Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, November 24, 2013
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013
Two things are for certain this
week. Thursday is Thanksgiving and no matter
which of the many races you choose to run that morning, you will be cold. None of the locations are predicted to have
anything over 35 degrees. Layer up!
Two Thanksgiving races are in
Morris County; the Chatham Turkey Trot and the Morris Township Turkey
Trot. Both are 5Ks but you can enter
only one of them now as the Chatham race has capped its field at 500
registrants and is now closed.
The Morris Township race drew 2,284
in 2012 and with no cap will draw the same or maybe a few less. Those would be the ones who decide to stay in
a nice warm house. The course is both a
tough course and a great downhill course.
If you are going to have a hill to climb, let it be at the start while
legs are still fresh. This one does that
and runners are rewarded with a great downhill in the last mile.
Up in Sparta the Krogh’s Restaurant
and Pub Turkey Trot features a course with one turn, making it probably the
fastest course you could run. It goes
out on E. Shore Trail and at 2.5 kilometers the runners make a u-turn and come right
back to where they started. You can’t
get any simpler than that. The race drew
1,909 runners in 2012.
The Dick Meighan Memorial 5K in
Upper Saddle River is interesting in that it is one of the few races that is
not a New Balance Grand Prix race and appears to not even be USATF
sanctioned. That did not keep people
away however as 2,257 runners completed the race in 2012.
The grand daddy of all the races;
the one that started it all back when people said you had to be crazy to put on
a road race on Thanksgiving morning, the Flemington Turkey Trot drew 4,203
runners in 2012. They obviously thought
it was a splendid idea.
But the one race that stands out
from the others; not because it is a USATF New Jersey championship, but because
it is two miles longer than the others, is the Horace Ashenfelter 8 kilometer
race in Glen Ridge. With all the
competition from those other shorter races, the Ashenfelter still drew 2,552
runners in 2012.
The 8K is the last championship
race of the season and it will determine what teams will be declared the winner
in the club and team grand prix.
Two other races within driving
distance take place on turkey day. One is
in Greenbrook that appears to be a new race and another is in Princeton. The Princeton Trinity Church Turkey Trot drew
923 runners in 2012.
At the end of this running column,
when space permits is a tag that tells the reader where to find race results
and a racing calendar. The USATF New
Jersey website has a road race calendar that only shows sanctioned races. A sanction ensures that the races have
liability insurance and cover runners who might be injured during a race or
while going to or leaving the race.
Not having a sanction does not mean
that a race has no insurance, however. The
event may have insurance through the town or other entity involved with the
race. Being sanctioned does not guarantee
that a course is certified, or that it is in the New Balance grand prix. If the race is in the New Balance grand prix then
it must be certified and will be so noted.
On the other hand a race course might be certified but the race is not in
the grand prix series.
Other sources for finding races
include the various race timing companies like compuscore.com and bestrace.com. A calendar that includes races that are
outside of New Jersey is raceforum.com. Runners
can find the race forum magazine style publication at most races. It is always loaded with ads for the races
and often the race application itself.
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