01 Wednesday Jan 2020
Posted in News, Race Results, Stories
“Wring Out the Old, Ring in the New” began inauspiciously 20 years ago on Dec. 31. The 21st running was an interesting one in that there were several ideas of how to run the course among the 12 participants (and two canine entrants).
A fun time was had by all. Two runners (CRR Michael Chajes and CRR Luke Nigro) took part for the first time. This year’s event was organized by CRR Bill Rose and featured refreshments at the end of the run.
28 Monday Oct 2019
Posted in Race Results
Luke Nigro pressures eventual winner Andrew Weber in the final mile of the 5K.
The 2019 edition of the UD Homecoming 5K was a real success for the few Creek Road Runners who ran the race. Out of our 12 participants (all male), five garnered top awards and one a third-place age-group finish.
The battle at the front was between CRR Andrew Weber and CRR Luke Nigro. Weber ended up besting the younger Nigro and winning the race in a time of 17:39. Nigro came in second overall and first in the 19-29 age group in 17:45.
Among the age group winners were CRR Bruce Weber (50-59), who placed fifth overall in 19:15, CRR Bill Rose (60-69), placing 17th overall in 21:05, and 73-year-old CRR Doug Ridge (70+), who ran a respectable 28:29.
CRR Steve Tague finished third in the 60-69 age group in 22:36. A couple seconds behind (but nearly catching) Tague was CRR Mark Deshon, who ran unofficially over the combination paved, cross-country-like surface of the 5K course at the University of Delaware’s athletics complex and agricultural campus.
A shout-out to CRR Nick Sisofo, who made a rare race appearance.
29 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in Race Results
Tags
champions, Delaware Half Marathon, Delaware Marathon Festival, deshon, farquhar, Marathon Relay, mccooey, nigro, rose, smiljanec, weber
The CRR Delaware Marathon Relay team roster changed from last year. Due to a schedule conflict, CRR Bill Farquhar was not able to run, and CRR Mark Deshon had gone into “relay retirement.” So, team captain CRR Bill Rose injected some “younger blood” into the team, recruiting newbies CRR Luke Nigro and CRR Katarina Smiljanec to join him and CRR Bruce Weber. This strategy paid off smashingly on April 28 in Wilmington, as the team turned in a stellar 2:49:23, winning the team competition by a mile (actually by more than three miles) and defending CRR’s relay championship from last year.
In the Delaware Half-Marathon, though 39-year-old CRR Andrew Weber (no relation to Bruce Weber other than serious speed) was not able to repeat his championship performance of last year, he ran a faster time by 23 seconds and finished second overall (out of 785 finishers) in the Delaware Half-Marathon, in a time of 1:22:11. CRR Kevin McCooey ran a 2:05:11.
2019 relay team—Bruce Weber, Luke Nigro, Katarina Smiljanec, and team captain Bill Rose
The brand new marathon course took advantage of the Jack A. Markell Trail. A bicycle rider accompanied the lead relay runner, and the CRR team led the entire way. Legs were not exactly equal, unlike previous years’ four-lap course, and the 1-2 exchange ended up being 0.3 mile farther than the course map indicated.
Leg 1 (Rose) was net uphill, leg 2 (Nigro) was net downhill, and legs 3 (Weber) and 4 (Smiljanec) were flat, each with a small rise/fall going past the DuPont Environmental Education Center at the south end of the Wilmington Riverfront. Legs 3 and 4 were scenic but rather lonely for Weber and Smiljanec over much of the route, out and back along the Markell Trail.
Here’s how Rose described the race:
CRR relay team with their first-place plaques
By the time I handed off to Luke at about 6.3 miles, there were four (full) marathoner competitors ahead of me. Luke chased down three of them on leg 2, leaving only one runner ahead of Team CRR. Bruce put time between him and all the relay teams and marathoners behind him. Therefore, Bruce was the second runner to arrive at the 19.6-mile point (3-4 exchange), preceded only by the eventual (full) marathon winner, and 2:05 ahead of the next fastest runner.
Kat ran the final 6.6 miles in 40:21, which was 4:37 faster than any other runner on that leg, relay or full! She finished in 2:49:23. Kat’s run was [basically] a solo time trial, since she was out of sight of anyone going her way, ahead or behind. Somehow, the race organizers had not had time or forethought to set up a tape for her to break, so Wayne Kursh asked Kat to re-enact the finish-line crossing, this time breaking a tape.
Split times were as follows: Rose (44:36), Nigro (42:00), Weber (42:26), and Smiljanec (40:21).
The reward for CRR was a nice set of plaques and a free relay-team registration for next year!
