After spending the past 4 years running races where roots and rocks abound, and half of the hills almost need to be crawled up. I decided to look for something nicer.  Some of the forum members, Runtraildc and possibly Xtreme, had mentioned the Delaware Triple Crown as being a nice race so I checked it out, it looked good so I signed up for the Triple Crown portion, a 1/2, followed by a 10k, finishing up with a 5k.

This past Thursday or Friday Jamie had tried to psychoanalyze us by asking 10 questions. One was "would you get up at 3 am for a run?"  Of course I replied something like, " I would never do something so stupid".   So on Saturday morning, I woke up at 3 am, crawled out of bed and headed to Delaware for a run .

The race is held in While Clay Creek State park in Delaware. Right on the De/Pa line and the park is in both states.  This place has some really nice trails. Smooth and fast with enough hills to keep things interesting.  I decided this would be the perfect terrain for my Hoka Mafates. A long enough distance that the padding would be nice, but smooth enough to not tear up the soles.

The first part of the triple crown, the 1/2, kicked off at  0730. The RD said something to the effect that they weren't sure what the actual mileage was due to route changes and GPS malfunctions, but they were guaranteeing it was at least 13.1 miles. I had thought about taking a camera along but decided not to since I was probably going to run the whole thing, especially the 1/2.   The first 1-2 miles were nice trail, some through the fields, some in the woods. Nice smooth trails that I could bomb the downhills. While there was a line it kept moving at a good pace, unlike most PA races.

One of the bridges that we ran over. I crossed this 4 times and can't figure out why It's designed in a zigzag fashion.  A lot of nice trail like this.

A picture of the Creek somewhere in the area that we crossed over. This is not the exact location. The actual location had more debris and a spot where the water was about knee deep and deceptively swift.  On the first trip through there was some woman there yelling at everyone to keep going, that there was no way to stay dry.  Uh, yea..... we get it but it would be nice to pause, catch your breath and pick a line. The bottom was very uneven requiring some caution to not fall or twist a ankle.  On the return trip I got a lot of small rocks in my shoes and wasted a good bit of time cleaning them out.

This was somewhat indicative of the trails on the other side of the creek.  More hilly and just ever so slightly technical but still quite fast.

I was running in a group of people that kept leapfrogging each other. At one point two of the guys were discussing that their GPS was showing that we were about 1/2 through the course. At this point I was showing 1:11 on my watch. So far so good. The way back was much of the same type trails. Stopped at one aid station, which was only water and Gatorade and tried to add some Tailwind to my bottle. It was a prepackaged pouch and it took me over a minute to open it. Couldn't tear it open and had to resort to gnawing on it . Finally got it open while the girls at the station were laughing with me about it. Seems like they were almost defeated several minutes earlier by a bag of potato chips .

If we had been at the 6.5 mile mark when the GPS units said we were, then the return was definitely longer. I ran strong but it seemed to take a lot longer. I finished that portion with several people who were only running the 1/2. I had started 10 minutes before the  full and Xtreme and he hadn't caught me yet. I was happy about that but not that they were lining up the 10k runners to head out. Watch showed something like 2:21 or 2:25.  DW filled my water bottle while I headed to the restroom. That took far too long, but was very necessary.  When I was ready to go the 10k had left and Xtreme apparently had come back in and headed out on his 2nd loop of the 1/2 course.

I headed out following the yellow pie plates marked for the 10k.  This was just a loop that was a repeat of the first half of the 1/2 marathon.

I think is a picture of one of the trails we used. It was on the return of the 1/2 and full course and the outbound on the 10k. Nice running.

Some real nice trail in the background.  Only I could partially roll a ankle on something like this . Really, just enough to make me turn the air blue and slow me for a mile or so, but nothing too bad. Still, it was flat. Stupid, weak, stretched out ankles .

