeping the country as did the Harlem Shake and the “Happy Song,” and what a great cause it is and what great awareness it inspires in so many Americans. Last weekend at the Greene Turtle in Lewes, I watched a great video shot by Robert Wolhar of a group of runners trying to get an ice bucket challenge organized outside the restaurant. After 15 minutes of making decisions about who was going to dump the bucket on who and how it was going to be organized, they were starting to remind me of a group of first-graders trying to decide who was going to come into my class first. It was finally achieved and after three seconds it was over, but I had a great laugh watching it as did race director Wayne Kursh as he was lucky enough to watch also and not participate.
On Wednesday I watched from the Rehoboth Bandstand as NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon dumped a bucket of ice water on my friend Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, and then Jeff was in a getaway car and gone within minutes, while Sam stuck around for 15 minutes in his ice-cold wet shirt and signed autographs for his fans. Fun (cold) stuff for a great cause.
Cross country runners
This Saturday morning, rain or shine, will be the running of the Ed Dean 4-Mile Trail Run from Magnolia’s in Ocean View beginning at 8 a.m. Runners will head to Fresh Pond and loop a small trail and a large grassy trail for three of the four miles on trails.
Registration will begin at 7 a.m. with tank T-shirts going to registered participants for $25 on race day. The event will benefit the Ed Dean Scholarship presented to a Bethany Beach Patrol member. This is a nice small-town event put on by Magnolia’s, which does a great job as the host. There are very few 4-mile distance runs in Delaware or around Delmarva, so we will see you on the starting line to give it a try. Go to www.seashorestriders.com.
Chronotrack training
This past Tuesday I left at 5:30 a.m. for a 10-hour day in Washington, D.C., as I attended a Chronotrack Timing Seminar and learned more methods on timing a road race as well as new improvements that are going to be unveiled in 2015 for Chronotrack timers.
I sat beside a timer from Virginia, and as I spoke about my 390-person Paws 5K, he blew me away with his stories about his recent event he directed and timed that hosted 17,000 participants.
Most of the groups in the room were familiar with three of our events, with many participating in at least one of them: The Dogfish Dash, The RBRC Seashore Marathon, and the Seashore Striders Summer Racing Series.
A long and productive day in the race-timing world with an exit from the city that took me over two hours. After bumper-to-bumper for over an hour, Route 404 never looked so good - and it usually never looks good to me.
