Monday, November 14, 2011

SCHEDULE EVEN MORE CROWED FROM SNOW STORM

Written by Madeline Bost
Originally Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, November 13 2011
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2011

The Halloween snow storm that was not actually on Halloween but will forever be tagged with that moniker, has caused even more shifts in runners scheduling. The Great Swamp Devil 15K and 5K that would have been held on October 30th is now scheduled for Sunday December 4th. The start times have also been changed. The 5K will start at 11:00 a.m. and the 15K will go off an hour later, at noon.

This means that those who are planning to run in the Grand Finale ten mile championship on Sunday, December 11th will be running back-to-back longer races. Running 9.3 miles on one weekend and 10 miles on the next might not be too bad earlier in the year, but runners are going to be tired by the time the racing season ends.

They will have run in today’s Giralda Farms 10K, or 5K in Madison and the next weekend, on Saturday, November 19th will be running the USATF New Jersey 8 kilometer cross country championship in Deer Path Park in Readington. That race was another casualty of the Halloween storm.

A new Turkey Trot 5K is being held in Basking Ridge on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 20th. The race in Mountain Park will begin at 9:00 a.m.

As was noted here in last week’s column, they then have their choice of Thanksgiving morning races. For USATF New Balance Grand Prix runners and members of teams, the Ashenfelter 8K in Glen Ridge is almost a must do race as it is the championship for all divisions.

Other races beckon as well. In Morris Township, the Ginty Field course will be used for the Turkey Trot 5K being put on to benefit the Interfaith Pantry and the Literacy Volunteers of Morris County.

The nearness of that race makes traveling to the Flemington Turkey Trot not so enticing. That race has the longest history and has attracted the highest number of finishers – nearly four thousand in 2010. The Morris Township race had a mere 1,800. Of course I say that in jest as attracting close to two thousand runners on Thanksgiving morning is no joke.

Don’t overlook the Kroghs Restaurant and Brew Pub Turkey Trot that takes place on Thanksgiving morning. It has an early start of 8:45 a.m. with a one mile at 8:15 a.m.

A race that was missed last year is back in the line-up but not at its customary place. The Dover Renaissance 5K will take place on Saturday, December 3rd at 9:00 a.m. Of course race director Peter Lee couldn’t have known that the Swamp Devil races would be on the following day when he scheduled the Dover race. An interesting twist on awards is that the depth of each age division is based on the previous year’s participation.

NEW RUNNING BOOK HAS JERSEY ROOTS

A new novel has just been released that should be on your night table. HOHAs in Love may sound like a romance novel, and it may be that, but it is also a novel whose characters are runners. Set in New Jersey, the author, Laurence Graham does not shy away from placing his characters in the Hoboken Harriers club in Hudson County. Although the protagonists are fictional, there are resemblances to real people in the New Jersey running community that are fun to pick out. Some events are also quite easily identified.



Graham, who uses the less formal Larry, now lives Florida. When he was living in Jersey City he was a regular on the New Jersey racing scene and an extremely talented age division competitor. Graham places his characters at what is clearly the Healthy Heart 5K that was put on by Morristown Memorial Hospital for several years. It was the masters 5K championship for two or three years, and in 1998 Graham, then 46, scored second in the age grading with his 16:09 that hit 87.3%.

He clearly knows about running and racing, and now he shows that he knows about running clubs and the camaraderie that is built among their members. And yes, about love. [ Also see http://hohasinlove.com ]

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