Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, April 6, 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014
It
began as an event to raise funds for the Morris Knolls baseball team and two
years ago it became a memorial for an athlete who was first a baseball player
and only secondarily a runner. His story
is well known now and the story helps to illustrate running safety in the most
profound way possible.
In 2011, on a sunlight Saturday
in March Ryan Steidl set off for an afternoon training run. In previous years he had helped out at the
MK5K that is held in Denville in April, but that year he had decided to support
the race by entering and running in it.
With his back to traffic, with the sun in the face of drivers, he was
struck by a car and thrown into a telephone pole. He suffered a devastating injury and after
six months of countless surgeries; of hopes and prayers for his recovery,
Steidl succumbed to his injuries.
The MK5K is now known as the
Ryan Steidl Memorial MK5K and it is being held next Saturday April 13th
in Denville. A portion of the funds
raised will go to the Ryan Steidl Memorial Scholarship fund.
The race starts and finishes
in front of St. Clare’s Hospital on Pocono Road. It is an out and back on Old Boonton
Road. Mostly flat the course has one
downhill at the turn onto Old Boonton Road with a corresponding uphill on the
return. Race day registration begins at
7:00 a.m. with the start at 9:00 a.m.
Technical tops are being given to the first 250 entrants.
ONE RUN FOR BOSTON
After the Boston Marathon bombings last year, a trio of
runners from England organized a cross country relay from Santa Monica to
Boston to support the survivors of the bombings. The One Run for Boston is back for a second
year and the relay will be crossing New Jersey this week.
One of several runners who will be running in the relay is Joyce
Morgan of Boonton who will be running the leg from Mendham to Green Village on
Friday, April 11th. Morgan
was a finisher at Boston last year before the bombs went off. She gives as her reason for participating in
the event precisely because she was there that day.
“I’m running because it is the one thing I can do for the
people affected by last year’s bombings.
As a finisher last year, I had a helpless feeling that left me with
wanting to do more. I couldn’t think of
a more perfect opportunity. This gives
me a chance to do something positive for the city and the people of Boston who
were affected.”
Local runners still have time to sign up for leg in the
relay. The group that Morgan is running
with has several runners who will be running the nine miles to Green Village on
Friday. They and those who would like to
sponsor a runner and donate to One Run for Boston can do so on the website www.onerunforboston.org.
WILLIAMS PLACES AT WORLD MEET IN BUDAPEST
Mark Williams of Columbia and formerly Hopatcong had great
races at the World Masters meet in Budapest, Hungary last week, mixing it up
with the best in the world. Williams
finished the 800 meters in fifth place while bettering his time from the Boston
national championship last month. His
time in the world meet was 1:58.05 – Boston was 1:59.24.
In the 1500 Williams placed third at the world meet with a
time of 4:09.75 clearly a much faster pace than his mile at the Boston meet which
he won in 4:42.50. Williams runs for the
Morristown based Garmin racing team.
##
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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