I love a good no-frills race. Since I run so much and have been running for so long, I have a lot of running stuff. My favorite parts of a race are testing myself on the closed roads (or trails) and enjoying the atmosphere. A free race is an added perk — and free races seem to be less common nowadays.
I’ve had conflicts in the past, so I was excited to be able to make it to this year’s Tortoise & Hare Dare 5K on April 18. The 29th annual event was put on by the Worcester County Health Department at Pocomoke River State Park: Shad Landing, which is between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City. While I’m quite familiar with the Milburn Landing part of the park, from the Algonquin 50K, and I’ve run on the Blades trails, I don’t think I’d actually been to Shad Landing before.
I signed up for the free race online a few weeks beforehand, then arrived that morning. I checked in, and there were no bibs needed — even more no-frills than I expected! I also wasn’t one of the first 100 to register, so I didn’t get one of the free T-shirts, but as I said, I really didn’t need to come away with anything other than hopefully a great race time.
In March, I ran a solo 5K on the Ocean City Boardwalk in 29:27 — which was faster than all my 2025 times — so I was hoping to beat that at this race. I’ve been hovering right around 30 minutes for a little while. I ended up with two times for the 5K distance that were sub-30 in 2025, but I feel like I’ve gotten a bit faster this year and was coming off a strong race at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run.
I met up with some Eastern Shore Running Club friends before the race, and there was also a group warm-up. Then, we were off. Without bibs, the race would not be officially timed, but of course, I had my watch.
While the park is woodsy, the race was all on the roads, mostly a large loop around the park. There were some smaller loops that were part of the course, two of which had you cross over the course to get back to the loop, but with the number of runners, it was OK. I was surprised to actually notice some small rolling hills throughout the course. I would still consider the race to be pretty flat, but my watch logged 91 feet of elevation gain and 66 feet of descent. I realize that’s not a lot, but it is not as flat as can be, like the Boardwalk (for that unofficial 5K, my watch logged 12 feet of gain and 7 feet of descent).
I ran the first mile in 9:34, with the next mile at 9:43 — right around what I would need for a sub-30 finish. During the last mile, though, I took a brief walk break. There’s nothing wrong with walk breaks, and I like them, but planned walk breaks are preferred to unplanned — I just need to walk! — walk breaks.
My friend Anna passed me during the walk break. I figured she would probably be on pace to finish in under 30 minutes, but I couldn’t catch up to her when I started running again.
When I crossed the finish line, I was just short of 3.11 miles on my watch, so I ran till I hit that distance and finished with a time of 30:30. Though I’d been hoping for sub-30, this was still a fast run for me, and it’s possible my legs hadn’t fully recovered from Cherry Blossom six days prior.
I hung around a bit and enjoyed water and a snack. There were a few vendors set up after the race, including TidalHealth, where I work. This was my first of three spring 5Ks, one of which I ran this past Saturday and another of which is coming up this Saturday. Stay tuned!
Here were some of ESRC’s runners before and after the race.
Splits
Mile 1: 9:34
Mile 2: 9:43
Mile 3: 10:06
Last bit (.12): 1:05 (9:16/mile pace)
Final time: 30:30 for 3.12 miles; 9:47/mile pace
She Runs by the Seashore 