The state of Delaware is, according to the AAA tourbook, 67 square miles. Putting a 26.2 mile course together in that state would definitely be a challenge. Since the only marathon in Delaware had not been organized for the last several years, Steve Boone, Houston, Texas resident and treasure of the 50 States Marathon Club, set out to put together a marathon distance race in Wilmington, Delaware to help club members satisfy the 50 state requirement. With the help of experienced organizer Wayne Kursh and his lovely wife Barbara the “Coventry Health Care Delaware Marathon Riverfront Wilmington” was born.

There are fewer residents in the entire state of Delaware than my in current hometown of Portland, OR. Philadelphia, PA is the closest airport to Wilmington, about a 30 minute drive (not during rush hour).

Packet Pickup In an effort to scare the cool max socks off us west coasters, Wilmington pulled out all the stops for us in a 4 hour outdoor packet pickup, the temperatures lapped at the 90’s and the humidity was simply listed as “high”. We were the exclusive “expo” vendor. No one happened to mention that the pickup would be held outdoors in the parking lot, but we had a table in an unshaded spot, had we known it was outdoors, we would have worn sunscreen.

Quarterly reunion meeting and pasta dinner The Fifty states marathon club had a huge turnout of members, partially due to the fact that there was no guarantee that this would be an annual event. The quarterly reunion meeting preceded the pre-race pasta dinner at Catherine Rooney’s Irish pub (you were expecting an ITALIAN restaurant? So was I!). Awards were given to those members achieving goal of covering the marathon distance (or longer) in each of the 50 states for the first, second, third and forth time. The profits were donated to charity. This was probably among the top 3 carbo loading dinners I’ve attended so far! The pasta was not overcooked; the sauces (3 choices) were delicious. The folks at our table had difficulty stopping before 2 or 3 servings of the delicious pound cake type desserts!

That night there were heavy rains and thunderstorms, and the day dawned even more hot and humid than expected. While the front cooled things down considerably, the lows were still up in the mid sixties and the highs were in low eighties. The humidity was simply listed as “high”.

The Race Addressing the challenge of putting together a marathon course in the small state of Delaware would be difficult. For economical reasons (I imagine), keeping in within the city limits of Wilmington was necessary. Thus the powers that be measured a 4 loop riverfront course that would cover the 26.2 mile distance. Each of the loops had variety: stadium parking lot, bike trail, wooden riverfront boardwalk, city streets and back roads. I felt quite at home running along the Christina River, on the Christina Riverfront Walkway, past Christina Park and Fort Christina. I don’t know why they chose to call it “Frawley Stadium”, instead of Christina, but I didn’t mind. Knowing that we would be outside, we liberally applied sunscreen to our reddened skin, and set out with an extremely conservative plan. The race directors were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of day of race registrations and pretty much tripled their original (hopes!) projected runners. The relay was largely responsible for the numbers. They’d gotten the word out in strategic places. All in all, Steve, Wayne and their crew and volunteers pulled together a very well organized race in the tiny state of Delaware!

The 7AM race start was pretty much on time. We had so much fun visiting with people we’d met at the other races, we could have started later!

I really enjoyed the loop course. It was fast and pancake flat. I don’t think we went above 40 ft elevation, or below 7 ft. The variety of things to look at helped pass the time. There were 2 out-and-back sections were you could check on your friends, yet it was predictable enough for you to know what was coming up before you crossed the start line mats again. They also had mats at the turnaround of each out-and-back to keep everyone honest. We could leave drop bags at the start line to hold those things we might need but wouldn’t have to carry (blister treatment and extra drink mix and GU for the later laps were in mine) There were a plethora of aid stations situated about each mile. The volunteers were real troopers staying out almost to the very end. There were some shaded areas (not a whole lot) but that wasn’t a factor during the first part of the race due to lingering heavy cloud cover. That became partly cloudy as the noon hour approached. All in all, I enjoyed the marathon.We spent the day before sightseeing in Philadelphia . The first few pictures are the sights of Philly, then the marathon.

Comments Off on Coventry Health Care Delaware Marathon