It’s certainly the rare day, even at age 56, when CRR Mark Deshon gets beaten by eight other Creek Road Runners in a 5K. That’s what happened today, though, at the Blue Hen 5K.  We’ll get to the extenuating circumstances in a bit.

What was great about this race is how well we old-timers did as a collective, beginning with the ever-impressive CRR Jay Coughenour, who is nursing an injury but was still able to run a comfortable (for him anyway) 18:35, coming in 4th overall. He won the 40-49 age group.  CRR Bill Rose left Mark by the wayside somewhere along the Hall Trail on his way to a 50-59 age group win and a 10th-place overall finish, in a super 19:23.  Taking third in that same category was CRR Tripp Shenton in 22:53.  Still going, just like the Eveready Energizer Bunny, CRR Bob Taggart won the 70-and-over group in 24:11.

On the female side, last year’s woman’s winner CRR Jeanine Radice successfully defended her crown in this year’s race with a 19:47, even without having done any speedwork.  Jeanine finished 12th overall.  CRR Ann Jornlin won the 50-59 age group with an impressive 25:07.  Good job, both of you!

Oh, yeah.  Back to Mark.  Well, let’s just say that the 19:29 he turned in on May 6 came back to bite him, the result of which was that he had strained an achilles tendon.  This day he could only go at that pace for just less than two miles before the pain came back (and Bill Rose passed him).  This would explain the rather unusual finishing time in the photo.  Hey, at least he beat Delaware marathon legend Doug White (at right in photo), though Doug is over 70.

Congratulations to the winners and every Creek Road Runner who came out.