I asked a few people in Alabama if they had ever heard of Delmarva. Only one person did. It is a peninsula east of the Chesapeake Bay that is spilt between the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. To access it, you can either drive south from Philadelphia or cross the Bay Bridge after a flight from DC or Baltimore. Since I have a friend in Philly that I wanted to meet, I chose the former option.
3/31-
I hate airport layovers.
Birmingham used to have a direct flight to Philly but not anymore. In order to reach pretty much anywhere in the
East, you have to connect in Charlotte or Atlanta. Lately, I often drive 2.5 hours to Atlanta
for a direct flight but today I chose to connect in Charlotte. Bad call.
The flight was delayed, and I just missed the connection to Philly. I ended up with a 6 hour layover in Charlotte
and did not get to my hotel in Philly until 1 AM. Ouch!
4/1-
I did stay in a nice hotel within walking distance of
Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
I arrived at 9AM and got in line to see the Liberty Bell and got a good
shot of the bell and Independence Hall.
I had to wear a mask to take a selfie next to the Liberty Bell because
of COVID. What the _____! When I got in line for Independence Hall, I
learned that it would be a 2-3 hour wait for a 20-minute tour. After some deliberation, I decided to pass. It was probably a good call. If I had waited, it would have been dark by
the time I got to the southern tip of Virginia and I would have missed a
beautiful sunset over the bay. I struck
up a conversation with an older woman in Philly and we ended up eating lunch
together. Dinner was seafood in Cape Charles, Virginia
where I met 2 other rather interesting characters.
4/2-
Headed north towards Salisbury, Maryland with a stop in
Chincoteague, Virginia. I did see a
couple Windmill Palms there. As
expected, both the air and water were MUCH too cold for a swim. I did do a junk run on a nature trail and
found that I felt best on 2 Thym-Adren pills, held it together on 2.5 but
dropped off sharply on 3. I decided that
I would go with 2 on race morning and let the chips fall where they may. I was in Salisbury by noon and took another
junk run around City Park. I had not
been here in almost 20 years, so it looked much different and I recognized very
little. From Salisbury, I took about a
40-minute drive southwest down to Crisfield for another beautiful sunset over
the bay.
4/3-
Race day. It was
clear early that 2 pills were just a bit much.
I probably would have had a significantly better result on 1.5 or even
1. Nevertheless, I was pleased by how I
ran the first half. Each of the first 8
miles were between 9:02-9:16. Since 9:09
is 2-hour pace, I was right on schedule give or take a few seconds up until 5
miles to go. You can probably guess the
rest. Mile 9-10 were a struggle, but the
collapse did not hit all at once. It did
not become REAL UGLY until Mile 11-12 then I found a slight resurgence at the
end for a 2:08 finish (9:50 pace). Not
my worst showing and just about what I expected given how badly my training had
been. After the finish, another half
pill confirmed my suspicion. I was much
worse immediately and therefore would have done better on a lower dose. Again, the cocktail that worked the previous
day didn’t work as well when it mattered most.
For the aftermath, I drove to Ocean City for lunch and a
walk on the boardwalk then up the Delaware coast to Dewey Beach. The latter is much quieter, but the beach is
just as nice. Again, it was MUCH too
cold for a dip. I continued north
towards Philadelphia but spent the night in Delaware after a stop in Dover to
see the Capitol area.
4/4-
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