Despite unprecedented tidal flooding on the course, the Colonial Road Runners team won the most important competition of the year at the Sept. 21 Elizabeth River Run 10K, a Virginia RRCA state championship, a Hampton Roads Super Grand Prix race, and the culminating race in the 3-Club Challenge.
It was close between the CRR and the host Tidewater Striders, with the CRR winning 80.03% to 79.47% for the average age-graded score of their top 10 runners, with 80% considered national class.
Since its inception in 2019, the Striders won the ERR Challenge Cup in 2019, ’21, and ’22 (no race in 2020, due to COVID) and ’24, with the CRR winning in 2023 and this year. The 3-Club Challenge included the best races of the CRR (Run the DOG Street 5K in April), the Peninsula Track Club (the Yorktown Memorial Day 8K in May), and the ERR (Tidewater Striders).
The CRR swept all four awards in the 3-Club Challenge, for overall (Adam Otstot and Emily Honeycutt) and for Masters ages 40-and-older (Scott Ickes and Tricia Murphy), based on total combined times.
In addition the CRR individuals went 2-3 in the women’s open race (Emma Rogers and Arianna DeBoer), first in the women’s Masters (Dana Hayden), and second in the men’s Masters (Otstot). The final major award, the age graded champion, also went to the CRR, as Otstot had a score of 84.2%, narrowly ahead of Will Christian of the Striders (84.0%), with the age graded scores much lower than usual due to construction on the course (at Old Dominion University for the opening miles), and the tidal flooding (midway).
The Striders were leading after their first five age graded runners, with the host team having five above 80%, with the CRR having just four. But it was the unprecedented depth of the CRR team that won the race, as the CRR had 13 runners between 75% and 80%, while the Striders only had five.
The 10 scorers for the CRR were Adam Otstot, 43, of Williamsburg (33:18, 84.2%), women’s masters winner Dana Hayden, 48, of Powhatan (39:00, 81.8%), Sean Bush, 35, of Williamsburg (33:09, 80.4%), Ryan McCracken, 25, of Richmond (fourth overall, 32:56, 80.2%), Matthew Peart, 28, Charlottesville (fifth overall, 33:03, 79.9%), Rob Perkinson, 37, of Williamsburg (33:43, 79.7%), Scott Ickes, 43, of Williamsburg (35:18, 79.5%), Mark Tompkins, 49, of Williamsburg (37:32, 78.5%), Marjorie Friedrichs, 58, of Williamsburg (45:46, 78.3%), and Forest Braden, 42, of Williamsburg (35:47, 77.8%).
Not making the CRR top 10, but with exceptional age graded scores were the second and third overall women, Emma Rogers, 25, of Williamsburg (37:04, 77.6%) and Arianna DeBoer, 22, of Richmond (37:13, 77.3%); Melanie Hennis, 63, of Portsmouth (49:24, 77.3%), last year’s age graded winner Isabella Strumke, 12, of Toano (42:22, 77.2%), Matt Joosse, 45, of Williamsburg (37:14, 76.5%), James Bates, 69, of Hampton (46:34, 76.0%) and Laura Labuschagne, 29, of Richmond (38:07, 75.6%).
Five more CRR runners were above 70%, Honeycutt, 34, of Newport News (39:40, 73.3%), Marie Shay, 69, of Williamsburg (56:39, 73.2%), Paul Pelletier, 60, of Williamsburg 45:34, 71.2%), Jack Strumke, 15, of Toano (39:58, 70.9%), and Christopher Minty, 37, of Williamsburg (38:18, 70.2%).
The Colonial Road Runners team after the awards ceremony. Courtesy of Todd Strumke
The five Striders above 80% were Masters winner William Christian, 42, of Chesapeake (33:07, 84.0%), Betty Brothers, 78, of Virginia Beach (57:51, 82.8%), Steve Spiers, 59, of Virginia Beach (39:09, 82.1%), third place Masters Ryan Foster, 43, of Cape Charles (34:29, 81.3%) and men’s overall third place David Gregory, 30, of Virginia Beach (32:50, 80.4%). The Peninsula Track Club’s leading runner was New Kent High junior Braxton Lee, 16, of Quinton (38:44, 71.5%), who PR’d despite the challenging course conditions.
