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Hall of Fame

The DC Road Runners Hall of Fame honors excellence in both running and volunteer contributions to the club and the broader running community by long-time DCRR members.

Induction Criteria

To be inducted, a member:

  • must have attained master runner status (at least 40 years of age)
  • achieved distinction over a ten year period by a superior running career that brings personal recognition and recognition to the Club (through placement at races or through running longevity); and/or
  • by significant Club administration (serving on the Board or other chairship); and/or
  • by volunteering (including the organization and procurement of volunteers); and/or
  • by coaching other runners as individuals or teams; and/or
  • by race administration (directing of races); and/or
  • by prolonged running related publicity (Club newsletter or other media involvement).

New Hall of Fame members are selected by current Hall members and the president of the club.

Inductees from the 2020s

2021—Brian Danza

Inductees from the 2010s

2021—Brian Danza
2019—Rob Wolfe
2017—Rich Mendelowitz
2017—Bob Platt
2013—Pat Brown
2010—Ed Grant

Inductees from the 2000s

2009—Susan Hage
2007—John Haubert
2006—Paul Thompson

  • Paul Thompson has been integral to the club’s success for many years. He served on the Board of Directors for 10 years and was president for three. As of 2006, Thompson was in his fourteenth year of directing the club’s biggest race (and biggest fundraiser), the Alexandria Turkey Trot. Thompson also directed the Hugh Jascourt 4-Miler, named for the club’s founder, for many years. Thompson has also been a longstanding DC representative to the RRCA. As if all this weren’t enough (did we mention a wife and four kids?), Paul practices what he preaches: he has run 14 straight JFK 50 Mile runs, 54 marathons (with a 3:09 PR), and 25 triathlons, including three Ironman events. Professionally, Paul is a full professor of strategic studies at the National War College in Washington.

2006—George Banker

  • George was 32 when he started running. He worked at IBM and participated in a race at a company picnic. He started serious training with the goal of beating his Branch Manager and ended up running a 12-minute mile. Through IBM he met members of the Rock Creek Running Club (RCRC), and quickly became a member.

    IBM also sent a team to the 1984 Corporate Cup Relays, which was directed by Dan Rincon on behalf of Runner’s World magazine. He enjoyed it so much that they affiliated with the U.S. Corporate Athletic Association and put on a regional corporate competition for 9 years. After Runner’s World dropped out, George graduated from runner to race organizer.


    During that era, most local clubs were affiliated with DC Road Runners as an umbrella group, and the RCRC was no exception. Each club conducted one of DC Road Runners’ low- key races, and as a result, George ended up directing the DCRR Langley 8K for nine years. This experience led George to join DCRR in 1983, where he scored its Bunion Derby and Snowball series using a typewriter instead of a computer and spreadsheet program. This data collection experience led him to become the DCRRC Historian and the USATF record keeper for DC. In 1985 he was voted the DCRRC Most Improved Male Runner.

    Banker started writing about running when he was sent to the 2000 Olympic Trials to cover them for an Army publication. He then wrote a running column for the Journal newspapers.

    In 2005, Banker started writing The Marine Corps Marathon: A Running Tradition, a book on the history of that race. Banker got the idea of the book in 2000, when his cousin who was starting a book publishing company asked him if he had any book ideas. Banker is no stranger to the race, as he ran his first MCM in 1983 and grew up living on the Quantico Marine Base. His father served in the Corps for 24 years and his stepfather for 30 years. The book was published in 2007.

    Banker found he enjoyed race management more than his traditional day jobs, so, in 2003, he joined the Army 10 Miler as its Operation Manager. He has directed the DCRR George Washington Birthday Marathon Relay from 1989-99, and served on the race committee of a number of local races, including the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis, the GW Parkway 15K, the MS Half Marathon, the Sallie Mae 10K, the Lawyers Have Heart 10K, the Navy 5 Miler, PVI Runfest, and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.

    Banker has completed 23 Marine Corps Marathons with a bet time of 3:09:17 and marathon PR of 3:04:32, and half marathon time of 1:22:40.

2005—Jim Hage

  • After placing third at the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in 1984 and ’85, Jim Hage won the MCM in 1988 and ’89. He was the first male runner to win back-to-back races.

