OWL-DRAGON

Media Five Miler

Another Friday night run close to home. Media is the county seat of Delaware County and has a fine, old Courthouse. Real estate values are skewed by the number of law offices in the town, but there are still residential areas which go from rows, to twins, to grand old Victorians.

For many years the Media Five Miler had been managed by the Delco Roadrunners Club. This year some kind of dispute arose and the borough decided to run the race without Delco.

It was not an auspicious beginning for the new group. The race began about 15 minutes late. The start as always was crowded but I got into a good pace quickly. It is a hilly course with sharp uphills and long gradually downs. Because it is two loops you know exactly how to pace for the finish.

But the finish area was disastrous: they had set up two chutes but were only using one. When I got to the finish there was already a back up in crossing the finish line – I think I only lost 20 seconds or so. But after getting thru the chute and circling back looking for some friends I saw that the line now extended more than 20 yards and people were bunching up rather that lining up single file.

There was no water immediately at the finish and the water was very hard to find.

I think the race director and his committee will need to work hard to gain back trust; otherwise the event could quickly whiter away. I heard several people say they wouldn’t come back.

Good things: the crowds were the best ever. Lots of house parties. Great crowds at the finish. On the course, there were plenty of water stops, most with plenty of volunteers. Lots of neighbors were out with hoses. Personally, I don’t like getting wet but it was a nice gesture.

Even with all the glitches I had a good time. It’s always nice to hear your name called out from the sidelines and I saw lots of friends both running and spectating. I like these evening runs and wish there were more of them.