Tags
Caesar Rodney, cottrell, deshon, fischer, half marathon, kauffman, mccooey, repetti, scott, taggart, wolfer
Of the 661 finishers in this year’s running of the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon, the oldest of all road races in Delaware, four senior Creek Road Runners competed in this, the 56th edition, contested on March 24 in Wilmington.
In order of finish, 68-year-old CRR Doug Repetti clocked a 1:56:18 (1:55:52 chip), finishing 7th among the 65-59s; 58-year-old CRR Holly Scott turned in a 1:56:24 (1:55:06 chip), finishing 6th in her five-year age group; 56-year-old CRR Theresa Kauffman finished in 2:02:47 (2:02:12 chip); and 61-year-old CRR Kevin McCooey crossed the line in 2:08:51 (2:08:04 chip). Congratulations to each.
It was 31 years ago, during the 25th annual Caesar Rodney, that a team of seven Creek Road Runners took second place in the corporate team competition. That day in 1988 on the old (more hilly) course, CRRs were led by the second-place finish of CRR Martin Wolfer. The other four scoring members on the team were CRR Bob Taggart, CRR Mark Deshon, CRR Jim Fischer, and CRR Steve Cottrell. Each finished in under 80 minutes, which would have placed all five scorers in the top 11 of this year’s race. Yeah, we were all younger and faster back then.
On October 14, CRR Flora Poindexter ran the Staten Island Half Marathon, crossing the finish line in 2:23:30. She plans to do the Philadelphia Marathon soon. Just a week later, on October 20, CRR Rachel Strickland ran the Baltimore Running Festival Half Marathon, finishing in 2:22:13.
In Newark’s inaugural Lederhosen Half Marathon last Saturday, 38-year-old CRR Andrew Weber blitzed the course that covered most of the city, having to follow only a motorcycle and/or cyclist marshal, in 1:22:22. The younger Weber (no relation) won the race outright among 352 finishers.
On the women’s side, CRR Julie Brewer was 90th out of 226 women finishers and the 30th masters woman out of 110, clocking in at 2:19:23.
CRR Dave Schultz traveled just north of New York City to run the Shawangunk Ridge Trail Half-Marathon—a grueling 13.1 miles over rugged mountain terrain. The race website bills it as “an adventurous trail with scrambles and squeezes.” Well, it about squeezed every bit of energy out of the 52-year-old Schultz, who didn’t expect it to be quite as menacing. Beginning in Minnewaska State Park and ending in Rosedale, N.Y., he completed the course in just over three hours (3:01:45), finishing 19th overall (13th male finisher) and winning the men’s 50-59 age group.
Right here in Wilmington, CRR Bruce Weber had a very different experience, as he won the inaugural Last Alarm 5K, during which he figures he only ran about 4.67K. Though he had a significant lead over the second-place runner, Weber followed the lead of the city policeman’s motorcycle, who was leading the way but made a 180-degree turnaround too early in the middle of the race. So much for course management. Weber clocked in at 17:42 but figures he would have been closer to 19 flat and would have won anyway had he actually run 5K.