
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Fred d’Elia Ridgewood Run was created by Manfred (Fred) d’Elia and his wife, world-class runner Toshiko d’Elia, in 1976. Tired of driving his wife into Manhattan for competition with the New York Road Runners, Fred decided to create his own race to attract serious runners to their hometown. The inaugural Ridgewood Run took off with runners sporting hand-made bib numbers with Fred acting as race director, course certifier and timer. “With no money to put on a race, we all had our tasks,” recalls Toshiko d’Elia. “I hand-delivered all the race applications around town to save on stamps and our daughter Erica, was handed a black dry-marker to make race numbers.”