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CRR Charlie Roth on his Penn Relays experience:
Creek Road is still running strong!
I had a lifetime running highlight this past weekend. I ran in the Penn Relays [April 27]!
Some of the other dads from [my son] Alex’s high school team and I were watching them running last year at Penn Relays, and while watching some master’s races going on that afternoon, we said, “We could do that.”
So we started training (Sunday afternoons through the winter on an outdoor track), ran a USATF meet to hit the qualifying time, and competed in the age-50-and-over 4x400m relay Friday night. I anchored in 64.8, a bit off the 64.2 that I had done indoors to qualify, but not bad for a distance runner at age 50.
I am hoping that the track work can translate into a fast 5K at some point. I went 20:29 last month for my master’s PR, but I feel there is a little more there. We’ll see.
Excerpts from CRR Jo Baird’s Boston experience:
This year’s Boston Marathon, my third Boston and seventh marathon overall, was by far the most challenging not only physically, but mentally as well. At the start line, as we were lining up in our different corrals in my wave, they announced that these were the worst running conditions the Boston Marathon has ever seen (something I wish that they had told me after the race was over, rather than before).
During the race, there was steady rain and wind with an occasional gust that took your breath away and an occasional downpour that soaked right through your clothes. It definitely was both a physical and mental test…. Many runners still only wore shorts and a singlet, which was no match for these conditions.
Personally, I had a surprisingly good race. I started out the first four miles at a 7:04 pace…. I backed off…but checked my watch at mile eight and saw that my average had only dropped to 7:06. As we got to “Heartbreak Hill,” one guy who had been running around the same pace as I had patted me and said, “We’re in this together.” I had no idea who he was. We hadn’t said anything to each other the whole race, but it meant a lot.
Once I got to the top of the hill, where all the Boston College students were, I felt nothing but love as I looked down into Boston. The last five miles were almost a blur; as [I] got closer to Boston,…[t]he crowds were so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think, and I didn’t even feel myself increase my pace. My last mile was 6:56, because, as I turned right onto Hereford and left on Boylston, there was this indescribable feeling of emotions that I felt from conquering that day and being lifted up by my fellow runners and this amazing city.
Overall, it was a race for the books. It was one of those experiences I have no regrets doing but don’t really want to do again.
Though the Philadelphia Flyers are out of the playoffs, there were still some Creek Road Runners who were definitely flying down Broad Street yesterday, taking no prisoners in the annual Broad Street Run Ten Miler in Philly.
CRR Bill Farquhar led the way with a stellar 59:45, finishing in 194th place in the field of about 50,000 runners and placing 3rd in the 50-54 age group! This sub-6:00/mile performance legitimized his tactic of saving energy last weekend during the 
One Creek Road Runner—38-year-old CRR Andrew Weber—stood above all the rest (out of 699 finishers) in the Delaware Half-Marathon, winning in 1:22:34 and finishing a good five-and-a-half minutes ahead of the next runner. CRR Dan Weile punched his ticket for the podium by being the third man to finish (fifth overall) in 1:29:52. Both Weber (35-39) and Weile (45-49) would have won their respective age groups but had to settle for the bigger honor of having finished in the top three.
CRR Diane Kukich has added to her growing list of accomplishments as a senior runner. On April 8, she ran another mega-race, the popular Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in Washington, D.C., finishing in the top 25% among 16,670 finishers. She typically doesn’t do races of this length anymore, so this one was a challenge for her. She managed to run an ultra-consistent 8:34 pace throughout, finishing in 1:31:36 (a chip time of 1:25:43). This chip time placed her 5th among 65 runners in the 65-69 age group, behind competitors from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Arizona. Her time age-graded at 80.95, which is considered “national class.”
In the Beau Biden Foundation 10K cross-country race, there were two standouts. CRR Bill Rose finished 16th overall out of 231 finishers in 50:56. This was good enough to win the 50-59 age group. CRR Theresa Cannon took a third in the same age group, finishing in 1:06:58. Ms. Cannon, who has run the Boston Marathon 13 times, was recently inducted into the Pike Creek Valley Running Club’s Hall of Fame.
In Newark’s Get Lucky 5K, it was CRR Andrew Weber who finished 5th overall out of 155 runners and took 2nd among the 30-39s in 18:29. CRR Diane Kukich finished 29th overall, winning the 60-69 age group in 24:48. This time age graded to a 80.9, the highest such score of any of the participants.
CreekRoadRunners.org 