Easy access to info a distant memory

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, September 1, 2013

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013

BACK IN THE DAY IT WAS EASIER

Now I don’t want to sound like a crotchety old timer, even though I am one right now after trying to find information about races.  Back in the day race organizers put together a race flyer, usually one 8 ½ by 11 inches.  It told you the date of the race, the time it would start, where it was of course and what the divisions were, along with information on what the prizes would be if you managed to place in your division.  If you had any questions there would be a phone number to call.

Ah, but now, now, there is a website.  Well maybe a website, but often the website you are directed to is the website of the charity that the race will benefit.  Often times the website is actually the sign up link on a registration website.  It may, or may not have the information you are seeking. 

New Jersey has an excellent race calendar magazine, the Race Forum, but it can only print the information supplied by the organizers.  Some are very good and some leave out important details, especially to the reporter looking to verify information.

There are Morris area races in September and some are listed here.

The first on the list is not in Morris County, but is the USATF New Jersey women’s championship 5K.   It is the Jimmy D Memorial 5K that is taking place this morning in New Brunswick.  The race course is about as straight an out and back course as can be found.  The finish is on the track at Memorial Stadium on Joyce Kilmer Avenue where all post race activities will be held.

Team grand prix points will be on the line but most of the Morris area clubs will be putting their faster masters women on their A teams.  The Garden State Track Club will be a shoe in for first and likely second.  Third could be a tossup but don’t rule out the Garmin women’s team that is made up mostly of masters women, but those women can run.

Next Sunday, September 7, Netcong is hosting a 5K that will start and finish on Maple Avenue in front of Netcong Borough Hall.

The following Saturday, September 14th is a 5K in Florham Park on the Green at 180 Park Avenue.  September 14th is also the date of a 5K in Malapardis Park in Cedar Knolls.   That same weekend, on Sunday there is a 10K and 5K at Giralda Farms in Madison. 

In Chester, on Saturday, September 21 there is a 5K and in Madison on Sunday September 22 the Cheshire Home 5K is taking place.

Stanhope is hosting a 5K on Saturday, September 28^th.  Boonton Township is also hosting a race on the 28^th and will offer a 10K and a 10K relay.  The next day on September 29^th a 5K will be run in Basking Ridge in Harry Dunham Park

That’s about it for Morris area races but there are some outside the county that will attract local runners.  One is the mile race in Long Branch on September 14^th and on the other end of the spectrum is the half marathon USATF championship on Sunday, September 22^nd in Jersey City.

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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.

Taking a Break for the Next Two Weeks

The doldrums of summer have hit and yes, there will be a scattering of races this month, and maybe even some interesting people to write about.   But it is time for my summer break.   

Look for the next Running Column on Sunday, August 25th.

Midseason Tallies for the Grand Prix Series

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, Aug 4, 2013

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013

 

MIDSEASON TALLIES FOR THE GRAND PRIX SERIES

It’s not unusual for the New Balance Grand Prix, the New Jersey USATF long distance running series to have masters runners in the lead.  This year it is more extreme than in the past with young open runners in such a minority to be almost invisible.  Currently John Hogan, 48, of Washington Township in Bergen County is in the lead.  In second place is Brian Crowley, 49, of Hillsborough and in third is 52 year old Rodrigo Cacares of Elizabeth.

Ok, so the top three are over age forty, no big deal, but the first spot that is filled by an open runner, Michael Loenser, 31, of Piscataway, is 18^th place.  In the top fifty there are only four other men under the age of 37.  New Jersey has many younger men who are fast runners but they are a long ways from getting in their nine races.

Where is Mike Anis who won the series last year in a big come-from-behind sprint?  Look way down the list to 207^th place.  Anis has only two Category One races and one Category Three race.  Is he planning another sprint finish in 2013?

It is a little different on the women’s side.  Sheila Courter, 44, of Westfield is in the lead.  But Aya Leitz, 36, of Jersey City is in second.  Of the top fifty women, nine are under age 39.  Third place is held by Jane Parks, 61, of Morristown.

Note that all the ages are they age of a person on December 31, 2013 in accordance with the grand prix rules.

The Mini One grand prix that counts the best nine 5K races has Scott Isgett, 44, of Rockaway in the lead, Ben Teixeira, 51, of Kearny in second, and Charlie Slaughter, 58, of Parsippany is in third.  Connie Augustine, 45, of Mendham is in the lead on the women’s side.  Thirty three year old Tara Zimliki of Branchburgh in fifth and places 6^th, 7^th and 8^th are held by women under age 36 so the younger women are clearly competing for that grand prix.

