In two races on the Saturday before Hurricane Sandy hit, four Creek Road Runners shone like the sun.

In the Halloween Hoopla 5K, CRR Natalie Rosenberg was the overall female winner, placing third overall, with a stellar 19:59. Nice to see she’s still running well.

Among the slightly older set, CRR Dan Simmons, CRR Diane Kukich, and CRR Bob Taggart each took home age group wins in the Turkey Round Up 5K. Simmons and Kukich dominated the 60-69s with times of 21:53 and 24:32, respectively. Racing veteran Bob Taggart’s winning time in the 70+ age group was 24:37.

Way to go, each of you!

Three Creek Road Runners took home age group wins on Sunday, October 21, on their home course in Newark—Creek Road—in Caffé Gelato’s Waffle Cone Ten Miler.

CRR Dan Simmons won the 65-69 age group in 1:14:06, finishing 52nd overall (out of 321 finishers). Holding up the women’s end, CRR Christina Parsons won the 45-49 age group in a solid 1:19:04, coming in 86th overall.

Not to be denied, Creek Road’s grand old man CRR Bob Bennett won the 70+ age group with a 1:36:36.

The top two times were turned in by a pair who took 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, in their age groups. CRR Jay Coughenour finished 10th overall and 2nd in the 45-49 age group with a 1:01:18. CRR Bill Rose came in 3rd among the 50-54s in 1:07:43, good for 25th place overall.

An extra shout-out to CRR Ryan German, whose business sponsors this unique race each year, for a very good 1:12:43, placing him 49th overall.

Marathoning is difficult enough in itself, but when one has a goal in mind, say qualifying for Boston, the exertion over the 26-mile, 385-yard course can seem insignificant to the mental stress of looking at one’s watch and seeing how close one is to qualifying and NOT to have qualified.

Such was the case on October 13 for CRR Tripp Shenton, who, despite running a nice 3:31:30 in the Baltimore Marathon, came up a mere 16 seconds shy (his chip time was 3:30:16) of his age’s 3:30 qualifying standard for the Boston Marathon—less than a second per mile. That’s unfortunate.

Still a strong showing. Know he’ll make it one day.