Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, December 29, 2013
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013
NEW JERSEY RUNNERS MAKE NATIONAL HEADLINES
Diane Stone of Bernardsville was the featured Phidippides
award winner in the December 2013/January 2014 issue of National Masters News. In a
very interesting article Stone relates how she first started running when she
was forty-five years old and how she ran her first marathon at age 50 and was
timed in 4:30:45. The next year she
squeaked in under 4:30 at 4:29:56. She
made the point that it was all gun time back then. No chips to track the actual time from start
line to finish line.
Stone who is now in the W80 division ran in forty five races
in 2013, although that number has probably changed since the story went to
press. She ran for her Morris County
Strider team at the national USATF cross country masters championship in
October, a division with no other contenders.
She and her teammates were featured in a photo with the newspaper
article about the race that was held at Deer Path Park in Readington.
STILL TIME TO SUBMIT RACES FOR PHIDIPPIDES AWARD
The deadline for submitting your application for the
Phidippides Award is January 31, 2014.
The award goes to those runners who compete in a number of races thus
honoring the famous Greek runner Phidippides.
The qualification for the award is based on points assigned
to the various race distances. For
instance a 5K is assigned a value of one point.
Ten miles is valued at three points and 25K and the marathon and those
even longer are valued at four points.
Younger runners need to tally more points than their older
counterparts. To earn a Gold award in
the 40 through 59 ages a runner needs 20 points, while a runner who is 80 and
older needs only eight.
The award is given to members of USATF and membership is
also a requirement for the New Jersey New Balance Grand prix. Enrollment is now going on. Information for signing up is at www.usatfnj.org.
Runners who were members of USATF in 2013 can go to the
national website to find the application at the Masters Long Distance Running
page. In the past six years, since the
start of the Phidippides Award, New Jersey runners look to be a decided
majority of recipients.
Ten New Jersey runners, including Stone, will receive their
five year plaque for having qualified for an award in the previous five years.
NEW YEAR’S DAY RACES
2013 racing season is over and 2014 will begin on
Wednesday. Oh yes, it’s time to race
again and you will have four races to choose from on New Year’s Day. Actually, you only have three to choose from
now because one, the Resolution Run 5K in Hillsborough, has closed its
registration after reaching its cap of 500 runners.
The Hamilton Hangover five mile race will go off at 12:30
p.m. This will be the 32nd
race that last year drew 459 finishers.
Not to be outdone, the Hangover 5K in Tamaques Park in
Westfield also will be celebrating 32 years of history. At one time the event was just a club run for
the Central Jersey Road Runners club but it has morphed over the years into a
competitive race. It goes off at 12
noon. Last year 788 runners finished the
race.
Probably the baby of the bunch of New Year’s Day races is
the 1st Day 5K in Fairlawn that sprang up in 2013. It has grown since then to over four hundred
finishers in 2013. It has the earliest
start time of 11:00 a.m.
Participation is understandably influenced by the weather on
the first day of the New Year. Forecasts
show that it will be seasonable with a high in the low 30’s with a possibility
of some snow.
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A calendar of USATF sanctioned events can be found at www.usatfnj.org or at www.raceforum.com for running and tri and
biathlon events.
Contact Madeline Bost at madelinebost@verizon.net.
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