Collin Frost of Randolph is one speedy guy

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, February 24, 2019

By MADELINE BOST,  973-584-9302

  

COLLIN FROST OF RANDOLPH IS ONE SPEEDY GUY

You have to wonder if this man can be beat.  Not in New Jersey so it seems.  When Collin Frost of Randolph toed the starting line in New Jersey in 2018 he was always the man to beat.  Those who tried, failed.  Frost posted his fastest time at the 5K distance at the Roxbury Community Benefit race in June when he finished in 15:20. That was followed later that month with a 15:23 at the President’s Cup Night Race in Millburn.

In Cross Country it was the same story.  At the state cross country 5-kilometer championship in August he won with a 15:34, and then in October he won the 8-kilometer championship with his 26:05.

Although he didn’t get to any longer race, he showed his credentials for longer races when he won the 2017 Halloween Half Marathon in 1:09:32.

Frost’s racing season was marred by illness as he trained for his first full marathon in the fall of 2018.  Training for the marathon that wasn’t to be took all his focus

“It really was a shame that the marathon didn’t go well,” said Frost.  “I was in very good shape and got sick right before.”

Frost said that he will be focusing on the marathon during this summer and fall.  He plans to run the full marathon in Philadelphia in November.  

“I’ll still be focusing on track until May or June,” he said.  “And will probably start doing marathon training shortly after.”

Oh yes, track.  Frost has been competing at the Ocean Breeze indoor facility on Staten Island this season with a win at 3,000 meters on February 8^th in 8:13.78.   He has had one loss, if you can call a third-place finish in the mile in 4:11.96 a loss.  First place went to professional runner and New Jersey kid Robbie Andrews who finished the mile in 4:02.53. 

That’s called keeping good company, and Frost keeps good company in his day job, too.  He teaches math at Del Barton where he is also a track and cross country coach.  He said that he does a lot of his distance runs are with the kids that he coaches and he even will pace them for a lot of the workouts as well.

Frost was a standout at Randolph high school and he counts the 3,200 as his best distance with a  high school PR of 9:07.   By his reckoning his best high school performance was winning the indoor group 4 championships in the 1600 in 2011, outrunning Timothy Ball of Piscataway 4:18.48 to 4:19.28. 

“I was an underdog going into the race,” said Frost.  “I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.”

Frost is coached by Nick DeSantis of Wanaque who has Frost training no more than 50 miles per week currently for the indoor season.

“I had done a lot more in college, but I don’t really have the time or energy with a full-time job now,” said Frost.  “It’s probably better that I have less of a workload. I had issues with mental and physical burnout after seasons where I was training really hard.  Now, each week, unless I’m racing, I’ll do one race specific workout and one strength workout.  That’s all.”

Frost said that he has two workouts that standout.  One is a 3 X 3200 with a one-minute rest, that Frost said is a strength workout that he is better at.

“One workout Nick gave me early [in the] season might be one of the most physically painful workouts I’ve ever done,” he said.  “This was especially hard because I don’t have a lot of leg speed.”

In an email Frost described it as “3 sets of 4 x 400, 30 seconds between reps, but 3 minutes between sets.  The first and last rep would be fast (for a long-distance guy at least), and the middle two would be slower (all intentional).” 

About his indoor racing he said that he was pretty happy about his 3,000 meter race.

“It was a little unexpected,” said Frost.  “I thought I would run right around 8:20. I was lucky enough to have the race set up precisely the way I would have wanted it to be”

He said that he is not super happy with his mile or 5k time.  On the other hand, Frost said that chasing time goals have been counter-productive for him. 

“It just adds an unnecessary stress.  Lately, I’ve been doing well just trying to enjoy racing and enjoy the sport, and I’ll make that my goal again for 2019.” 

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New Jersey athletes in the Big Apple

NEW JERSEY ATHLETES IN THE BIG APPLE

It doesn't get a bigger than the Millrose Games track meet in New York City every February.  Once held at Madison Square Garden, the meet is now held at the New York Armory.  The meet was held this year on Friday, February 8th.

What many casual observers of the nationally televised meet do not know is that many events are held that do not make it to the prime time broadcast.  What New Jersey viewers did not see was the several events in which New Jersey athletes competed. 

 The Garden State Track Club New Balance won the men's Distance Medley Relay in 9:58.52.  Their B team placed seventh while the Shore Athletic Club finished in eighth place, with Justin Scheid of Succasunna running the anchor leg.  Garden State's Women's teams placed fifth and eighth in the Distance Medley and their sprint team placed third in the four by two hundred relay.  Their men's sprint team won the 4 X 200.

New Jersey masters teams  ran in the 4 X 400 relays with the Garmin M40 team finishing in fourth place and their M50 team finishing eleventh in the same combined heat.  How the teams were broken out by age is not available on the Armory website.

NEW JERSEY vs NEW YORK TRACK MEET

Morris area runners returned to the Ocean Breeze indoor facility this past Sunday to compete in the USATF New Jersey/ New York indoor championship meet with the New Jersey athletes winning again, as they did in 2018.

Nora Cary of Morristown won her W60 division in the 3,000 meters with a time of 12:54.35.  In a close race in the mile, Cary finished in 6:30.77 for second place just one second behind first.  Susan Stirrat of Rockaway made it a triple in her W60 division placing second to Cary in the 3,000 meter race with her 15:11.91.  She was third in the 800 meter run in 3:39.88 and fourth in the Mile in 7:47.76.

On the men's side, Reno Stirrat won the M60 3,000 meter race in 11:38.03 and placed second in the Mile in 6:04.34.  Bob Skorupski of Rockaway won his M45 division 3,000 meter race in 10:07.81, and placed third in the 800 meter race with his time of 2:13.53.  John Saarman of Stanhope was first in the 400 meter race in his M75 division in 1:44.45.

