Coastal Delaware Running Festival completes four races over two days
A combined 3,400 finishers spread across four race distances over a warm two-day weekend highlighted the 2023 Coastal Delaware Running Festival April 14-16 in Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach.
The racing began with a Saturday morning 5K in Dewey, leaving from McKinley Avenue with 859 eventual finishers.
There was a special challenge run category that included the Tower Challenge (5K and marathon), Fort Miles Challenge (5K and half marathon) and Cape Challenge (5K and 9K).
There were more colorful bibs flashing than at a babies’ birthday party of connected cousins. All bibs contained a computer chip that read and recorded race time instantaneously when crossing over a rubber mat at the finish. The chip also allowed each runner's exact location to be tracked.
Sunday morning events started on the Rehoboth Boardwalk, beginning with the marathon at 7 a.m. (656 finishers), then moving into the 9K at 7:20 (624 runners) and half-marathon at 7:40 (1,244 runners).
Winning the 5K was Alex Loper, 35, of Abingdon, Md., in 16:01. Kelly McKee, 17, of Seattle, Wash., was the first female in 20:43. Masters winners were Scott Wallace, 43, of New Market, Md., in 16:23, and Sharon Rubin, 46, of Cary, N.C., in 22:25.
Matt Sparacino, 45, of Harrington was the overall winner in the 9K (5.59 miles) in 34:28. Stacy Pond, 35, of Milan, Pa., was the first female in 39:43. The male masters winner was Sean Gilligan, 49, of Middletown in 38:59, while the female masters winner was Christy Gunville of Arlington, Va., in 44:11.
Bob Yonick, 39, of Camp Hill, Pa., won the half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 1:18:17. Erin Fitzgerald, 42, of Middletown was the first female finisher in 1:24:10. Winning the masters races were Jeff Banks, 40, of Bear in 1:28:13, and Lauren James, 41, of Lewes in 1:34:56.
Winning the marathon (26.2 miles) was Dylan Smiley, 24, of Rehoboth Beach in 2:27.20. Erica Green, 33, of Collingswood, N.J., was the female winner in 2:58:15. Dan Klein, 45, of Chalfont, Pa., was the male masters winner in 3:00:24, while Dayna DaLauro, 42, of Lancaster, Pa., was the female masters winner in 3:31:59.
The user-friendly website codelrun.com features all race results that can be broken down into subcategories.