The William & Mary connection was huge for the CRR. McCracken and Peart (fourth and fifth overall) were both former runners for W&M men’s coach Braden. And Rogers, DeBoer and Labuschagne (second through fourth for the women) all are recent grads for the Tribe women. CRR vice president Otstot and Ickes were college roommates while on the W&M track team, and CRR president and team captain Rick Platt is another W&M grad. Many others on the CRR team are professors or staff members. All four 3-Club Challenge award winners (Otstot, Ickes, Honeycutt and Murphy) have W&M ties.
The Colonial Road Runners team edged the host Tidewater Striders to claim the Elizabeth River Run Challenge Cup. Courtesy of Thomas Hicks
Otstot emailed, “I think the reroute of the course that seemed to add on some distance had a large effect on slower times across the board for just about everyone. I really enjoy the team aspect of ERR! It really encourages me to push all the way, to try and contribute as much as I can to that cause, even if I’m by myself on the race course. I’m happy the result ended up the way it did, but the Striders had an incredibly strong team and both teams were missing a few racers who may have contributed, so we both did the best with who we had on the day. I’ve got the Chicago Marathon in two weeks, so I was just using ERR as a good, hard session in an otherwise big training week, and that was what I had.”
Bush emailed, “This was the 4th year in a row that I’ve run ERR, and I look forward to it each time. The team component is a big part of what makes ERR special, and the Striders always give us a run for our money in the age-graded competition! Of the years I’ve been involved, this was undoubtedly the deepest field yet, with the top 12 going sub-34 minutes. Having people to chase/be chased by made it more fun. Adam and I stayed together from the gun and until the last mile or so. It helped having a friend/training partner to work with throughout the race. The tidal flooding was certainly unexpected. It covered more area and was much deeper than I’d imagined it’d be. Trying to hold pace through ankle-deep water definitely slowed everyone down a bit. I tried not to let it affect me mentally and just pushed as hard as I could once the pavement was dry again. This year’s race will be particularly memorable due to the challenging circumstances!”
Friedrichs, a VIMS professor, emailed, “I’m kicking myself for not looking at the VIMS tide projections before the race – they likely could have shown the street flooding we had on the course. If I had known, I would have worn different shoes! Together, the floodwaters and the ODU construction lengthened the course considerably, and likely added at least 30 seconds onto our times.”
Hayden, who won the women’s Masters division by more than five minutes, emailed “I thought everything went as smoothly as possible given the tidal conditions. I was motivated to make up time through the remainder of the course, knowing I had lost time due to the water. Congratulations to everyone on an awesome day-go CRR!! If it had been a certified course, I would’ve gotten the VA state record for my age group. Crazy to think with the water and all.” That record is 39:02 (Hayden ran 39:00), and she’ll have another chance this weekend at the CRR’s Democracy Dash 10K at Jamestown Island, on a USATF-certified course. The ERR was USATF certified, but all the changes due to the ODU construction, and the tidal flooding, made it impossible to re-certify.
Jim Bates, who introduced age-graded running to the Hampton Roads community two decades ago emailed, “I really enjoy the age-graded competition among the three clubs. I saw lots of proud wearers of the CRR singlets down there in Strider Land. I must admit that I was not psychologically prepared for the flooding on the course. I should have paid more attention to the pre-race announcements. It threw me off focus; after wading through the water, I was not able to regain the pace I had maintained up to that point. Nonetheless, it was a terrific race and the after party was superb.”
Hennis emailed, “The tidal flooding was awful—the water was up to my thigh (I’m on the shorter side), which made it extremely difficult to run through. I had been holding a 7:30 pace until I hit the water, but after that I lost my rhythm completely. As I waded through, I kept worrying about stepping on something sharp that could injure me, so I slowed down and carefully walked. Trying to avoid the deepest parts pushed me onto grass and mud, where I slipped a few times—and even had a homeowner yelling at us to get off their property. That said, I’m glad I was able to help the CRR team win the age-graded trophy. That made the whole experience worth it. All in all—the flooding was rough, but winning the trophy made it worthwhile.”
Rick Platt is president of Colonial Road Runners.
https://www.dailypress.com/2025/09/26/crr-prevails-in-team-competition/
