Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, March 9, 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014
ENDLESS
WINTER TAKES ITS TOLL ON RUNNERS
I
have a confession to make. I left town,
so to speak and got away from this endless winter. I spent time in Colorado, Nevada, California
and Florida enjoying mild temperatures while many of you were dealing with snow
and ice here in New Jersey in February.
Feeling a bit guilty about my defection I queried some Morris area runners
to see how they have coped.
Bill
Bosman lives in Rockaway and he says that he is lucky to live in a well plowed
and well maintained condo complex. Although
he can stay safe on the interior roads of the condo he does have to fight the boredom
of endless of loop-the-loops.
But
Bosman said it is preferable to his alternative. “I bought a nice elliptical unit about six
years ago for my family,” he said. “I
hate using equipment and never could use a treadmill.”
So it
was the elliptical that most years he used about twice a year at most, on days
with a wind chill below zero or the heat index over 100.
“This
winter I have used it 14 times and probably should have used it more,” he
said. “I really hope I do not have to
use it ever again. Ninety-six minutes on
an elliptical is really a drag.”
For
Joyce Morgan of Boonton, it is not the icy, snowy roads that give her the most
trouble. She suffers from Reynaud’s syndrome. “Trying to keep my hands and feet warm has
been a challenge with most of my runs taking place early in the morning or
after work at night when the temps were below freezing,” she wrote in an email.
She
wrote that she purchased a pair of socks that are classified as weather proof
and they really make a difference.
Runners will go to extremes to get in their runs and Morgan says that
she is not above duct taping the tops of her light weight mesh sneakers to keep
out the cold.
Morgan’s running partner Pete
Tummey of Rockaway pointed out that once a runner gets out and gets running he
soon heats up. He says that the roads
haven’t been a big problem. He and
Morgan avoid busy roads and they always run against traffic. The “always” was in all caps in his email.
“When
we run at night it is usually in the neighborhoods with little
traffic....monotonous but safe,” said Tummey. “We've had to switch very few training days
around. I personally don't think it’s
been that bad.”
John
Sabatino of Morris Plains has managed to keep his mileage at about the same
level as in other years.
“The
cold doesn’t scare me,” he said. “It’s
when there are unsafe conditions outside.”
He’s
had to change his running route on some days he said because of snow on the
shoulders of the road. It wasn’t all
bad. After one snow storm with six to
seven inches on the ground he had the roads all to himself. “It was great,” he said, “I was running
practically out in the middle of the road.”
Morgan isn’t the only one
with issues with cold extremities. Karyn
Layton of Rockaway uses hand warmers in her gloves and foot warmers in her
shoes. She doubles her socks and refers
to them as “storm socks” which might be kin the Morgan’s weather proof
socks.
“I can’t wait until spring
and the roads are clear again!” said Layton, echoing all the runners. “ It’s dangerous right now with the snow
making roads narrow and the melting/freezing of the snow makes sidewalks
dangerous as well.”
Stay safe runners.
ST PATTY’S DAY 5K THIS
SATURDAY
Winter
weary runners can rejoice! The first
race of the season is on tap in Morris Township next Saturday, March 15th. Yes, the St. Patty’s Day 5K will start at
10:00 a.m. at the Ginty Field location off Woodland Avenue.
The
race has attracted large fields in recent years, partly due to being the only
game in town, and partly because people are usually eager to race by mid- March. Will that be so true this year after the
endless winter with no safe place to train outdoors? In 2013 Justine Scheid or Morris Plains won
the race in 15:26 while his brother Jeremy of Hoboken placed second in
16:31. Eleana Rozhko of Morristown was
the women’s winner in 18:18. There were
1,210 finishers that year.
#
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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