USATF-NJ CHAMPIONSHIP RACES ARE POSTED FOR 2013

Written by Madeline Bost

Originally Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, December 16, 2012

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2012

The season for racers is pretty much over for 2012.  How well a runner or a team did is now history.  Checking out the New Jersey USATF website can inspire the runners to say, better luck next year if 2012 didn’t go as planned.  The Championship races for 2013 have been posted and it looks like a great schedule.

It is not easy to satisfy everyone, but this one looks like it can draw few complaints; at least as pertains to the recovery gaps between races for each division.   Returning once again as the first race on the schedule is the Miles for Music 20K for all of the divisions.  It takes place at Johnson Park in Piscataway on March 10^th.

There will be a good gap before the next race, the April 7^th Indian Trails 15K in Middletown for open men and women.  I don’t know if Indian Trails ever bids for the masters championship but I would guess that if they did it would be turned down.  It is truly a challenging course and some of the senior masters would not be able to handle it.

They can manage the Clinton Country Run 15K on April 27^th.  While not exactly flat the rural course has long grades and never lung busters like the Indian Trails race.  It’s the championship for both masters men and women.

Open men and women have the next race and it is a good long gap from the Indian Trails race, Saturday May 11^th.  That’s when the Newport 10,000 in Jersey City takes place.  So far everything looks like the same schedule as 2012, but here is where a change takes place.  The Run for Rachel 5K in Livingston on May 19^th will not be the open women’s championship, but the masters women’s race.  So although that is only a week’s difference from the open women’s 10K, it is not a race that they need to run.

The Ridgewood Run 10K has been at various times a championship for one of the divisions and at times has not been in the line-up at all, but for 2013 it is the masters men’s championship.

Now if I were making an oral presentation this is where I would ask for the drum roll.  That’s because the next race is the President’s Cup Night Race on June 17^th and it will be the open men’s championship.  Let’s hear the cheers!

In 2012 the popular 5K in Millburn was just another 500 point Category One event.  The folks were not happy.

Wrapping up the spring season is the Lager Run 5K in Glen Ridge on June 23^rd and again it will be the masters men championship.

Since the masters women will have the Run for Rachel, the open women will have the Jimmy D 5K for their championship in New Brunswick on September 1^st.  The Liberty Waterfront half marathon in Jersey City will be on September 22^nd and it is for all divisions. 

The next road championship will be the Giralda Farms 10K and in 2013 it will be the masters women’s race.  Thanksgiving morning all divisions will race at the Ashenfelter 8K in Glen Ridge and that will wrap up the season.  Yes, or should I say No.  No Grand Finale Ten Miler in December.  The championship season will end with the 8K.  Did I hear more cheers? 

The schedule for the cross country races is still incomplete.   There is a good possibility that the 5 kilometer cross country championship will take place in August.   The 8 kilometer will likely take place in October.

What is known is that the national cross country masters championship 5 kilometer was awarded to New Jersey at the annual meeting in Daytona Beach earlier this month and it will be held on October 20^th at Deer Path Park in Readington.

NEW BALANCE GRAND PRIX HAS ONE RETURNING WINNER – CATHERINE SMITH.

MICHAEL ANIS COMES FROM BEHIND

Catherine Smith was a solid bet for winning the New Balance Grand Prix for another year.  Smith, of Wayne, missed a perfect score of 5,700 by two points.  Michael Anis of Highland Park was a come from behind winner on the men’s side. 

His was not a near perfect score, 5,653 but 21 points up from Gary Leaman of Hardwick, who had been at the top spot for several weeks.   Anis filled in his score card in November when he took 698 points at the Ashenfelter 8 kilometer and 499 points at the Westfield Turkey Trot.