Hi Delco RRC Caesar Rodney Team,

A message was sent from Lin-Mark Sports with a link to individual waiver forms. I hope all of you received, signed, and returned them. If you didn't receive the message, here is the important part.
Print out the attached waiver form. (Please click here http://www.lin-mark.com/ala/crteammemberwaiver.pdf) to access the waiver. (For some email programs you may need to copy/paste this link into your web browser)

2. Complete and sign.
3. Either scan and email to sdenardo@lunginfo.org, fax to Sue DeNardo at 1-800-584-0174, or mail to the address on the form.

4. All waivers must be received by Friday, March 16.

If you have any questions, please call Sue at 302-737-6414 X17. Thank you! See you in a few weeks.

I heard Chrissy Ribble got brownie points from race director.

If you have any questions, contact me or Sue DeNardo.

GO DELCO !!!!

Dennis Tate
dktate1@juno.com

ALSO...

Paul and Mindy Isaac would like to invite everyone to his home after the race beginning about 4pm for an after-race party.  Their address is 31 King Avenue, Folcroft, PA 19032.  His email address is pauljisaac@yahoo.com and his phone number is 484-494-5102.

Matt Morse will be running in the Back on My Feet 20in24 Ultramarathon and he needs your support to help raise funds for this wonderful organization. Their main sponsor, Stroehmann will be matching funds for the month of March. Here is their pledge: 

As college hoops play on, Back on My Feet and title sponsor Stroehmann are teaming up to bring March Madness to the Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24 Challenge (20in24) in Philadelphia. For every registration fee or fundraising donation made this month, Stroehmann will match up to $25,000 in donations to BoMF!

Matt's fund raising page can be found at the following link, http://20in24.com/make-a-donation.html?kwoAdvocateId=2JBK7D1

Editor's Note:  Thank you Bob Koerner.  I am grateful that you took the time to write and submit an article to the Club's email.  Anyone else?

Background

            I have been road running since 1972.  The beginning event was the 4th of July "fun-run" that Byron Mundy held at Memorial Park in Springfield in which all participants got a blue ribbon and also found that they were quite out of shape, at least out of aerobic-shape.  This was the case for wife Paula and I and our three young children (Mike, George and Pauline, ages 12, 10, and 8, respectively) as well.  This specific event, however, started us running with many like minded friends; for example, all of the rapidly growing Delco RRC, and continues to date for many of us.  My personal log is about 65,000 miles over 40 years or 1625 miles/year, hence 4.5 miles/day.  Some running friends have even more... many more!  My times were rarely medal-winners and I have generally been in the middle-of-the-pack.  The races, however, usually ended with a degree of satisfaction and generated many tales from observations made enroute.  It is one particular set of observations that I would like to share with you readers in this brief article.

            At the outset, if you truly don't care about your personal race times then don't read any further.  Indeed, if your running is for camaraderie, political discussions, sight-seeing, smelling-the-roses, general health-and-fitness, etc., then go-for-it!  However, I suspect many of you do look at your times and then you might care to read further.

            As the title suggests, the article is focused on running the shortest distances between any two points, i.e., "running the tangents".  Intrinsically, everyone knows to take the inside lane on a quarter-mile high school or college track.  It's intuitively shorter, but how much so is quite another matter.  That said, when people run on streets they seem to disassociate and wander.  Furthermore, any time you wander off of the tangents you are lengthening the course.  The more curves and corners that the course has the more time you are losing, for example;

(a)    the 5 km Hero's Run in Springfield has 12 turns,

(b)   the 5 mi Media Run has 24 turns, and

(c)    the 10 mi Broad Street Run has essentially no turns (okay, four unavoidably tight ones around City Hall).

Thus, tangent running pays off the most at the Hero's and Media Run and the least at Broad Street.  Occasionally, you do see people running up on sidewalks or even across lawns!!!  Of course that's cheating, so we'll stay within the curb lines but we'll take advantage of every inch that's available within those boundaries.  Let's see now what the distances traveled indicate for various nonlinear scenarios.

Pattern 1 - Circular Running on 90° Curves

            My hypothetical corner is a 90° bend with the street bounded by a standard curb-to-curb distance of 24 ft. width.  Four runners (A, B, C and D) are being considered; one running tight along the inner curb, one 6 ft. from it (according to some race directors that's how race courses are actually measured), one directly in the middle of the street, and one at the outer curb; see Figure 1. 

Figure 1 - Circular Running for 90° Curves.

Using an inner radius of 25 ft. and having the four runners going on 90° circular arcs as shown to points A', B', C' and D', it is straightforward to calculate the actual distance the four runners have to go to reach their destinations.  The information (compared to Runner AA') is given in Table 1(a).

Table 1(a) - 90° Curve With 25 ft. Inner Radius

Thus, runner D in going to D' goes just about twice as far as runner A in going to A'.  For a course like Media with 24 curves that's an extra 912 ft. or 0.17 mile!

            Using the same 90° but now with a much greater radius, e.g., one with a 100 ft. inner radius, the comparable numbers come out as given in Table 1(b).

Table 1(b) - 90° Curve With 100 ft. Inner Radius

Comparing these two tables you can see that the extra distances are the same and independent of the curvature but the extra percentages are much greater for the tight curves.  Curves of less or greater than 90° would produce less or more than the above extra distances.

