On
Sunday, January 28, 2018
5,000 METERS IS A PERFECT 5K
What’s your idea of a perfect 5K course? You want it to be fast, so it needs to be
flat. No sharp corners, and of course
you want it to be weather perfect. You
can have all that on Sunday, February 11 and you don’t have to travel too far
to find it.
That 5K course is just across the bridge on Staten Island
and here’s the best part. It could be
cold outside, raining cats and dogs, or snowing up a storm. You’ll be warm and dry because you will be
running your 5K indoors at the Ocean Breeze facility in the dual New Jersey /
New York Championship meet.
It is not often that 5,000 meters is offered at an indoor
meet, but this meet has it, along with the shorter and more common 3,000 meter
distance. The facility opened its doors
for competition in November of 2015 and has been a magnet for high school,
youth and open and masters competitors ever since.
This is the first time that New Jersey is holding a meet at
Ocean Breeze. In recent years athletes
have had to travel to Toms River to compete in the John Bennet Indoor Sports
Complex. The bubble, as it is known,
might be fine for a practice facility but it misses a lot as a competition
venue, including indoor toilets. That’s
right, athletes and spectators have to make their way to the parking lot where
the porta-potties are lined up for use. It
is guaranteed that the Ocean Breeze facility will not have you outside in
porta-potties.
The 5,000 meter race is scheduled for 12:20 p.m. New Jersey runners will have plenty of time
to make that race. Those who want to try
the mile indoors need to be there a little earlier. The women’s mile begins at 11:10 a.m. and the
men at 11:25 a.m. Half milers (800
meters) will start right after the 5,000 meter race and for those who want to
run 3,000 meters, that start is at 1:30 p.m.
This is the first year that the two associations are teaming
up to hold a dual meet with their championships. Points will be assigned for each event and
within each age division and added together to determine the winning
association.
Pre-entry closes on Thursday, February 8, at 11:59 p.m. That is a very generous close-to-day-of- meet
deadline. Be forewarned that there is no
day of meet registration. Go to the New Jersey USATF website to enter.
New Jersey track fans will have a chance to preview the
Ocean Breeze facility on Monday February 5th when the Morris County
Invitational high school meet is held there.
The meet starts at 4:00 p.m.
While we’re on the topic of track and field, several
national meets will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network in the next few weeks. The grand daddy of indoor track is the
Milrose Games on Saturday, February 3rd at 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix meet in Boston will be
shown on Saturday, February 10 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Last is the USATF indoor championship in
Albuquerque on February 17th and 18th.
CROSS COUNTRY IN FLORIDA
Ok, so who would rather run a cross country meet in
February? How about if it was in
Tallahassee FL? Sound better?
That’s where some New Jersey runners will be on February 3rd
to compete in the national winter cross country meet. The meet will have several races ranging from
junior women who will run 6 km and junior men who run 8 km, open men and women who
will run 10 km and masters men running 8 km and masters women running 6 km.
A look at the pre-registration list shows that the Garden
State Track club will have a fast team in the M40 division, giving them a good
start to the season. Likewise, the Shore
Athletic Club that placed second in the M60, 2017 national team grand prix has
entered a fast squad in that division.
##
Publish only when
space permits. Please do not cut for
this tag.
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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