    Hage placed eighth in the 1992 Olympic trials marathon with a time of 2:16:27. He finished 26th in 1988 trials and 37th in 1996. Hage’s marathon PR is 2:15:51, which he ran in November 1992 in Columbus, Ohio. He has run under 2:20:00 in the marathon distance approximately 10 times and has run nearly 100 marathons, beginning when he was 15 years old at the Maryland Marathon.


    Hage’s ten mile PR is 48:35, which he ran at the 1987 Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, and his half marathon PR is 1:04:30, which he ran at the Philadelphia Distance Run in 1987.

    Jim ran on the U.S. World Cup marathon teams in 1989 (Milan) and 1993 (San Sebastien, Spain). He has also run marathons in Taiwan, Kenya, Prague, England and Chile. Since turning 40 in 1998, Jim has competed as a master runner at races across the country and has been nationally ranked in his age category. Jim won the JFK 50 Miler on November 23, 2002 in 6:13:10, becoming the oldest winner in the race’s 40 year history (at the age of 44.) Jim was inducted into the Marine Corps Marathon in October of 2003.

    Jim was inducted into the DC Road Runners Hall of Fame in April of 2005. As of his DCRR induction, Jim had run every day for more than 22 years. His running streak began in August of 1982. He had run at least two miles every day, generally averaging 80-100 miles per week.

    In addition, Jim has been a running correspondent for the Washington Post. He writes for various regional and national running publications, gives talks on running to various groups as time allows, serves on race committees, assists with the St. Jude Marathon Training Program, and has served on the DCRR Board of Directors.

2003—Gabe Mirkin
2001—Chuck Evans

Inductees from the 1990s

1999—Henley Gabeau

  • Henley Gabeau was first woman finisher in the 1977 and 1979 North Carolina TC Marathon. Gabeau finished 4th in the 1976 Marine Corps Marathon and was the 55th woman in the 1977 Boston Marathon. Gabeau won the 1976 DCRR Most Improved Woman Runner Award.

    Gabeau was an active member of DCRR since she started running as a part of our Run-For-Your-Life program. She served as DCRR Secretary in 1975-76. Subsequently, she served as President of the Road Runners Club of America from 1986-90, and she was the first Executive Director of the RRCA.

    Gabeau was a pioneer in organizing women’s running. As Secretary of the International Runners Committee, Gabeau lobbied successfully for the inclusion of the women’s marathon in the 1984 Olympics. From 1980-86, Gabeau was Director of the RRCA’s Women’s Distance Festivals, and she served as President and Founding Member of Washington RunHers Unlimited from 1976-79. From 1980-84, Gabeau was Race Director for the four annual Avon International Running Circuit’s women’s races in Washington, DC, and from 1989-92, she was the Race Director for the Nike Women’s Race 8K in Washington, DC    .

1998—Phil Stewart

  • Phil Stewart began running in his junior year of high school in Washington, DC at Woodrow Wilson High School. He placed second in the DC city meet in the mile (1968) with a time of 4:31.4, which stood as the school record for 20 years. He was captain of the cross country team at Carleton College in Northfield, MN and was the recipient of the school’s award for excellence in cross country.


    After college, Stewart began competing in races in the DC area where, he emerged as one of the top area runners. In 1974, he placed third in the National AAU 50 miler in New York. The following year, he was the first Washington area finisher in the Boston Marathon with an excellent time of 2:19:58. He qualified for and participated in the 1976 Olympic Trials in the marathon. In 1977, Phil placed 15th in the Boston Marathon.

    Phil was selected as the DC Road Runners Male Runner of the Year in 1975 and won the 1974 Snowball Series. Phil set the single age (24 and 25) National Records at the DCRR Two Hour Track Run. Phil set a course record (1:48:16) at the Reston 20 Miler.

    In 1973 Phil was on the winning team in DCRR’s Two Bridges 36-Miler (the precursor to the club’s National Capital 20 Miler.) As a result, DCRR sent Phil to compete in a sister 36-Mile race in Edinburgh, Scotland in August 1974.

    Phil competed regularly for many years. He was the first finisher from the State of Maryland at the 1993 New York City Marathon with a time of 2:56:57, and he completed the 100th Boston Marathon in 2:57:46.

    Phil served as President of DC Road Runners and as a race director of the Nortel Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. Phil has also served as Vice President for Administration of the RRCA, Treasurer of the USATF (formerly TAC) Men’s Long Distance Committee, and he has served on the USATF National Board of Directors.