Pattern 2 - Tangential Running on a 90° Curve

            Let's now focus completely on our runner "D" who starts out at the far side of the street (using the 25 ft. inner radius) as shown in Figure 2.  There are four choices to reach his/her destination D', C', B' or A' at the other end of the curve.  Stated differently, this runner is getting smarter, but still starting out with a distinct disadvantage.  Table 2 gives the resulting distance and percentage data based compared to the poorest pattern, namely DD'.

Figure 2 - Tangential Running Options for Runner-D

Table 2 - 90° Tangential Running with a 25 ft. Inner Radius

It is seen that in cutting the tangent both the distance is decreased and by switching curb sides completely, a 27% decrease is realized.  Again, curves with other configurations would produce less or more than the above.

Pattern 3- Random Running on a S-Curve

As shown in Figure 3, an S-curve is two curves in close proximity to one another but oriented in the same direction.  It is shown here as two 90° curves connected by a 50 ft. linear road segment.  In suburban running this is a very common situation and one where tangent running is very efficient.  We again have our four runners (A, B, C and D) entering the first curve as indicated, i.e., on the inner curb, 6 ft. from it, 12 ft. from it and on the outer curb, 24 ft. away from the inner curb.

Tangential Running on an S-Curve

As shown in Figure 3, an S-curve is two curves in close proximity to one another going in different directions.  It is shown here as two 90° curves separated by a 50' linear road segment.  In suburban road running this is a very common occurrence.  We again have our four runners (A, B, C, D) entering the first curve as originally indicated, i.e., on the inner curb, 6 ft. from it, 12 ft. from it and on the outer curb 24 ft. away from the inner curb.

Figure 3 - Randon Running on an S-shaped Curve

            Runner A hugs the first curve and then takes a direct tangent to the second curve and then hugs it to reach point A'.  Runner B maintains the 6 ft. distance from each inner curve ending at B'.  Runner C maintains the 12 ft. distances and essentially runs along the centerline of the entire street to point C'.  (How many times have you seen someone doing exactly that, i.e., running on the top of the white centerline stripe?)  Runner D sort of meanders along the greatest distance eventually arriving at point D'.  The data in Table 3 revels the extra distance and percentages traveled using Runner AA' as the base line, i.e., the smartest tangent runner...

Table 3 - Random Running on an S-Curve

Pattern 4 - Tangential Running on an S-Curve

            We again have our S-curve consisting of two 25 ft. radii 90° curves with a 50 ft. linear segment connecting them.  Runners A, B, C and D are in their standard beginning positions as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - Tangential Running on an S-shaped Curve

All four runners now sense to hug the inside of the first curb and then head straight on the tangent for the next (and alternating) inside curb.  Now they are all "running the tangent".  Coming out of the second curve, however, they go back to their old ways ending up at A', B', C' and D', respectively.  Table 4 gives each of their distances covered, compared to AA', the smartest of the bunch.  Note that the extra distances and percentages from Runners B, C and D are much improved of those given in Table 3.

Table 4 - Tangential Running on an S-Curve

            In conclusion, the variations on this tangent theme are limitless.  As you suspect by now each time you come out of a curve (hopefully being properly positioned on the inside curb) you should head in a perfectly straight line to the inside curb of the next curve.  By so doing you will be running the shortest overall race distance.  In this regard you are indeed "running-the-tangents".

Disclaimer

            As you all know, car and truck drivers are taught to stay in their respective lanes irrespective of street curves of any type.  (Drivers Ed instructors simply don't teach tangent-driving.)  This is a complete disconnect with you as a now die-hard tangent road runner trying to take advantage of the course as described herein.  For example, as you are running in traffic and attempting to nudge cars and trucks out of your ideal tangent trajectory, you will lose.  If you do get hit, don't blame me!

The Tyler Trail Run is going to have an early number pickup opportunity from 5-8PM on Thursday, March 29, at the Running Place, 3548 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, PA 19073. 610-353-8826.  www.therunningplace.com. Come in, visit and shop with the knowledgeable staff. As an extra benefit, every runner picking up a number that evening receives a free pair of Feetures!© performance socks. Sorry, must pick up number that night to get the socks. Regular number pickup begins at 8AM on race day, Saturday, March 31, at the Tyler Arboretum at 515 Painter Road in Media. All the runners will receive their commemorative gym bags and garden shrubs on race day

Baked goods (home made or store bought) are needed to serve the volunteers and runners.  If you like to bake and wish to donate your time and baking skills, please contact Shirley Weber at

weber720@comcast.net.

Volunteers to work the course are also needed.  If interested, please contact Denise Burgese at d.nise@verizon.net. 

Hello Runners, 

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Matt Frazier of No Meat Athlete 

From the Zen Habits Blog

Each and every one of us, as a human being, is hardwired to choose the path of least resistance. We're programmed to conserve energy for when we might need it and to avoid risk wherever possible, because that's what it took for our ancestors to survive (and reproduce) in a world full of unknown dangers.

One of our club members, Paul Isaac is directing a race in Collingdale this April 15th.  He is looking for support to help make this a great event for Collingdale.  Collingdale used to have races years ago so its nice to see this event making a come back.  Volunteers are needed for registration, handing out t-shirts, course marshalls and water stations.  I'm sure others will be needed so you'll be seeing this request again.

Paul is also looking for volunteers to be on the Race Committee.  Help him with doing some of the typical work that is needed in putting a race on.  Helping with enlisting Sponsors, Ordering T-shirts and Award Medals/Trophies, etc.

The race is posted on our web site so if you don't want to volunteer and want to run (or do both), the info is there for you.

Reach out to Paul at 484-540-7192 or pauljisaac@yahoo.com.