Sunday, September 6, 2015

Stampede at Natirar Park



Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, September 6, 2015



STAMPEDE AT NATIRAR PARK

William Appman of Hoboken won the USATF-NJ cross country 5 kilometer race this past Sunday at Natirar Park in Peapack.  All runners raced together which gave me a birds-eye view of the top men as they hurtled down the graveled road from the upper field as I was still ascending.  Out in my home state of Washington they have a huge cowboy event called the Omak Stampede.  It is also known as the Suicide Race.  Look it up.

While the cross country hill that the New Jersey elite runners were coming down might not quite compare to a suicide race, watching those runners stampeding down toward the finish certainly reminded me of that Washington horse race.

I was told that the lead positions didn’t change after the hill so it was Appman who was leading the charge.  He finished in 16:13, with Robert Nihen of Glen Rock second in 16:28 and Mark Hess of Morristown third in 16:33.

Corinne Fitzgerald, from Rockaway finished in 18:46 to win, a good minute ahead of second place Nicola Hallenborg of Summit.  Third place was Katie Castroagudin of River Edge in 19:53.

Outstanding performances by masters runners were recorded.  Mark Zamek, 52, of Lavalette was the first over age forty man to finish followed by Brian Crowley, 50, of Hillsborough and Gary Rosenberg, 44, of Morristown.  Their times were 17:36, 17:53 and 18:04.   It is worth mentioning that all three are on the Garmin racing team out of Morristown that won the M40 team division by a margin of 29 points and the M40 by only four points – being chased by the Shore Athletic Club.

Masters women also had their stars.  The first masters woman to finish was 47 year old Karen Perlman of Neshanic Station who finished in 19:56, followed by 49 year old Misa Tamura of Ridgewood whose time was 20:35.  Although she finished after those two, 52 year old Mary Christian of Flanders finished in 21:12 and placed third as well in the Age grading list, bested only by Perlman and the remarkable Nora Cary of Morristown whose time of 22:16 at age 60 was age graded at 83.23%.


On the men’s side, Zamek and Crowley were split by Reno Stirrat, 61, of Rockaway whose time of 18:57 hit 84.95% on the age grading tables.

The open team division was dominated by the Adidas Garden State Track Club.  On the men’s side they took the first six spots.  Their women took the first three spots.  The Garmin women were fourth.

The Garmin team was seventh in Open men and won both the M40 and M50 divisions.  The Do Run team placed third in the M40 and fifth in the M50 division. 

The unbeatable Garmin women took first in both the W40 and W50 divisions and their B team was fourth in the W40.  In the W50 the Do Run Runners were tied with Raritan Valley Road Runners for third.

The Morris County Striders had an A and B team in the W70 and a team for the W80 division.  Their W60 team placed fourth in their division.

At the Belmar Chase 5K on August 22nd, the Garmin men won the M40 division of the Masters Men division.  The Do Run Runners were third and third as well in the M50 division.  The Garmin team was pushed back to second place in the M50 by the Shore Athletic Club competing on their home turf.

Next up is the Newport Liberty Half Marathon on September 20th.

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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.



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