Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, October 19,
2014
Natirar Park in Somerset County will host 8 km cross country next Sunday
Be careful what you wish
for. Finding a location for a cross
country course is not always easy. The USATF
New Jersey cross country championships have of late been taking place at Deer
Path Park in Hunterdon County. It was
once a farm and features rolling farmland like fields as well as level soccer
fields.
The 5 kilometer course has
evolved into a double loop of part of the park and offers what some consider a
perfect cross country course with well groomed paths around the old farm
pastures with two not very onerous hills and some nice gradual downhills.
At one time the 5 kilometer
and the 8 kilometer went over to the rougher part of the park but a foot bridge
over a small creek was deemed unsafe and the courses were reconfigured to avoid
that section of the park.
That meant that the 8
kilometer course took the runners on three trips around the park. In Europe and elsewhere three laps is
considered quite desirable. In other
parts of the world cross country draws a considerable number of fans and being
able to see the race take shape makes the spectators very happy.
Happy spectators do not
equate to happy runners. The New Jersey
runners had already run two loops of Deer Path Park for the 5 kilometer race
and they faced three loops for the 8 kilometer race.
And so the grumbling started. Heeding their constituents, some members of the
LDR and cross country committee took at look at Natirar Park in Somerset
County. Natirar is Raritan spelled
backward and the north branch of the Raritan River flows through the five
hundred acre estate that once belonged to the King of Morocco. Runners who remember the Midland Run 15K
course remember running past the property.
Well now you can run on the
property. Remember when I said “Be
careful what you wish for”?
Picture a pair of
handcuffs. Runners will start at the bottom
of the left bracelet on the handcuff and at about the middle of the bracelet
they will hang a hard right around a large tree. From the tree they will run to the connector
of the handcuffs. Picture now that the
handcuffs are sitting on two levels with the left bracelet on the lower shelf
and the right bracelet on the upper shelf.
That’s right; the connector road has to be climbed to reach the right
side bracelet. In this case a quarter
mile connector road that is all uphill.
Yes. Uphill to the right side bracelet. A large field will open up and the runners
will take the right turn onto the groomed path that encircles the field. The groomed path will sweep down in a gradual
long downhill. But remember that what
goes down must also go up and go up it does.
Only now on the backside of the field the uphill is steep and
short. Only the mighty will run that
hill; better to hike it than try to stay at a run gait.
It is about a mile to circle
the field and then the runners will reach the connector road. Now they can speed down the hill and hang a
right onto the cinder path of the left side bracelet. This will be the recovery part of the run. They will need that flat cinder mile-plus path
because when they get back to the connector road they take a right and go back
up to circle the upper field again. That
short steep hill will feel twice as steep and twice as long. Then, like horses smelling the barn, they
will know that the end is near. When they
hit the connector they will have only the quarter mile run downhill and across the
field to the finish.
When they have recovered they
may just ponder why they thought the Deer Path Park course was such a
problem.
The 8km is next Sunday,
October 26. Registration will open at
8:30 a.m. with an early start for the more senior runners possibly at 9:15 a.m.
with the main start at 10:00 a.m.
##
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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