DW had decided to walk the 5k. I figured that she would probably start before I got back, but I figured that there would be a lot of other walkers to keep her company and there would be no way she would be walking by herself.  Wrong. I was about a mile from finishing when the first 5k runner came blasting down the trail toward me. He was looking back trying to figure out if he was going right. He asked me and I said I had no idea as this was my first time on the trail. About that time I saw a bunch of other runners going up another road behind him.  I pointed that out to him and after a few choice words he cut up through the field to catch up. I didn't get too far and met DW.  At the back of the pack with no other walkers in sight.  Not what I wanted to see. I hustled back to the finish line as best as I could because now my legs were shot.

I headed back out and followed the red pie plates like we were supposed to until I got to the placed where I had seen the first runners then I went the way the crowd had. I think they were wrong. At the top of the hill was another  runner who seemed like she was lost. I think she was doing the 10k, had gotten in after the 5 k had started and was now lost. She headed down the right trail and I followed. Turned out that DW and two other walkers had gotten confused there as well and were pointed in the right direction by a marathoner. The two other walkers were still there talking with another lady that wasn't doing the race.  By this time my legs were shot and I hobbled along for about a mile until I caught up with DW. The plan had been for me to keep running, finish then come back and walk with her.  Since she was alone and I was hurting I simply walked the rest of the way with her.

The 1/2 course seemed long, the 10k short and the 5k very long, but that may have been due to me walking so much of it. DW thought it was long as well as she should have been able to walk it in a hour and it took about 1:10 for her to do it.

This is a very nice race with great, smooth, fast trails. It actually beat me up more than a central PA race of the same distance would have. The reason is simple. So much more of this was runnable that my legs simply were not used to that much sustained running.

The biggest complaint that I would have is that the course markings closer to the start finish line were a little confusing, especially for the 5k. A couple of volunteers posted at two different places would have helped a lot.  It also would have helped if there would have been someone at the start/finish line to direct the runners doing multiple races.  Based on where I saw some runners and the different distances that they were doing, I think some ran further and some may have become confused and taken the wrong trails back.  Not a big issue and I'll keep this one on my radar for next year.

Nice job dreamer, and congrats to DW for the 5k+ walk.

Ironmasters use to have 3 different race distances, and cut it back to 2 (50k and 15k) because it lessened the confusion from all of the markings.

Congrats!!  Nice looking trails.

Great job Dreamer! Totally hear you on the runnable trail thing.. Sometimes in those instances were there really are no mountains to hike up you just have to "invent" a hill!  haha..I just say outloud to anyone who cares to listen "well this looks like a great place for a hill" and I start walking! LOL

You're such a gentleman to walk it in with DW.  

Thanks for sharing!

They finally posted the finishing times. No times for the half, apparently the stopwatch broke.  Everything else had times posted.  I finished 14/20 in the Triple Crown. They don't score that based on times so not having times for the half didn't matter. I really wasn't  looking for a time anyway, just wanted to run on nice trails.

Nice Picture of the water crossing.

Nice picture of the water crossing.  The water at the far side was swifter than it appeared.

Not sure how people could run through here as the bottom was really uneven.

Water phobia? Allergic to water? Maybe protecting cuts?   Not making fun of her but found this interesting.  At least she's running it and not sitting on a couch watching TV.

RD explaining the course to the marathoners.

Go that way 10kers, follow the pie plates, signs, arrows and maybe squirrels.

After looking at the finishing times and orders I'm still confused. There were people that apparently hiked the 10k, I saw them when they were on the way back in and I was headed out on the 5k. The 10k left 5-10 minutes before I did, yet I never passed some of the slow ones. So did I go the wrong way or did they?  Maybe they were at the first aid station and I didn't realize it.  All I know is I followed the yellow plates marked 10k and didn't really pass anyone .

I guess the only way to figure it out is to go back and run it next year . It's on my day off so that's a possibility.

XT sighting in the marathoner photo. (Look through the RD's arm and he's in orange shirt, no hat.)

I've seen the bag trick before. Part of the fun is running through the water.