From Europe to the Pacific and in between, Creek Road Runners are showing up and still representing. Here are just some recent tidbits.

HALL OF FAMER

First of all, locally, CRR Jim Bray became the newest inductee of the Pike Creek Valley Running Club (PCVRC) Hall of Fame this spring. Bray has run on Creek Road for many years, most recently as a regular on the PCVRC’s Sunday morning runs. Bray joins previous inductees CRR Deborah Compton, CRR Jim Fischer, CRR Bob Taggart, and CRR Mark Deshon.

His biggest claim to fame is that, as a Newark High School alum, he had held the state scholastic mile record of 4:15.7 for 28 years—between 1972 and 1999. In a 2024 News Journal article, he was listed as No. 15 of “the 30 greatest high school distance runners in First State history.” Jim has also been inducted into the Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame.

Congratulations!

REUNION IN SWITZERLAND

It’s been nearly four decades since CRR Jim Fischer and CRR Martin Wolfer have been in the same part of the world. That changed recently, as Fischer and his wife Christine had a lunch date with Wolfer and his family in Zürich, Switzerland, about a 10K from Wolfer’s home.

Back in the late 1980s, when he was a post-doc at the University of Delaware, the Swiss-national Wolfer was a formidable racer who trained on Creek Road and at the UD track (in the early days of Fischer’s community track sessions). At that time, Wolfer held state-resident age-group records in the 5K and the marathon! Wolfer and Fischer were members of the Creek Road Runners team that finished second in the 1988 Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon’s team competition.

STILL HAWAI‘I STRONG?

CRR Tom Apple, a former University of Delaware Provost who trained on Creek Road back in the 2000s, is still going strong at age 71. After leaving UD, Apple spent several years at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and is Professor Emeritus in Chemistry. Hawai‘i was good chemistry for him; he’s obviously in good shape. He recently finished as the winner of his age group in the Run for Woods 5K on Langhorne, Pa., and finishing 22nd overall in 25:42—besting many runners half his age.