MASTERS WOMEN BLOOMED WITH CHERRY BLOSSOM 10K

Written by Madeline Bost

Originally Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, April 22, 2012
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2012

Polly Harrison of Basking Ridge placed second overall masters woman at the Cherry Blossom 10K this past Sunday earning a silver medal in the masters women’s USATF-NJ championship. [ results ]  Misa Tamura of Ridgewood was first masters with her time of 39:17.  Harrison finished in 41:03.

The race was won by Ben Clarke of Morristown in 34:11 and on the women’s side by Catherine Smith of Wayne in 38:55. 

Jane Parks and Nora Cary, both of Morristown placed one, two in the W55 division.  Park’s finished in 44:41 while Cary posted a 45:43.

Shirley Pettijohn of Chatham placed third in the W75 division with fellow Morris Country Strider teammate Melva Murray in fourth.  The pair was teamed with Diane Stone of Bernardsville who won the W80 division, to garner points for their team in both the W60 and W70 team divisions.

Local teams included the Sneaker Factory W40 team that placed fourth, just ahead of the Do Run Runners in fifth.  Rose City placed 8^th out of 12 teams.  In the W50 division, the Sneaker Factory placed second, with the Do Run team taking fourth and Rose City placing seventh.

The teams will meet again this coming Saturday at the Clinton Country Run 15K.  The Sneaker Factory women’s masters teams have earned their club a total of 21 points when the points earned at the Miles for Music 20K are added to the Cherry Blossom tally.  Do Run Runners have 15 points, Rose City has two and the Morris County Striders has a total of 19.  The Striders had only their senior women at the Cherry Blossom due to the schedule conflict with the Boston Marathon.  Other teams were also missing runners who were in Boston.

BOSTON WAS A SCORCHER, LOCALS DID WELL       

How hot was it?  Well hot enough that most runners slowed down and some did not finish and some did not even start.  Runners who would never consider anything but running the whole distance of a marathon were reduced to walking during some parts of the race and some walked the last few miles.  It was tough.

Some runners however did manage to have a decent race, albeit slower than they might have imagined.  Rich Burke, 44, of Morristown was the first New Jersey runner to finish.  His time was 2:35:41 and that put him in fifth place in his M40 age division, and 48^th overall.

Justin Scheid, 29, of Sparta was ten places back in 58^th place and with a time of 2:36:50.  Elliott Frieder, 41, of Montville was eleventh M40 with a time of 2:43:56.  Barry Lass, 48, of Cedar Knolls finished in under the magic three hour mark in 2:58:34.

Wendy Locke, 50, of Boonton was the first local woman to finish.  Her time of 3:34:07 put her fifth in her age division.  Mary Christian, 48, of Flanders finished in 3:37:49.

STOMP THE MONSTER TUG OF WAR WITH UNITE HALF MARATHON

This segment was cut from the printed version in the Daily Record last Sunday.  Note that there is more to the story than I knew.

Tom Poland, who was featured here last week, had a fairly easy choice to make for April 22^nd.  He could chose to run in the Stomp the Monster 5K, the USATF open men’s championship or enter the Unite Half Marathon taking place the same day on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick.  With a chance to win one thousand dollars, or even $500.00 for second or $250.00 for third, paying the $85.00 entry fee was not too risky.

For most runners, those who have no shot at the big bucks, paying $25.00 to register for the Stomp the Monster, or even $30.00 on race day is a whole lot easier on the budget than $85.00 for the Unite or $90.00 on race day.  This trend toward higher entry fees has many long -time fans and participants worrying about where road racing is heading.  You’ll be hearing and reading about this more in the days ahead.

There is more to an entry fee than you might think.  The Unite Half Marathon charges a day of race packet pick-up fee of $15.00 and you must reserve the service prior to the day of the race.  If you do not, the fee goes up to $25.00.  The fee can be avoided if the packet is picked up at the race expo that takes place the day before the race.    I trust that we can assume that the runners who entered the race were aware of this packet pickup procedure.