02 Sunday Feb 2020
CRR Matt Robinson, self-proclaimed CEO of Creek Road Runners and professor of sport management at the University of Delaware, has been named to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Science Board by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. This council is made up of academic and medical experts who will provide a solid scientific foundation in youth sports research.
You go, Matt!
16 Saturday Nov 2019
Creek Road Runners are proud to recognize one of its own, CRR Sue Barton, as a world champion!
A longtime triathlete, Barton has recently become involved in the CrossFit craze—billed as the “sport of fitness.” Competing for the team UD CrossFit, the 60-year-old Barton recently bested 635 other women worldwide in the 60-69 age group within the slightly easier “scaled” (as opposed to the “prescribed” or “Rx”) category in the CrossFit Games, held over a five-week period from October 11 to November 8 all over the world in separate CrossFit venues.
The CrossFit Games involved five events (workouts) meant to challenge one’s strength, agility, and stamina within a timed and judge-certified environment. Each workout takes place over the period of a weekend and is announced on a Thursday.
As in a cross-country meet, the lowest score combining five workout places is the winner. Barton’s total of 79 points bettered American women who placed second with 88 points and third with 99 points, respectively. She was tops in the world in the third workout, which certainly gave her a good edge on the title.
Other Creek Road Runners who competed in the Rx open division for the UD CrossFit team, which placed 3,565th worldwide and 10th among teams within the state of Delaware, included CRR Andrew Weber, CRR Barret Michalec, and CRR Anja Leefeldt. Weber, who also certified four of Barton’s five workouts, placed 4th among the 16 male UD CrossFit competitors in the Rx division; Michalec placed 12th. Leefeldt was 10th among the UD CrossFit women in the Rx division.
The five workouts included:
Workout One (Time cap: 15 minutes)
10 rounds for time of:
8 ground-to-overheads, 45 lb.
10 bar-facing burpees
Workout Two (Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:)
4 dumbbell thrusters
6 sit-ups
24 single-unders
15-lb. dumbbells
Workout Three (For time; Time cap: 9 min.)
21 deadlifts, 80 lb.
21 hand-release knee push-ups
15 deadlifts, 80 lb.
15 hand-release knee push-ups
9 deadlifts, 80 lb.
9 hand-release knee push-ups
21 deadlifts, 105 lb.
50-ft. bear crawl
15 deadlifts, 105 lb.
50-ft. bear crawl
9 deadlifts, 105 lb.
50-ft. bear crawl
Workout Four (For time; Time cap: 20 min.)
30 box jumps, 16 in.
15 clean and jerks, 35 lb.
30 box jumps, 16 in.
15 clean and jerks, 45 lb.
30 box jumps, 16 in.
10 clean and jerks, 65 lb.
30 medicine-ball step-ups, 14 lb.
10 clean and jerks, 75 lb.
30 medicine-ball step-ups, 14 lb.
5 clean and jerks, 85 lb.
30 medicine-ball step-ups, 14 lb.
5 clean and jerks, 105 lb.
Workout Five (For time, partitioned in any way; Time cap: 20 min.)
40 jumping chest-to-bar pull-ups
80-cal. row
120 wall-ball shots, 10-lb. ball to 8 ft.
Here are Barton’s scores and world ranking among 60-69-yr.-olds in each of the five CrossFit Games competitive workouts (click to see larger view).
Barton is a professor and Extension Specialist in plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware.
03 Thursday Oct 2019
CRR Stuart Binder-Macleod, a professor in the University of Delaware’s No. 1–nationally ranked physical therapy program, has received the institution’s highest faculty honor—the prestigious Francis Alison Faculty Award—for 2019.
The annual award recognizes faculty who best exemplify the qualities of “scholar-schoolmaster” embodied by the Rev. Dr. Francis Alison, the founder of the school that eventually became UD. The honor includes a $10,000 prize, and all recipients are inducted into the Alison Society, which promotes academic excellence on campus.
During his 31 years at the University of Delaware, Binder-Macleod helped make UD’s physical therapy program among the best in the nation and he has been running out on Creek Road throughout these same years.
Hearty congratulations!
29 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in Kudos, News, Race Results
Sam Parsons competes in Doha, Qatar, among the world’s best in one of the 5,000m semifinals.
Newark, Del., native Sam Parsons, son of CRR George Parsons and CRR Christina Parsons, has had quite a running year in 2019, capped off by his competing (for Germany) in the World Track & Field Championships this past weekend in Doha, Qatar.
Competing in the 5,000m race as the German national 3,000m champion (he has dual citizenship), Parsons did not qualify for the final, but he managed to run the 24th best time (13:38.53) at this distance in the semifinals among the world’s elite middle-distance runners, finishing 13th in the second semi, just 13 seconds off of a qualifying time.
With regard to the younger Parsons’ experience at the World Championships, his father noted, “He was [just] happy to be here.” About his son’s finishing 24th overall in an attempt to qualify for the finals, the proud elder Parsons said, “I’ll take it!”
Sam Parsons makes eye contact with a rather surprised Ethiopian competitor at the World Championships in Doha.
On Sept. 8, as a run-up to his trip to Doha, Parsons ran a personal best road mile in the prestigious and nationally televised Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City. He led the professional field at the half-mile post (by a wide margin) and collected a $1,000 bonus for having done so, as he had done in 2018 in the same race. Though other runners caught and passed him later in the race, placing him 10th overall, he ran a 3:55.0, smashing his previous best by nearly three seconds and trailing the winner by less than four seconds.
Parsons’ other notable personal bests this calendar year include:
Parsons runs for the Boulder, Colo.–based Tinman Elite professional running team. Prior to a successful collegiate running career at North Carolina State, he ran cross country and track in high school locally for The Tatnall School.
03 Wednesday Apr 2019
You’ve heard of the song, “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” Well, this isn’t what we’re talking about here. Let’s just call it “the soil beneath his shoes.”
CRR Vic Kaliakin, a civil engineering professor at the University of Delaware, was recently honored with an award for the best technical paper in 2018 by the journal Transportation Infrastructure Geotechnology for his contributions to the research of soil modeling.
No doubt, having put in thousands of miles on Creek Road, Kaliakin has seen lots of soil on the road after storms. He’s also picked up a lot on the soles of his shoes over the years of running at Fair Hill on Dec. 31 and portions of the Pen-Del trail north of Creek Road in neighboring Pennsylvania, where he lives. Of course, this has little to do with his geotechnical expertise… or does it?
Kudos to you, Vic.
