Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, Aug 3, 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014
Running is good for you but you knew that
Runners - we have been vindicated. Running is good for you. You knew that. Well did you know that now is the time to
enroll your children, or tell your adult kids to enroll their children in cross
country recreation programs this month?
A study released on Monday in the Journal of American College
of Cardiology cites data from several long term studies that revealed that even
a small amount of running has benefits that will increase your lifespan. Several publications have printed articles
related to the study this week.
As parents we are charged with growing our children into
healthy adults. What better way than to
teach them the joy of running.
The timing of the article couldn’t be better as I was
contacted last week by Tom Metz of Denville.
Metz was at one time a highly competitive open New Jersey runner who
also coached at the County College of Morris back when they were fielding teams
in track and field and cross country.
Now a masters competitor and a daddy, Metz has become a
coach for the new Parsippany Express recreation team. Although the cross county team is new this
year, they are joining with the long established Lakeland League that includes
teams from sixteen mostly Morris area towns.
Typically the teams meet twice a week and compete once a
week. Age divisions are in two year
groups and are determined by the age of the child on December 31st. For cross country the youngest group is seven
and eight year olds and they compete at 1,700 meters or about one hundred
meters more than a mile. Nine and ten
year olds compete at 2,000 meters or 1.25 miles. Eleven and twelve year olds compete at 3,000
meters which is almost two miles and the thirteen and fourteen year olds do
4,000 meters or two and a half miles.
Once the child has reached high school he is no longer in
the program and can be assumed to go out for cross country at his school. This is a crucial time for a teen. In any of the team sports, soccer, baseball,
basketball, etc., the high schooler who doesn’t measure up will be cut from the
team. In cross country and track and
field he will not be cut. He may not
make it to the Meet of Champions but he is still part of the team. He still belongs.
In a column I wrote several years ago I made this
point. A teen drug abuse counselor told
me that when a kid who had loved his team sport hit high school and was cut,
that was when he went looking for new pals and often found them among kids who
were experimenting with drugs. Kids who
run are less likely to go astray.
Competition for the Lakeland League recreation teams is at
Central Park in Morris Plains. Parents should
look for more information on their town’s website or do a Google search. The amount of information varies with each
town. Some teams have their own
website, like the Mendham Magic but others are embedded in the Recreation
Department page. For the Parsippany team
the website does not have the cross country information posted yet. The contact is parsippanyexpresscrosscountry@gmail.com or 973-590-8726.
Alan Webb comes to New Jersey
Imagine a young Alan Webb turning out as a freshman for the
cross country team, or track. Imagine
that he didn’t make the cut that year. His
name would be missing from the list of the sub four minute high school milers.
But it didn’t happen.
He started setting high school records early, and on May 27, 2001 Webb
ran a mile in 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene Oregon - two seconds faster than the previous mark
of Jim Ryun’s 3:55.3 that was set 36 years before. Webb went on to have an illustrious career in
both track and cross country. He announced
this year his retirement from track and a move to triathlons
Now Webb will be
doing a run at the Sneaker Factory’s Florham Park store this Saturday, August 9th. Runners are invited to join Webb in a four
mile prediction run at 9:00 a.m. No
watches allowed of course. The runner
with the closest predicted time will win a free pair of Saucony shoes and other
top predictors will win other goodies. After
the run Webb will stay for a question and answer session where light
refreshments will be served. The event
is free but those who will attend the question and answer session are asked to RSVP. More information is available at the Sneaker
Factory website.
##
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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