Delaware Marathon / Half Marathon

December 17, 2011

Below: signs to protect the park, the beach
Signs of environmental caring







Pictures posted by Sweetpea

SIGNS

Signs seen on our car trip to the Jackson Mississippi Marathon / Half Marathon, some shot out the car windows or on the run in the race.

Crossing the Mississippi just north of the Ohio

Signs on barns in south eastern Missouri



Paintings on Mississippi River dikes

Just one of many displays at a rest stop near New Madrid

Small part of a gracious gracious rest stop in Mississippi

Rainbow Co-Op grocery in Jackson, Mississippi: great little co-op doing great work in their community. We found everything we were looking for.


First ever discovery of ORGANIC potato chips


Favorite marathon race spectator sign ever!

Mississippi Blues Marathon / Half Marathon

Saturday, January 7; Sweet Pea and I earned finisher's medals.

Ten (10) porta potties at the start. Still long lines when the race began. There were ten more beyond the start, but we were unable to find them before the race.

THE HALF MARATHON COURSE

Gated communities and boarded communities

Some marathons begin and end at the capitol building, but Mississippi's magnificent capitol was visible from the race course.. only in the far distance. (dome near the center of the picture)

Access roads, entrance ramps, exit ramps... who knows? Plenty of exhaust to inhale, and usually sharing the road with traffic



Typical residential communities? Abandoned buildings, burned out houses, boarded up homes.
Were the city leaders hoping for donations? Why did they not allow the race course to explore more parks, historic buildings, etc.?




GOOD NEWS

Best marked course we have run: many good signs and a thousand orange cones!

Water stops were fabulous.

Orange shirts... volunteers! ... were everywhere. There was never a question of which way to go at any corner.

Post race food was outstanding. The party was a PARTY!

Fortitude for First Descents Marathon / Half

Lewes, Delaware: State Park on the Atlantic Coast

Course was well marked .. including this "don't go this way".

With 4 loops for the marathon and 2 loops for the half, we saw Don 3 times.

Bring your children to the races!
And my apology to this lovely family for poor focus of my camera... which will be replaced as soon as I can figure out what to get.

One of the first descendants
"Cancer," I said. "Leukemia," he replied softly.
"My dad died of leukemia too," I said, and he hesitated for only an instant, and then hugged me.
The race started then and I cried for the first half mile.


All sorts of traces of World War II defenses in this state park on the Atlantic Coast.

The sky was clear and blue for the first couple of hours, temperatures in the low
40's, but NO precipitation.
When we registered for this race back in September, I feared a sleet storm in mid-December.

We saw a marathoner slip and fall on the pine needles. Most of the way they were not a hazard.

Turn around at the fishing dock on Delaware Bay.

Footprints in the sand, not much of a problem on the trails.

Bless their hearts, the water stop/aid station volunteers.

Clouds gathered and by the end of the race the sky was totally overcast.

50 states myeloma marathoner Don, after the finish. See MinnesotaDon.blogspot.com.
Be sure to see his video on CNN's blog.

Hot soup for runners who finished in less than five hours at this six hour marathon.
Later finishers probably needed it even more, the temperature still being in the low 40's.

We brought some LED Christmas lights for our motel room. (Light in the window is a reflection from a lamp in the room.)

Our marathoner didn't finish in time for the hot soup, but Sweet Pea and I served up chicken breast, baked squash, nachos, popcorn and ice cream back in the room.

Sweet Pea made lattes with organic milk (no steamer, but heated on the stove) and organic French roast filtered coffee.