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Wolfer still ticking in his 60s

22 Friday Jul 2022

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Like a fine Swiss timepiece, CRR Martin Wolfer just keeps on ticking. Living a few miles southeast of Zürich, he is ever ready for the next grueling challenge among the beauty of his beloved Swiss alps, where he and his wife, Conny, vacation annually.

photo of Martin Wolfer with Zermatt peak in the background
Wolfer in the early stage of the race, with the Zermatt peak in the background

On July 2, Wolfer completed a rather unique race over varying terrain—the “Top20 Run.” Starting near Zermatt, at an altitude of 1,609m (approx. 5,261 ft.—think Denver, Colo.), the 22.1km (13.7-mile) course rose in the first 10km to about 2,300m (7,521 ft.), then leveled off for the next 6km, before climbing steeply over the final 6km to the finish at Gornergrat—elevation 3,101m (that’s about 10,140 ft.)!

Wolfer’s finishing time was 2:52:30. The other unique feature of the Top20 was that one’s place was determined by using an age-dependent factor. So, even though Wolfer is now 65 years of age, he came in 8th overall among the 143 men who finished, with an age-accounted-for time score of 2:13:46 (a 0.7754 factor having been applied to his actual finishing time).

With regard to the course, Wolfer said, “Above 2500m the air becomes very thin.” He could run over the initial 16km but admitted that, for him, ”in the steep part only walking was possible.” Understandable might be an understatement. So is the word impressive.

photo of Martin Wolfer with other race awardees
Wolfer, second from right, posing among the other award winners

For those of you who weren’t around Creek Road in the mid- to late-1980s, while Wolfer was living in Newark, Del., he was one of the area’s preeminent racers, at one point holding both the Delaware 5K and marathon records in his age group! Back then, he could run around 15 flat in a 5K and had a marathon time of 2 hours, 28 minutes and change.

Nice to see that he is in good shape and still ticking off the miles, er, kilometers.

CRRs tackle 56th Caesar Rodney half

25 Monday Mar 2019

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Caesar Rodney race logo 2019Of 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.

photo of Doug Repettiphoto of Holly ScottIn 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.

It’s about time

27 Thursday Dec 2018

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photo of Jim Fischer tracksideOn the track, it’s about time—typically all about time. But this is not so true when it comes to CRR Jim Fischer, who has put more time (and love) into the sport of running and racing—as competitor, coach, and community mentor—than anyone else in Delaware. For his latest honor, all we can say here at CreekRoadRunners.org is that it’s about time!

It’s also about time to have posted this article, well after Fischer’s November 20th induction into the Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame, the institution that he initiated several years ago.

Fischer came to Delaware from his native Minnesota in 1982 to coach cross-country and track and field at the University of Delaware. He quickly became one of the initial crop of Creek Road Runners. Fischer coached both men and women at UD until 2011, when the school eliminated the men’s running program, at which point he continued coaching the women for a few more years. He put in some coaching time at Delaware Technical & Community College and has since coached at the high-school level with the Sanford School and Ursuline Academy, respectively.

However, Fischer may be remembered most universally among the running community in northern Delaware for his leading public track workouts and mentoring runners individually every Tuesday evening 11 months out of the year for 30+ years. He also organized and officiated meets that were open to the public. He loves running so much that, even after he stopped racing, he could often be seen at races—either helping out or simply encouraging runners. In addition to his affiliation with Creek Road Runners, Fischer is a member of the Pike Creek Valley Running Club.

photo of Jim FischerIn CRR lore, Fischer was one of the five scoring members on the second-place-finishing Creek Road Runners team in the 1988 Caesar Rodney Half Marathon’s corporate team competition, clocking a 1:19:05. Other scorers that day were CRR Martin Wolfer, CRR Bob Taggart, CRR Mark Deshon, and CRR Steve Cottrell.

As we close out this calendar year, we salute you, Jim.