By far the biggest winner was Mark Williams of Columbia.  The former Lake Hopatcong athlete won all three of his M45 races;  400 meters in 54.60, 800 meters 2:01.51 and the mile 4:38.19.

Williams and some other New Jersey athletes will be competing at the masters national indoor championship in Winston Salem NC the first weekend in March.

LONG DISTANCE RUNNING MEETING MARCH 7

The USATF Long Distance Running committee is having their meeting on Thursday, March 7th at the Madison Y.  A major change is going to  be voted on regarding when submissions for rule changes will be made, debated and approved at this meeting.  Interested runners should check out the meeting agenda on the USATF New Jersey website and plan to attend.

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You have to be in it to win it

Published in the Daily Record

on Sunday, February 3, 2019

YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT

In the movie On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando's boxer character says plaintively, "I couda' been a contenda'".

Justin Scheid of Succasunna could also have been a contenda' had he just run two more races in the New Balance grand prix in 2018.  Scheid won the Baker's Dozen half marathon in 1:14:23, but did not run in any other Category Three races. 

 If he had and had won them, his score would have been 5,691, the same number of points that Morristown's Aaron Leskow came away with in his win of the series.  The two men are closely matched, but as Leskow discovered; you have to be in it to win it.   Sometimes a runner's career interferes with his running carrier, and that is the case for Scheid.

"With my job as a tax accountant I work a lot of hours leading up to April 15th and then again leading up to September and October 15th that races around that time are difficult for me to commit to," said Scheid.

When Scheid did get to the races he was always a factor.  Scheid had three second places in important races in 2018 that included the Lager Run 5K where he finished in 15:22, and the 5 kilometer cross country championship in 15:40.  He had a third in the 8 kilometer cross country and third in the Ashenfelter 8 km.  Scheid traveled to Spokane in December to run in the national club cross country 10 km and finished in an impressive 31:43

Scheid said that his parents inspired him and his brother Jeremy to run, but did not pressure their sons.  Growing up in Sparta  Scheid remembers how their father, Larry, an outstanding age division runner, took he and Jeremy out on various courses in the neighborhood.  Each run started on a downhill and ended with an uphill.  

"I remember the first workout, probably at age 11 or 12," said Scheid.  "Run hard from one mailbox to the next up Skyline Drive, then jog easy to the next mailbox, and repeat.  I remember because that was also the day I discovered the second mailbox was practically halfway up the hill. Dad asked how the workout went and I said I thought the neighborhood could use a few more mailboxes."  

Scheid's racing career began with youth cross country racing, where he was recruited to run for the Cosmic Track Club. 

"This was my first cross country team," said Scheid.  "We traveled to Junior Olympic championships in Portland, Lexington, and Spartanburg."  

 

Scheid joined the Pope John high school cross county team in the fall of 2000 as a freshman. He remembers coach Brian Corcoran handing out a hard workout after the team had a disappointing performance against rival Vernon.

" I won't lie, that interval workout in the grass around the track with push-ups and sit-ups during the recovery was excruciating," said Scheid. "Nevertheless, I looked forward to workouts, especially the challenging ones because, I believed I improved with each one. I had a successful high school running career that included some great individual and team performances. I owe this success to Mr. Corcoran and my teammates who pushed and challenged me for four years. I loved competing.  It didn't matter if it was an individual race or a relay." 

After high school Scheid attended Georgetown University and ran both cross country and track for the school where he posted some very impressive times; Indoor 3000 meter 8:10.61, Indoor 5000 meter, 14:24.00, Outdoor 5000 meter, 14:17.89. 10,000 meter, 30:12.47. cross country 8,000 meter, 24:15.40.

"I loved Georgetown," said Scheid.  "Coach [Patrick] Henner and my teammates were fantastic, the weather was pleasant, and DC had remarkable places to run; i.e. towpath, polo fields, trails, bike paths, the National Mall  even though I didn't have as much success as I did in high school. My times improved but some workouts were more impressive than my races."

One of Scheid's most memorable college races was the 2008 Big East cross country  championships in his senior year at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. 

"We had a strong team but it was expected to be a close race for the team championship," said Scheid. "This race sticks with me because it was one of those days when everyone raced well. We went 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 and won the team title 35-64 over Notre Dame." 

After graduating Georgetown in 2009 Scheid began working for an accounting firm in Florham Park, where Elliott Frieder of Bloomfield also worked.  Frieder and his brother Jonathan, then of Randolph, recruited Scheid to run on their Fleet Feet team, along with Carlos Martins and Jorge Lopes.  The team was picked up by the shoe company Pearl Izumi,  but dropped all teams when they stopped making running shoes.

Scheid was free to join any one of the local clubs, but he chose the Shore Athletic Club.  

 "It honestly felt strange joining Shore AC while living in NJ's northernmost county," said Scheid who was still living at the time in Sparta. "People may have thought it a joke to see a Shore AC singlet at a local race. I initially thought I needed to invent an excuse to run for the club, such as growing up down the shore, but my worry dissipated after meeting the large group of Shore AC runners residing in Morris and Sussex Counties." 

 One of those runners is Reno Stirrat of Rockaway, who has coached Scheid for over a year.   He credits Stirrat for his 15:22 at the Lager Run and the top 100 finish at the 2018 USATF Club cross country championships in Spokane, thanks to Stirrat's training plan.  The local Shore group, dubbed Shore AC - El Norte,  get together on weekends for a long run in the Denville, Rockaway area.

Scheid says that he is looking forward to the 2019 New Jersey season.  We expect he will fill out his race card in full this time around and be a contender for the grand prix title.

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