The top seven runners in the men’s division of the Mini Two grand prix are 50 to 59 with the eighth place held by a 63 year old.  Mark Washbourne, 57, of Mendham has the lead in that division.  Patricia Butcher, 53, of Hawthorne is in the lead on the women’s side.  The Mini Two encompasses 4 miles up to but not including 15K and those races are a little harder to come by than the abundant 5Ks.

Winners of the two sub grand prix cannot be determined by who looks to be winning mid season.  That’s because the computer will take out the top three in the New Balance Grand Prix as they are ineligible to place in either of the two sub grand prix series.

SUMMER SERIES SURPRISE WINNER 

At last Tuesday’s Morris County Striders summer series 5K race at Johanson Park in Boonton Township the female winner was ten year old Corrine Kell Renshaw of Oak Ridge.  Her time was 20:16.  The men’s race was won by David Lerman, 28, of Hopatcong in 17:32.

The last race of the series is this Tuesday evening when the series winners will be determined.  The best three out of four races will count toward the overall score in the series.  The contest is shaping up to be between Lerman and Peter Lavallee of Denville.  On the women’s side Caroline Wolfe of Florham Park will win the series with one win and two third place finishes.

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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.

Query at Westfield race goes the long distance

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, July 28, 2013

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013

When you’re looking at race results some things will stand out and ask for an explanation.  Most often it’s a person finishing in a time that they have never done before.  Last year at the Horace Ashenfelter 8km on Thanksgiving morning there were a few runners who were credited with quite unbelievable times.

The course takes the runners past the finish line at about three and a half miles and sends them off to do a small loop to come back to the finish.  It turned out that the fast times were caused by the super sensitivity of the computers at the finish.  They picked up the runners as they went past on their way out to the turnaround loop.

Sometimes a fast time is the result of man wearing his wife’s bib, or some other switch where the faster runner in a family or in the car pool is wearing the slower runner’s bib.  That is usually easily fixed.

Sometimes the fast time is attributable to someone just plain cutting the course.  In those instances it is usually done out of innocence and ignorance.  On an out-and-back course it is easy for a tired runner to say, “Ah heck, I’m turning around now.”  That was the case last week at the Verizon Wireless race that wasn’t a race.  People were hot and tired and cut off a small part of the course.   It didn’t matter since it was just a fun run and no one was being timed.

When people are being timed though, then it becomes a problem to sort out.  If the unexpected person is winning or placing high in an age group they will be queried about their time.  “Did you run the full course?  Were you wearing your own bib?”  Usually that will solve the problem.

At the Downtown Westfield 5K this past Wednesday the race was packed with fast young runners.   Chris Heibell, 26, of Hillsborough won the race in 15:13 with Chris Croft, 24, of Summit hot on his heels in 15:16.  The next thirteen men were no older than 25 except for Mike Anis of Highland Park, an ancient 31 years of age.

Well not quite that ancient if you compare him to the seventeenth finisher.  Fifty year old Andrew Green of Scotch Plains finished in 17:08.  That’s a 5:30 per mile pace and he scored an 86.07% that topped the age grading charts.

Had to be a mistake.  Never heard of Andrew Green.  You can go to the bottom of the CompuScore home page and type in a person’s name and if he or she has run in any CompuScore races that name will appear along with the data from each race that was run.  Andrew Green of Scotch Plains wasn’t there.

How about Athlinks?  Nope.  No Andrew Green of Scotch Plains.  CompuScore did the timing of the Westfield race and they had a camera on the runners as they came in.  No mistake, Green was there.

Super sleuth Gene Gugliotta of North Plainfield cracked the case.  Searching  past the border of New Jersey and the United States, Gugliotta found Andrew Green in the United Kingdom and Green is the genuine article.  He has an M50 PB [personal best, aka personal record] of 32:59 for a 10K that he ran on May 12, 2013.  He was written up in the local club news.

No wrong bib, no cutting the course.  Had Gary Leaman of Hardwick or Rodrigo Caceres of Elizabeth been at the race on Wednesday those M50 division New Jersey stars would have kept Green from standing out and raising questions. 

It was the crowd of young runners Wednesday that made things interesting.  One more item of note.  Green was the first master, first over age 40 to finish, and he was followed by Kevin Higgins, 54, of Randolph in 18:17, Robert Penn, 52, of Westfield in 18:33 and in 53^rd place overall Beau Atwater, 55, of Bernardsville in 18:38.   It was the M50, M55 divisions leading all other masters men to the finish line.