See News Journal’s write-up on Fischer and this year’s other four Hall of Fame inductees.

Result of May madness in Switzerland

07 Saturday Jul 2018

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photo of Martin Wolfer during the SOLA relay

Martin Wolfer competing four years ago in this same event.

Back on May 5, our European representative, CRR Martin Wolfer, competed in a rather unique cross-country relay in the Switzerland—the SOLA-Stafette, a favorite of his near where he lives that he has run annually for several decades. His team finished 11th of 944 relay teams. He provided the details below.

Here are his explanation of the race and the results for his team.

“The name of the race is ‘SOLA-Stafette.’ The name SOLA (‘sun’) originates in Sweden, where in 1967 they organized a relay with that name, from Göteborg to Karlstadt. In Zürich, it was held for the first time in 1972. I [first] participated in 1978…. I [have now] started 36 times in this event.

“In the [map below], you see that the race is located around Zürich [the city at the head of the lake]. The changing points are chosen such that they can be easily reached by public transportation. The overall distance is 114 km, split into 14 [unequal and non-conventional distance] legs.

map of the SOLA-Stafette relay in Switzerland

“In the result sheet for our team [below], you see the distances in kilometers and the altitude-meters (hm) that had to be run (meters of rise in altitude, not the difference between start and finish). My leg was the third to last [leg 12, marked as such on the map above], where men over 50 and women are allowed to take a shortcut. The distance for me was 5.83 km with 75 hm of altitude (not the regulation and listed 6.91 km with 125 hm).”

Team result with Martin Wolfer’s stage results highlighted

“The first column (‘Rang’) shows the individual rank, with ‘Zeit’ [being] the time and ‘Rückstand’ the time behind the best runner on that particular leg.
The ‘Rang’ in the second column is the rank of the team after that leg, with the overall time and the time behind the first team.”

Martin ran 23:02 for his leg, which equates to a 19:45 cross-country 5K. Pretty complicated relay, but it’s clear that Wolfer, who had held Delaware resident age-group records in both the 5K and the marathon back in the late 1980s (when he trained here on Creek Road), is still enjoying the sport and running strong.

 

University ultra-relay, Swiss style

30 Friday May 2014

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If you think the 4-person relay at the Delaware Marathon Running Festival was long, tough, and crowded, take a look at another kind of racing a Creek Road Runner is doing in Switzerland (also see the recent exploits of CRR Paul Amer).

photo of Martin Wolfer during the SOLA relayCRR Martin Wolfer, a native of the Zürich area, has been running in what we would consider an ultra-distance relay for more than three decades. He explains, “[This] relay was invented in 1973 and was inspired by a Swedish relay race. It’s organized by the sport club of the two Zürich Universities—ETH Zürich and University of Zürich. It consists of 14 legs, with distances between 4 [2.5 mi.] and 14 km [8.7 mi.]. The overall distance is about 116 km [72 mi.], and the winning time is just under seven hours.”

The race is held around Zürich, mostly on the hilly parts along the Lake of Zürich. All relay transition areas are easily reachable by public transport, so no one needs a car. “This is a necessity,” Wolfer says, “because this year about 900 teams took part and the roads couldn’t take the traffic.” Participants are mainly students or alumni of either of the two universities.

Wolfer adds, “Of course there is a big party after the race. If the University of Delaware intends to participate next year, I certainly could help.”

This was Wolfer’s 32nd time running in this relay. He finished 6th fastest in his division, and his team came in 17th overall.

Wolfer trained on Creek Road back in the late 1980s while a post-doc in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware. A superior competitor, by the time he had returned to Switzerland, Wolfer held the Delaware resident age-group (25-29) records in both the 5k and the marathon! Those records have since been broken, though they held up for 20 and 16 years, respectively. In 1988 he helped the Creek Road Runners team comprising seven University of Delaware runners place second overall in the silver anniversary edition of the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon.