On Thanksgiving morning, two Creek Road Runners dominated the 60-69 age group in the 46th Annual Thanksgiving Day MS races in Wilmington.
CRR Bruce Weber, back in town to run in his former “back yard,” bested the men in the 60-69 category in the 10K in 43:27 (chip time). Weber finished 16th overall.
Among the 60-69 women in the 5K, CRR Mary Braun won her second age group crown within a week in 28:33 (chip time), following her Turkey Trot win on the previous Saturday.
Two Creek Road Runners placed in Newark’s annual Turkey Trot 5K, held on Saturday, November 23. The Newark Turkey Trot, which has now been contested for more than 50 years, is Delaware’s oldest annual running event.
CRR Mary Braun won the 60-64 age group with a time of 28:21*. She finished 115th overall and 32nd among all women runners.
Still running and racing, 80-year-old CRR Doug Ridge placed 2nd among the 70-and-overs in a time of 32:56*, finishing 206th overall and 141st among the men.
CRR Steve Goodwin is in Paris and, like he has done for previous Olympic Games, is leading a group from the University of Delaware on a grand adventure of sport and culture, as part of the University’s Study Abroad program.
In the 70-74 age group, CRR Diane Kukich is still training daily and racing occasionally…and nearly always winning. Her racing muse is her daughter, Christine, a Baltimore resident who has taken up running and racing pretty seriously over the past decade.
They register for and compete in races together, which, though they each run at their own pace, gives them good mother-daughter time. This is especially true when they both bring home hardware, which, depending on the race, is becoming more commonplace.
Last weekend, the Kukich women competed in the Coastal Delaware Running Festival.
The elder ran in the Cape Challenge, which included a 5K in Dewey Beach on Saturday and a 9K in Rehoboth Beach on Sunday. She won the 70-74 age group in both events with times of 26:43 and 50:12, respectively.
Christine did the Fort Miles Challenge, which included the 5K on Saturday plus a half-marathon on Sunday. Not to go home empty-handed, she placed second among her 30-34 age-group peers in the 5K in 22:50 and fourth in the half (missing third place by one second) in 1:44:08.
A year ago this month, CRR Matt Robinson, “self-appointed CEO” of the Creek Road Runners, graduated from the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program. In the photo above, he is being congratulated by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
Robinson heads the University of Delaware’s Community Engagement Initiative, but he has spent the last 20 years doing sport development work funded by the U.S. Department of State, the IOC, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. He has collaborated with the NBA, FIFA, U.S. Soccer, and the Olympic committees of multiple countries.
Robinson leads the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program (ICECP), which has trained more than 400 coaches from 120 countries in 25 sports. He is a sought-after speaker on the topic of sport diplomacy, athlete and sport development, and developing legacy plans for cities and countries that host major international sporting events.
Plus, Robinson has always been a staunch supporter of running, and particularly the Creek Road Runners. Congratulations to our “CEO.”
Photo courtesy of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee
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