• A Positive Determination •
[2 MIN READ]
I wrapped up the last Rumination (#127) with a cliffhanger: Would I jump off the cliff with the other lemming by running the Coastal Delaware Running Festival Marathon (04’16’U)? With 8 degrees of appeal tantalizing me, what do you suppose? Yep, I did it. It turns out that 2 of us Shawmonters joined Too Hot Tom, including Lady Jen.
The driving distance was further than I thought it would be (2½ hours vs 2), but THT was great company, as expected (Companionship: even degree of appeal). The traveling conditions became miserable and dangerous when we hit extreme downpours, but the traffic slowed down (or pulled off) safely and we arrived intact to packet pick up and then to “SRC B&B” (Travel: minus 1 degree of appeal). The night’s rest was atypically and phenomenally poor (4 hours vs the usual 7. Sleep: minus 1 degree of appeal), which did provide an unexpected 3 a.m. chance to do extra carbing up (Fueling: 1 degree of appeal)
The race was a little warmer than expected and definitely slowed the effort down a bit (Temperature: minus 1 degree of appeal). Given the absence of proper training, my 4:03:08 was phenomenal (Performance: 1 degree of appeal). For THT (who didn’t train the way he felt he needed to, either), smashing his 4:50 Boston qualifying time by 7 minutes (with LJ as his impromptu pacer) was huge (2 degrees of appeal)!
The time celebrating with the cheering halfers was everything a runner could expect (Enthusiasm: even degree of appeal). Then the “late checkout time” at SRC B&B allowed for a quality nap before driving back home (Restfulness: 1 degree of appeal). The final downer was a near collision with a car on the US-476N ramp from 95 who decided they needed to back up(!) to get back on to 95 (Travel II: minus 1 degree of appeal).
You can do the math; even with a few negatives the entire experience ended up firmly in the positive column.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe) “Negative Split or Positive Splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT
¶Text by Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Published exclusively: Ruminations by CtCloser. ¶Based on true events.
iCandybyWangC 
Nice recap, Calvin. Sounds like a fun race, especially with the SRC runners there.