Author Archives: deshon

First State Half Marathon standouts

27 Monday Mar 2023

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On a cool, windy Saturday, March 25, 319 participants finished the First State Half Marathon, held right here in Newark, Delaware. Among the age-group winners were two Creek Road Runners.

photo of Andrew Weber
photo of Doug Repetti

Placing 7th overall and winning the men’s 40-49 division was CRR Andrew Weber, clocking in at 1:20:30*, just a bit over six minutes per mile.

Winning the men’s 70-and-over division was CRR Doug Repetti. Repetti finished 180th overall and 113th among the men in 2:07:09*.

Of note was the the close finish of two other CRRs. CRR Steve Tague finished in 95th overall in 1:50:52*, just 15 seconds ahead of CRR Christina Parsons’ time of 1:51:07*.

*chip time

Editor’s Note: CRR Mark Deshon got an up-close-and-personal view of this rather unusual out-and-back race, as he handed out water and/or encouragement to the above-mentioned from the turnaround.

64-year-old “Rookie” of the Year

10 Friday Mar 2023

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photo of Bill with donut

Those of you who have been following the running exploits of CRR Bill Rose on CreekRoadRunners.org will know better than to believe that the word “rookie” in any way applies to him, both as a competitive runner and as a local age-group standout.

photo of PCVRC award plaque

OK, well Rose, who has enjoyed an extensive running and racing career, was honored last week by the Pike Creek Valley Running Club at its annual banquet as PCVRC’s 2022 Rookie of the Year. Not a bad return for someone who joined the club less than a year ago.

In recent years, Rose has done well at the shorter-distance races and was the stalwart captain of CRR’s successful Delaware Marathon 4-Person Relay teams.

We salute Rose, who recently retired from the University of Delaware and has been organizing CRR’s annual “Wring Out the Old, Ring in the New” trail run since 2019.

Congratulations and continued good running and racing!

Drafting off an Olympic champion

08 Wednesday Mar 2023

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photo of Sam Parsons being introduced in Berlin

Drafting is generally a good thing, provided the person you’re drafting off is someone you think will benefit you by doing so. But drafting at the back of the pack in a prestigious international indoor track event can be risky. This was certainly the case in a qualifying heat of the European 3,000m indoor championship held recently.

However, if you’re shadowing the recent 1,500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, it’s a good bet that you won’t be at the back of the pack at the end of the race. That’s precisely what Newark native and German champion CRR Sam Parsons did, having run on Ingebrigtsen’s heels at the very back for about 80% of the race. Ingebrigtsen ended up winning the 3,000m heat, but following his lead was enough for Parsons to finish third in the race, easily making it into one of the top six qualifying spots for the European final.

> See the heat 1 video

Parsons PRs at Millrose Games

15 Wednesday Feb 2023

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photo of Sam Parsons

The Armory in New York City was the venue for a great, indoor-banked-track battle in the men’s 3000m during the annual Millrose Games, which was broadcast on the NBC network.

Our own CRR Sam Parsons, coming off a smashing 5000m PR in Boston in January, this time set a personal best in the 3000m with a time of 7:39.94, placing eighth among a loaded international field. For those of you who like to see per-mile times, Parsons ran this race of nearly two miles at a 4:06.7/mile clip! Simply amazing.

At one point in the race, Parsons was positioned in sixth and leading the chase pack of runners that had been left behind by the lead group, but he was then passed by a couple runners in the final couple laps. He ended up just shy of 6.5 seconds behind the winner, Josh Kerr of Great Britain.

Parsons finished in 6th place in last year’s European Championships in the 5000m.

Parsons makes statement with big PR in the 5000

31 Tuesday Jan 2023

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photo of Sam Parsons in CRR sweatshirt

During the same indoor 5000m race on January 27th in which Nike-sponsored Woody Kincaid set a new American record, CRR Sam Parsons put down a big initial marker in his 2023 campaign by smashing his previous best time by some nine seconds! Parsons ran a new personal best of 13:12.78 in the John Thomas Terrier Classic Men’s 5000 Run at Boston University’s indoor facility.

Running under Adidas sponsorship, Parsons finished in 7th place out of a whopping 81 finishers, a full 21 seconds behind Kincaid’s record setting 12:51.61. Kincaid’s was not the only national record set that night, as Parsons set a new German national record with his stellar performance! (CRR Christine Parsons is German, and her son has been competing for Germany internationally for several years.)

The BU venue wasn’t a world-class track in the late 1970s when CRR Bruce Weber ran on the previous flat asphalt 10-lap-to-the-mile track in what was then called the Commonwealth Armory.

Parsons’ dad, CRR George Parsons, is now looking forward to seeing his son compete at the Millrose Games on February 11th in the Armory in New York City. The meet will be broadcast on NBC and streamed on FloTrack and Apple TV.

Creek Road Runners are proud.