This evening, while ripping through my Facebook feed, I had one of those Throwback Thursday moments.  I was stopped by a post titled “Highway One 5K dedicated to memory of Doug White.”

Since Kim and I haven’t been back to the Delaware beaches in few years, I was unaware that Doug White had died of a cerebral hemorrhage in December of 2016.  Kim and I met Doug in 2014 when we were running a lot of races and spending some time at the beach in South Bethany.

Here is a blog post I wrote in September of 2014:

Tomorrow is the last race of the Ten Sisters race series for this summer. The series will conclude with the Barry P. Lister Bottle and Cork 10 Miler and 5K in Dewey Beach. Kim and I are signed up to do the 10 miler and we are sweating it. We haven’t done more than a 10K since the Spring.

My cousin Art messaged me this week. He has been following my posts and said I should talk to his son Charles because he is preparing for a 100 mile race next weekend in Colorado.

Excuse me? Hey Artie, your finger must have slipped buddy! You added an extra 0 on there by mistake! You said 100 miles (chuckle); we are talking about sweating 10 milers here!

 Nope………no finger slips, 100 miles.

 Somehow I don’t associate 100 miles with running races. I relate it more to articles in travel magazines like “Ten Great Day Trips Less than 100 Miles from D.C. by Car” or something like that.

 I can’t imagine putting on my running shoes on a Saturday morning and saying to Kim:

“Hey honey, I am going to RUN over to my mother’s, don’t wait up.”

 I live in Herndon, Virginia.

My mother lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Next Friday, my cousin’s son Charles will participate in the Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs Colorado and run 100 miles. The following is from the Run Rabbit Run website:

“These are not beginner’s runs. The uphills and downhills are fairly steep. You’ll spend a lot of time at an altitude of nearly two miles. There may be snow, rain, sleet, wind, or then again, it may be hot. Please do not try to run this course if you’re not completely prepared.”

No kidding!

 

We love the running community out here at the beach. We ran into some old friends and expanded our cast of characters more. We saw Ambrosia Mike; and Joey Noodles, who is from New York City and comes to Rehoboth every weekend; and Leo who we met at the Irish Eyes race in Lewes in June.

And then there is 72 year old Doug White. Doug decided 41 years ago he wanted to run the Boston Marathon and hasn’t stopped since. He has run 41 consecutive Boston Marathons. He was planning to stop at 40 but with the tragedy of last year’s race, had to go back.

“Last year was just not the time to end my streak,” he said. “It just wasn’t right.”

 

Amazing.

One hundred mile races? 

Forty one consecutive Boston Marathons? 

And Kim and I are trying to figure out if we should opt out of the 10 miler and just run the 5K? 

Dictionary.com defines “wimpish” as an adjective that means “Having the traits of a wimp; soft; weak” 

What’s it going to be, wimps?

 

I guess we will find out tomorrow.

 

I remember Doug as a really nice guy, eager to talk, and easy to like.

After the race, upon receiving his award for winning his age category, he promptly gave the glass to Kim, explaining he had enough of these awards already.  Doug went on, by the way, to run forty three Boston Marathons in a row before the 2011 Delaware Sports Hall of Fame inductee passed away at the age of 74.

 

This evening we also had the honor of remembering another great athlete close to our hearts.  Tonight was the Herndon High School awards ceremony where Kim presented the Donny Soberdash Athletic Scholarship to two young athletes who displayed a similar drive to play three sports and also manage to be a good student and citizen outside of athletics.

Donny packed a lot of sports into his 15 years.  His freshman year he played football, wrestled, and soccer for Herndon High while managing travel soccer, indoor soccer, and league basketball in his spare time. He ran some races too though he never ran a marathon, but I can tell you it was like running a marathon trying to keep up with him.

So,  on this Throwback Thursday, we honor the lives of two great athletes now gone, our Donny and Doug White.

And congratulations to Riley Ball and Azhar Ramadham, the young woman and young man who helped to keep Donny’s competitive spirit alive by earning this year’s Donny Soberdash Athletic Scholarships.

 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we ran the 10 miler.