Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, April 20 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014
Here it is only the middle of April and one group of runners
will be running in their third championship of the season on April 26th. Masters women, along with all the other
divisions ran in the Miles for Music 20K in March. Then earlier this month masters women had
their own 10K championship at the Cherry Blossom 10K in Newark and now coming
up is the Clinton Country Run 15K next Saturday, April 26th. That race is also a championship for all the
other team divisions.
Early results are showing the strength of the top
teams. The Garmin racing team has two
wins in the W40 division, North Jersey Masters two second places, and the Do
Run Runners have two thirds. In the W50 the
Do Run team has two firsts, while the North Jersey Masters have two
seconds. The Clifton Road Runners have
one third and one fourth. In the W60
Clifton has two seconds with the Rose City Runners taking first in both races.
The Clinton Country Run is truly a country run using about a
mile and a half of the Hunterdon County Trail that is really an old road
converted to non vehicular traffic.
After the “trail” comes the tougher part of the course – what race
directors love to call rolling when they don’t want to admit rolling is a euphemism
for challenging.
Slower runners will be able to start at 8:30 am and the full
field will start at 9:30 a.m. A one mile
race is at 9:00 a.m. and a 5K will start at 9:40 a.m. In 2013 the 15K was only a masters
championship with the Indian Trails the open 15K championship. With the open runners now competing there
should be a real infusion of upfront talent.
NEW BALANCE GRAND PRIX STANDINGS POSTED
The first 2014 New Balance Grand Prix standings were posted
this past Thursday. In the history of
the grand prix think there has never been a husband wife duo in first place,
but in 2014 let it be so noted that Karl and Aya Leitz of Jersey City share
that distinction. The couple, who run
for the Sneaker Factory, each have seven races already in their score card, out
of the maximum nine races.
Four area women are in the top ten. Gretchen Atwater of Bernardsville is in fifth
place with four races and Jane Parks of Morristown also with four races is in sixth
place. Allison Dublinski of Morristown
is in eighth and Joanna Stevens of Basking Ridge rounds out tenth place.
Nearly all the men in the top ten are Morris County men;
Charlie Slaughter of Parsippany is in third place with six races run, Mark
Washbourne of Mendham has six and is in fourth place. Youssef Rochdi of Rockaway is fifth with five
races run, Beau Atwater, Gretchen’s husband, is seventh, Robert Skorupski of
Rockaway is ninth and Ben Clarke of Morristown is tenth.
GOOD TURNOUT IN DENVILLE LAST SATURDAY
At the Ryan Steidl Memorial MK5K in Denville last weekend
the race was won by Youssef Rochdi of Rockaway in 15:20. Second went to Ben Clarke of Morristown in
16:01 and third to Tim Murphy also of Morristown in 17:29. The first masters runner was fifty year old
Terry Lusardi of Madison who finished fourth in 18:21. Lusardi was outscored in the age grading by
65 year old Roger Price of Randolph who finished in ninth place at 19:57 for an
84.05% PLP.
Allison Dublinski or Morristown won the women’s side in
18:59, with Ali Locke of Boonton second in 20:48. Gina Baker of Rockaway was third in
21:11. Susan Plutchok of Rockaway was the
first masters woman to finish. Her time was 24:09.
BOSTON MARATHON TOMORROW
Many of us will be focused on the Boston Marathon tomorrow. As always a very large contingent of runners
from New Jersey and Morris County will be running. Some were not able to finish the race last
year and were turned back when the bombs went off. To say it will be an emotional day for those
runners is an understatement. Those of
us who will be here at home will be sending our best thoughts to Boston and our
friends. May they all have a great
marathon.
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Here's a video you will find interesting about last year's spotlighted runner at Boston Marathon.
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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