Fitzgerald Lager Run ends the first half of the racing season

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, June 30, 2013

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013

FITZGERALD LAGER RUN ENDS THE FIRST HALF OF THE RACING SEASON

Runners could begin to suffer from a letdown now that the most competitive races have been run in the spring/summer season.  Masters men gave their best effort at the Fitzgerald Lager Run 5K this past Sunday in Glen Ridge.  Forty-eight teams made up a large bulk of the race that had 1,149 finishers.

First across the line was Joseph Norton of Haddonfield who finished in exactly sixteen minutes.  Ben Clark of Morristown was second in 16:07.  David Slavinski, 42, of Point Pleasant finished in third overall and first master in 16:16.  Slavinski’s team, the Pearl Izumi team that first raced the previous Monday at the President’s Cup Night Race placed first in the M40 division.  The Sneaker Factory was second and the North Jersey Masters were third.  Nineteen teams competed in that division.

In the M50 division the Fleet Feet Essex running club pulled off a huge upset.  The team has never finished higher than eighth, defeating the division leader Raritan Valley Road Runners 1:35:17 to 1:35:38.  The biggest squeaker though was a one second difference between the RVRR team and the Shore Athletic Club A team. 

Not to be outdone for irony, a Shore team was first in the M60 division, but it was their B team that defeated their A team, and the difference was – you guessed it – one second.  Talk about balancing your teams. 

At the end of the first half of the season Sneaker Factory is in the lead in the M40 division of the team grand prix with the Garmin runners in second.  Garmin finished in an uncharacteristic fifth place at the Lager Run putting them three points behind the Sneaker Factory.  Raritan Valley is in third, five points back.

Despite their second place finish at last Sunday’s race, Raritan Valley still holds the lead in the M50 team grand prix.  The Do Run Runners team that finished in sixth place is hanging on to second in while the Shore club is one point behind in third.

Shore AC – their A team – has a mighty lead in the M60 team grand prix division with the Morris County Striders and Raritan Valley tied for second.

Although the race was the USATF masters men championship Jane Parks of Morristown had a strong performance on the women’s side.  Parks has had a great season and her 22:00 race at age 60 earned her 86.91% on the age grading scale and first for masters women.  Allison Dublinski of Morristown was the overall women’s winner in 18:24.

BUSINESS’S BATTLED MONDAY NIGHT

In Florham Park on Monday night, Youssef Rochdi of East Hanover won the Battle of the Business 5K in 17:17 and on the women’s side Michelle Quinlan of Morris Plains was the winner in 19:52.  ADP won both the men and women’s large company team division, but Novartis won the Co-ed division, BASF was second and Lowenstein Sandler was third.

Hennon and Walsh was first in the small company coed division, Connell Foley was second and Nielsen was third.  These corporate teams and many more will be racing next month at the Verizon Wireless Corporate Classic in Morristown on July 18^th.

MENDHAM RACES WERE TOUGH

Runners report that the Patriot’s 5K and 8K in Mendham this past Saturday were tough.  It’s hard to avoid hills in Mendham and apparently the race courses featured them.  Ted Mussano of Wayne won the 8K race in 29:28 and Jeanne Pare of Mendham was the women’s winner in 32:13.  Although Pare has not seen much racing this season, the 52 year old shows she still has the speed to defeat all women younger than herself.  In fact, only five men ran faster than Pare.

Mendham seems to have a knack for turning out fast female runners and in the 5K, a thirteen year old, Hope Tiboni of Mendham finished in 18:59 and second overall.  Tiboni won her division at the USATF NJ cross country Junior Olympics last November.  She’s legit.

##

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.