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After my disastrous Boston, I figured I was back to 100%, and ready to get back on the horse, so to speak. I scheduled Delaware last minute, booked flight and hotel, and returned to my standard "up to speed" training program.

There were a number of flaws in my thinking, apparently.

Pre-race, the only interesting thing was the ING-Pasta/Carbo Load Dinner. They served a cooked-to-order pasta meal, as good as served in any nice Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, the serving sizes were tiny (well, restaurant size), instead of pre-race size. The line was, well, continuous, with people getting their little bowl, and getting back in line.

The course was a 4-loop out-and back course, with the runners passing most points on the course 8 times. Yuck. The portion along the riverwalk was nice the first couple of times.

From the start, the heat and humidity got to all of us. I was having breathing problems and chest pains, and heard others complaining about it as well. I would have stopped at medical but there was only one (sure, I passed it 8 times), and they weren't close enough to the course for a quick eval.

I was able to run a sub-10 thru the half, and actually, my splits were nearly identical to Boston's.

I ran into Eco-Marathoner, Hajimi Nishi again, whom I met in Tokyo, and saw again in Deadwood. He is up to 351 marathons.

The race had put up little signs around the course, each having the runner's name, state, and number of marathons listed on it. Nice touch.