Patriots’ Day in Boston, the third Monday in April, brings with it the famed Boston Marathon. One of our own ran this year and fared quite well.

CRR Clark Ridge (son of CRR Doug Ridge), who grew up in Newark and lives in College Park, Md., completed the 26.2-mile course—from Hopkinton, Mass., to the finish line on Boylston Street in Boston—in 2:51.37. This was a PR for Ridge at this distance by an astonishing 10 minutes. An interesting thing about a big marathon like Boston with seeded starting is that in order to run a big personal best one has to pass a lot of other runners. In Ridge’s case he had to pass more than 4,500 runners along the way and finished 1,602nd overall out of tens of thousands.

Whenever Ridge is home visiting his parents, he heads to Creek Road for a nostalgic training run.

Congratulations, Clark!

Locally, the Delaware Running Festival was held on April 24 in Wilmington. There were a few standouts among the Creek Road Runners in the Half Marathon and 10K races.

In the Delaware Half Marathon, 40-yr-old CRR Andrew Weber finished 2nd overall and top master’s runner in a blistering 1:22:15. Weber always seems to do very well at this distance. He has won this race in the past.

Of particular mention is CRR Martha Narvaez. While she marked a major personal achievement by finishing this race (placing 11th in the 45-49 age group in 2:03:49), her 12-yr.-old son, Lincoln, won the 19-and-under division outright, completing the race in 1:35:50 and finishing in the top 30 overall. That’s 7:19/mile pace for 13.1 miles for a 12-year-old, and it was his first half marathon! Watch out for this young runner over in the next several years and when he gets to compete in high school.

In the 10K, 61-yr.-old CRR Bruce Weber (no relation to the aforementioned Weber) placed 3rd overall and was the top master’s runner in an impressive 41:26. Dover’s CRR Holly Scott was the 11th overal female finisher and placed 2nd among the 60-64 women in 58:22.

Congrats to all.