I always like to be able to run a 5K in less than 30 minutes. While I did do it this year on a solo run on the Ocean City Boardwalk, the time had eluded me so far for 2026 in an official race. On May 16 at the Ben Layton 5K at the Salisbury City Park, I was able to run that sub-30 time.
This was the fourth year in a row I ran the Ben Layton 5K, which benefits maintenance of the Ben’s Red Swings playground and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It’s always a fun race with a ton of door prizes — and pies from The Ugly Pie for overall and age group winners, which I was pretty sure I would not be fast enough to earn (and of course, I was correct).
For the second year in a row, the Eastern Shore Running Club won for the largest team. Last year, we took home a $100 Island Creamery gift card, and this year, we took home a $100 Two Scoops gift card. We need to set up our gathering at Two Scoops soon!
Since I live so close to the start, I walked down from my house with Diana, who had parked nearby. We got our race socks — the swag item (which I love, as I have so many shirts) — brought them back up, and then walked back to the start.
I had just run the Salisbury Paramedic Foundation 5K the prior weekend and felt pretty good about the opportunity to run a sub-30 5K at Ben Layton.
The course starts right next to Ben’s Red Swings, then heads through the Salisbury Zoo and around the Salisbury City Park, where I run all the time. I kept a relatively consistent pace throughout, running the first mile in 9:23, the second in 9:46, the third in 9:51 and the last bit in 57.8 seconds (8:13 pace).
It was a challenging run for me, but it paid off, with a time of 29:37. My watch wasn’t quite at 3.11 miles when I crossed the finish line (others’ were), so I kept running till I hit that and ended up with 29:58 on my watch (29:58.5, so it shows up as 29:59 in the photo). I was fifth of 15 in my female 30-39 age group.
There’s always plenty of food at the end, and my favorite part of the food/drink buffet is cold brew from Rise Up. There are also tons of numbers called out for door prizes — so many that it seems like almost everyone wins something. If your number is called, you get to pick a prize from a table. Mine was called, and I went home with a bag of coffee and sticker from Rise Up.
This was another fun event for a great cause. It’s awesome that the memory of Ben Layton has been kept alive so long through the playground and this annual event. Ben died at age 4 in 2002 of leukemia; learn more about him here.
Splits
Mile 1: 9:23
Mile 2: 9:46
Mile 3: 9:51
Last bit (.12 on watch): 57.8 (8:13 pace)
Final on watch: 29:58 / 9:37 pace; final on results: 29:37 / 9:34 pace
She Runs by the Seashore 