    Stewart was one of the founders of Running Times magazine in 1977. Stewart received notoriety in 1979 when he took the dramatic photos of President Jimmy Carter’s collapse during a 10K road race at Camp David. The photos were published in Sports Illustrated, Time, People, and other publications. The photos were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize the same year.

1998—Jeff Darman

  • Jeff Darman ran a 59:55 10-mile PR in 1974 and a 3:01:45 marathon. Jeff finished 16th in the 1973 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. Jeff joined DC Road Runners in 1971 and served in a number of volunteer positions. He served as DCRR Vice President and then assumed the Presidency of DCRR upon the death of Rod Steele in a 1974 plane crash. Jeff left the DCRR presidency to become RRCA President in 1976.


    Jeff has served on the Cherry Blossom Race Committee starting in its first year, 1973, and was the long-time coordinator of the event and board member. Jeff directed the former Nike Women’s Race for four years and the SGMA Capital Challenge, a race for members of Congress, the Executive Branch, Judiciary, and the Media.

    Jeff was a member of the USATF National Board of Directors and of the Men’s Long Distance Running Executive Committee. He has been awarded the USATF President’s Award and the Award of Merit from the LDR Committee.

    Jeff stood up for athletes in the crisis years of the 1970s, waging war with the AAU, and he and lobbied Congress for passage of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. He has testified before Congress several times on the Sports Act, most recently in 1997.

1996—Jack Fultz

  • Jack Fultz won the 1976 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:20:19. More notably, Fultz won the 1971 Washington Birthday Marathon in 2:29:58. Jack now lives in the Boston, MA area.

1996—Robert Thurston

  • Robert Thurston is the chair of DC Road Runners’ course measurement committee and is one of the leading course certifiers in the nation. Bob has directed numerous DCRR races, including the Bread Run 10K. Bob, together with his father, Paul Thurston, held the national record for a father-son marathon team performance.

1995—Bob Scharf

  • Bob Scharf won the first DCRRC event ever held—a five mile open race held at Hains Point on June 21, 1961. He went on to win countless others, dominating the local running scene for ten years and earning national recognition. Scharf won the Washington Birthday Marathon in 1965 and 1966. He twice placed in the top 25 at the Boston Marathon, finishing 8th in 1966 with a time of 2:21:15. Scharf also represented the USA at the International Cross-Country Championships in Morocco in 1966, and his 1967 15K time of 45:15 remains the fastest ever recorded over the tough Greenbelt course. Bob was Treasurer of DC Road Runners for several terms, becoming legendary for frugality. His contributions as an elite athlete and volunteer sustained the club from its inception to the 1970s.

1995—Lou Castagnola

  • Lou Castagnola was an early member of DC Road Runners who set a number of age group records at several distances. Lou won the Washington Birthday Marathon in 1963, 1967, and 1968. His course record of 2:22:45, set in 1967, still stands. Castagnola broke the National two hour track record ad the 20-mile record in the same race in 1967, and then he smashed both of his own records in 1968, while adding the American record for the 25K enroute. He is also a National 30K Champion. In perhaps his finest performance, Lou placed fourth in the 1967 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:17:48. Lou’s unrelenting training regimen and racing toughness inspired a generation of runners and raised the level of local competition to new heights.

1994—Ed Barron

  • Ed Barron was an active member of DCRRC in the 1960s and 1970s. He advocated the institution of age-group awards and promoted race walking as a discrete event. In 1967, Ed founded the Potomac Valley Seniors Track Club. Ed died in 1976.

1994—Ray Gordon

  • Ray Gordon dedicated a great deal of time and effort to keep DC Road Runners in tact during its first decade. He wrote a history of the club on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. He now lives near Front Royal, VA.

1994—Larry Noël

  • Larry Noël directed the DCRR Greenbelt races (the Labor Day 15K, the National Capital 20 Miler, and the George Washington Birthday Marathon) for many years. He also served as the club’s co-president in 1968. Noël spent a significant portion of his time working as a race organizer, starting his efforts in 1972.

1994—Gar Williams

  • Gar Williams followed Jascourt as President of DC Road Runners and built a volunteer corps to expand club activities. He originated the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and other popular DCRR races. He now lives in Colorado. Both Jascourt and Williams have been inducted into the RRCA Hall of Fame.

1994—Hugh Jascourt

  • Hugh Jascourt was the founder of DC Road Runners and also played a key role in the start of the RRCA. He did most of the legwork for setting up and directing races in the early years and created the Snowball and Bunion Derby series as well as the Run for Your Life program.