In a race with 2,433 finishers it can’t get any stranger than that.  The first woman to finish was teenager Kerry Dyke, 16, of Perth Amboy in 18:32.  Nora Cary, 58, of Morristown topped the age graded chart for women with her 21:51 that scored 85.11% PLP.

SUMMER IS SLOW NOW UNTIL SEPTEMBER

The Westfield race was the last big race in northern New Jersey until September.  The Morris County Strider summer series 5K is still going on at Johanson Field in Boonton.  This Tuesday will be race number three and the last race of the series is on August 6^th.

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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.

Verizon Wireless Corporate Classic becomes a Fun Run

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, July 21, 2013

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2013

The only record that was broken on Thursday night at the Verizon Wireless Corporate Classic was the number of people who had been registered for the 5K that winds through Morristown; 5,229 people registered for the race.  But it was a race that didn’t happen. 

Maybe another record was broken and that being the high temperature that cause the organizers to post a notice on the race website on Thursday afternoon that the event would not be timed and would be shortened by nearly a mile due to the extreme heat.  Some people may have opted to stay in a nice air conditioned space but from the look of Headquarters Plaza Speedwell Avenue a lot of people were ready to go, racing or not, hot as heck or not.

The Morris County Striders [full disclosure: my running club] provides course marshals for the event and they were able to double up on positions due to the missing mile.  That may have been a good thing because the marshals who were in the “floater” position, Roger Price of Randolph, Ed Neighbour of Sparta and Joe Treimel of Pequannock and Bernie McKay of Morristown  were there to react to any situation and remedy it.  Their roles had called for strong voices and an instinct to react quickly to a situation.  They had no inkling that they would soon be put to the test. 

With those four or five thousand runners and walkers starting out to travel just two miles there was bound to be some problems.  The faster runners fairly leaped off the starting line when the horn sounded on Speedwell, but those further back barely moved for several minutes before they were clear to run or walk.

 The course is basically an out and back and the last three quarter mile or so was still filled with people who had barely begun to move off Speedwell Avenue to the first turn onto Early Street when the faster runners had hit the turn-around and were on their way back.

Ooops!  Those back-of-the-pack folks had filled Early Street from sidewalk to sidewalk and now the police vehicle leading the returning speedsters would soon be turning onto Early and heading right into the crowd. 

“I said to Bernie,” Price recalls.  “Oh my God, look up there!  We’ve got to get them off the street.” 

It’s not easy convincing people that they must clear a road for what appears to be no good reason.  Most of the runners had probably never looked at the course map and did not know that theirs was only one side of the road.

Shouting, the four men desperately began to herd the unwitting runners back to their rightful place on their half of Early Street.

They were mostly successful but when the lead police vehicle turned up Early Street there were still some people on the wrong side of the road.  Siren screaming, horn sounding, lights flashing the police car was using its full arsenal of sound and sight as people scurried either to the sidewalk or back to the other side of the street.

Just in time as Tradelle Ward of Hoboken was in full stride to be the first runner to finish.  If you want to say you had a run of bad luck it would have to top Ward’s.  Last year the runner from Stryker was delayed in traffic and didn’t make it to the start.  This year Ward, a former miler, was primed for action and although he was the first man to cross the finish line it was an empty victory.  No time recorded and no award given.

Meanwhile, out on the course those less fit and much slower were feeling the heat.  If Ward and the other leaders of the pack finished in ten or eleven minutes and were tossing down gulps of water at the finish, out on Sussex Avenue at the turn- around, folks may have been on the run for twenty minutes or more.

Course marshal Marty Rosenberg of Wharton was at the beginning of the large loop that turned the runners back to head to the finish.  Rosenberg said that many of the slower people were looking pretty ragged.  He appointed himself the unofficial “monitor” and began to tell people to just turn back at that point and not make the loop that might have added another quarter mile of agony. 

Rosenberg said that some refused to give in to the heat and their pain and completed the full course, but others gratefully followed his direction and did a one eighty and headed for “home”.  When a race isn’t a race there is no shame in cutting the course.

Back at Headquarters Plaza none appeared to be suffering from doing the two mile race and there were many happy faces around.  Competitive runners had not found the heat to be daunting thanks to the abbreviated course and not feeling the need for speed the less fit were happy too.  A smiling couple with their two children, all dressed in similar attire asked a stranger to take their picture for posterity.  Their happy grins said it all.  Race or not, hot or not, it was a fun event. 

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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.