Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, March 3, 2013
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013
Sunny with a high of 53 degrees says the ten day forecast
for next Sunday, March 10th.
What better way for the 2013 USATF New Jersey championship season to
open than with perfect racing conditions.
The Miles for Music 20K in Johnson Park in Piscataway will host all team
divisions, a sort of reuniting of the teams that competed last in December at
the Grand Finale ten miler in Mercer County.
A 5K will also be run and one mile as well. The headliner 20K will start at 9:00
a.m. The course is two and a half,
almost three loops of the Park, making for a great spectator race. Multiple loops are usually frowned upon by
runners because they do the same loop over and over, but in this race, they
will at all times be spectators as well.
That is because the loops are not loops so much as multiple
out-and-backs within sight of the outgoing and returning runners. Runners can see who is ahead of them and how
closely a rival is trailing them.
While much will be the same for the clubs as in 2012, much
has also changed. At the Long Distance
Running Committee meeting this past Thursday, some rules were reaffirmed and
some were tossed and replaced with revisions that could have an impact on the
Team and Club Grand Prix.
The meeting was well attended with eleven of the twelve
participating clubs represented. Some clubs
had only one delegate and some came with a large contingent of members. There had been eight proposed rules, or rule
changes. When the delegates were able to
close their notebooks two had been withdrawn, three were defeated and three
were approved.
The first proposed rule change that would have outlawed
“double dipping”, the using of one runner on two different age division teams,
was unanimously defeated. It is unlikely
that the executive committee will allow a similar proposal to be brought
forward anytime in the near future.
“Dead and done”, was one person’s assessment. “Double dipping” is an integral part of a
club’s ability to field full teams in a division.
Was there a problem with how the A teams, B teams, C teams
are handled? Almost the entire group
felt that there is not. Team captains
will continue to be able to strategize how they will use their squads. They will be able to balance an A team with a
B team to have them of about equal ability.
They will also be able to create a B team that is stronger and faster
than an A team at a particular championship if that will serve the club in the
overall club grand prix. They can even
leave their A team at home and let the B team score points.
Call it a paradox, but at the end of the year, if a B team
is in the top three it will be removed and the second place award will go to
the team that finished below it. The
scores from the B team, and C team, if one exists will still count toward the
overall club total, but they will not be recognized at the USATF awards
banquet.
In 2013 all races run by a team will be counted. Until now each team was credited with their
best seven out of eight race scores, or put in another way, each team could
drop their poorest race. That safeguard
will no longer exist. If a team misses a
race or has a bad one, that score will stand.
The newly revised rules will be posted on the USATF- NJ
website under Long Distance Running.
TUNE-UP IN MORRIS TOWNSHIP ON SATURDAY
The Farmer’s Insurance St. patty’s Day 5K is on Saturday in
Morris Township at the Ginty Field site on Woodland Avenue. This race has become the season opener for
Morris area runners and last year it drew nearly 1,400 runners. The 2012 race was won by Chris Croff of
Montclair in 15:54 and Elena Rozhko of Morristown in 18:07. With the great spring like weather predicted
for next weekend it should draw another crowd of enthusiastic racers.
##
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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