Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, October 26,
2014
Giralda Farms 10K celebrates 35 years
Thirty-five years is a long time to keep a race streak
alive. On June 10, 1979 281 runners
finished the Rose City Festival 10K in Madison.
It was the start of the first great running boom. In 1985 the race moved to the Giralda Farms Corporate
Complex and was renamed to reflect the move.
The 35th running will be held on Sunday November 9th.
Barbara Rushman of Florham Park, the Rose City Running club
historian, shared her spread sheet of the
history of the race. Fabio Mejia won
the race in 33:25 and Nancy Seeger; a former Roxbury high school standout won
the women’s division in 37:34. Seeger
won it again in 1981 and lowered her time to 36:07. Tom Donahue won it overall that year in 31:24.
The configuration of the 10K has changed since the move and
is different than the one in use now. Although
one can refer to the fastest time ever run in the race; it is not a course
record. In 1991 Joe LeMay, then of
Ridgewood and now living in Connecticut, won the race in 29:40, the fastest
time in the 35 year history of the 10K. The
course was recertified in 2008 and Chris Heibell of Hillsborough set the fastest time since the
recertification in 31:16 in 2010.
The fastest time for a woman was run by Alicia Kelly, an
outstanding shore area runner. She hit
the tape in 1994 in 34:39. In 2008 Heidi
Wolfsberger of Scranton, PA, won the race in 34:57 establishing the fastest
time on the present course.
A 5K was added – quite literally - in 2000. Both races started together; a practice that
still goes on today. The 5K grew from
178 finishers that first year to 494 in 2013.
The largest fields were in 2009 when 633 finished the 5K and 731
finished in the 10K.
The start of the races at noon is a sight like no
other. The 5K runners start on one of
the lanes of the access roads within the complex. The 10K runners start on the other. The complex is basically filling the side of
a hill and the start lines are nearly at the highest point. When the horn sounds, the mass of runners
become a colorful ribbon of runners filling the two lanes until they merge into
one giant serpent snaking its way to the bottom of the hill.
This year the 10K is the masters men’s championship and the
team competition will be fierce. New for
this year is in addition to the usual post race food offered to the runners is
a vendor who will be selling hot food and drink.
Hillary Clark of Mendham, co race director this year along with
Barry Lass of Morristown said that they often have had spectators asking if
they can buy some hot coffee from the volunteer’s table. Having a noon race it stands to reason that
some of the spectators, and later, maybe the runners, will want some hot food
they can purchase.
What has not changed is the souvenir t-shirt. While many races have gone to technical wicking
t-shirts, the Giralda Farms race will stick to its long sleeved cotton shirt
with the unchanged geese flying across the chest with no advertisers on the
back. Technical shirts are great for
running in, but they do not keep you warm like a cotton T. The runners would probably revolt if the
shirt were changed.
Clark kept her lips sealed when asked what the color would
be. The tradition with the Rose City
Runners, the club that organizes the race is that the color of the shirt is secret
and only revealed at the club’s run the day before the race.
Last year the shirts were Boston blue and yellow to honor
the victims of the marathon bombing.
Clark said that so far they have been able to avoid repeating
previous years color combinations. Another
tradition is for the mugs that are given to the age division winners reflect
the same color as the shirts.
##
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment