Midland Avenue Mile was well hydrated

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, August 28, 2016

MIDLAND MILE WAS WELL HYDRATED

Let’s see.  Perfect conditions for a road mile race.   Cool, slight breeze, low humidity.  That should about do it. 

I guess no one gave the weather gods the order for last Sunday.  Yes, it was cool.  I’m not sure about the breeze.  But the Midland Avenue Mile struck out on the humidity part.

It had been threatening to rain all day and early weather reports for New Jersey were for dangerous lightning after five.  Five o’clock was the time of the first of several mile races in Montclair and that weather report was not reassuring.  But the weather gods held back the lightning and all they sent was the rain.

After the “civilian” race was completed, the first of the USATF – New Jersey races began with the W50 and older heat.  Misa Tamura, 50, of Ridgewood took off and lead from the start according to others in the race.  She finished in 5:41.12 for first in her division and first in the race.

Nora Cary of Morristown was the first W60 division woman, finishing in seventh overall in the race in 6:30.07 and age grading at 88.89%, second only to Erika Campbell, 67, of Ridgewood who finished in 6:40.9, and whose age graded Performance Level Percentage was 95.11%.

The next race, the W40 was won by Jennifer St. Jean of Darien CT in 5:13.11.  Anne Balfour of Morristown was second in 6:11.92 but was first New Jersey USATF member.

With rain continuing to fall the next race was for all men 60 and older, and to no surprise Reno Stirrat of Rockaway appeared first heading for the finish in 5:41.2.  Stirrat’s Shore Athletic Club team made almost a clean sweep with the next three men out of four scoring for the team.

Joining the “if you only ran a little faster” club was the Raritan Valley Road Runners, bumped to third place in the M60 division by the Fleet Feet team whose combined time was 20:55.91 compared to the RVRR time of 20:56.12.  Michael Barry of Succasunna was second man on the Fleet Feet team and Roger Price of Randolph led in the RVRR team.

Atilla Sabahoglu of Somerset had an easy win in the open men’s division, finishing in 4:39.33 ahead of 78 other men in the race. 

Roberta Groner of Randolph also had an easy win, cruising across the finish line in 5:05.05 ahead of 64 other women in the race. 

The Morris area Garmin club had a field day.  Their M40 and their open men’s team won both of those divisions as did their W40 and open women’s team.

The Morris County Striders women’s team did well with a third in the W50 and fourth in W60 while their W70 and W80 teams won their division.

CROSS COUNTRY THIS MORNING

Many runners will be heading for Thompson Park in Monroe this morning for the USATF-NJ cross country championship 5kilometer cross country race.  If you are itching for a race closer to home this coming week I am not seeing many.  There is a 5K in Brookdale Park in Bloomfield on Saturday, September 3^rd, and a 5K in Sparta on Monday, September 5^th.  The race will run around Lake Mohawk with a start at 8:30 a.m.

MIDLAND SCHOOL

Oh how quickly we forget.  Well, how quickly I forgot.  The Midland Run 15K that I referenced in last Sunday’s column was named for the Midland School that benefited from the two races, 15K and 5K, that was run in May at Moorland Farms in Bedminster.  Thanks to Barbara Rushman, club historian for the Rose City running club for her gentle reminder.

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Race Results can often be found at www.compuscore.com or at  www.bestrace.com 

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.