Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, April 12, 2015

Stirrat has come home to New Jersey

There’s an old saying in running, “He came out of the woodwork” and for runners in New Jersey they may have thought that of Reno Stirrat.   Stirrat, who moved to Rockaway last fall from MA, actually has done no such thing.  He’s been an elite runner all his life, just not here.

Stirrat began his running right here in Morris County beginning his sophomore year at Morris Hills high school.  The 60 year old was by his own admission too small to be playing the sport he loved, football.  In his freshman year on the team he was always the fastest boy to finish the warm-up mile prior to practice.  He caught the eye of the cross country coach who teamed up with the football coach to see just how fast this kid was.

The football coach pulled Stirrat off to the side and said to him, “We’re going to see if you can really run, really run.”

Stirrat was held back for 30 seconds after the other boys took off.  “Let’s see if you can catch them.”  And he did, he beat them all.

In his sophomore year while the other boys had grown bigger Stirrat remained slight and after few sessions of practice, he realized he wasn’t going to be a football player.  He quit.  The cross country coach asked him if he wanted to run. 

“I said sure, why not?” said Stirrat.

Two days later Morris Hills had a cross country meet against Blair Academy.    Stirrat was in the JV race.  He was told to follow a particular runner who was expected to win the race.

“I ended up coming in first place,” said Stirrat.  “It came that easy.  I won the next JV race and I was put on the varsity team after that.”

His coach was Tom Skutka, who in 1955 was the first high school runner to run under 4:14 in the mile.  Skutka would put his best athletes in the mile but he told Stirrat, “Reno, you’re not a miler, but you are the best athlete in your graduating class.  You’re going to be a great distance runner.  But the mile is not your event.  I’m just putting you in there so you learn how to run fast.”

After high school Stirrat spent one semester of college and dropped out to join the Marine Corps.   His first marathon was the Marine Corps in the first year that they held the race.  He didn’t know anything about training for a marathon.  He ran three ten milers to train for it, and still finished the marathon in 2:44 on only thirty miles a week.

“That kind of debunks the theory that you have to do the long run,” he said.

After the Marine Corps Stirrat attended Iona College on a full scholarship on both cross country and track.   His time of 29:52 for 10,000 meters may still be the school record.

Stirrat is in a unique position in the sport.  He is the only American who has run a marathon in five decades in under 2:45, and one of only two people in the world who have done so. 

Not surprisingly the first three were run in well under 2:45.  Here are his stats:  1979–Rocket City, 2:19:17, 1987–Rocket City, 2:20:49, 1990–Rocket City, 2:25:17, 2007–Boston, 2:44:46, 2010-Boston, 2:42.27.  In 2020 Stirrat will be 66 years old.  While he may not hit sub 2:45, if he goes under three hours  he will be in an exclusive club; running sub three hours in six decades.  No one has ever done it.

Stirrat doesn’t just run marathons though, as New Jersey runners have noticed.  At the Miles for Music 20K on March 22^nd he won his M60 division in 1:17:49.92 and topped the age grading list at 86.79%.

Stirrat was coveted by several New Jersey clubs but chose the Shore Athletic Club because that club competes nationally.  He will be focusing his racing on the national masters racing series.  He competed at the 8K in Brea CA in late February.  In two weeks he will be racing in Dedham MA at the masters 10K championship.   In order to maximize his score he will need to compete in five of the races offered.  His tentative list includes the Syracuse Festival of Races 5K in which he won his M55 division in 16:52 in 2010.  Others could be a mile race in Flint Michigan, the 5km cross country in Saratoga, the 12K in Alexandria and possibly a trip to San Francisco for the club cross country meet in December. 

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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.

Eight years away from running did no harm to Randolph's Roberta Groner

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, April 5, 2015

Eight years away did no harm to Randolph’s Roberta Groner

Roberta Groner’s win at the Miles for Music 20K on March 22^nd, came as no surprise to her teammates in the Do Run Runners club.  Since moving to Randolph from Pittsburg last summer with her husband and three elementary school age children, she became the club’s fastest female.

Groner won the Jimmy D’s 5K in New Brunswick last August but it was a masters women’s championship and lacked some of the fast New Jersey open women.  Her time was not spectacular at 18:22 but she was coming off an injury after the Columbus Marathon in 2013 and had not been seriously training thanks to the family’s relocation.  Her usual time for a 5K had been almost a minute faster.

At the Newport Half marathon in September she finished in 1:24:36 for fourth woman overall. 

In October at the challenging USATF New Jersey 8km cross country championship she finished in 30:36, again  fourth woman overall and only 42 seconds behind first place woman Cheyenne Ogletree.

Groner competed in high school and college; St. Francis University in Pennsylvania - a small division one school.  After college she stopped running.

“I was pretty burnt out and I didn’t run for eight years, she said.”

After her third child turned two she began to run again.  In 2009 she recorded an easy pace 24:44 at the Pittsburg Race for the Cure.  Her times dropped to around 20, then 19, then 18 for 5K.  She didn’t do just 5K’s though.  In 2011 she ran the Chicago Marathon in 3:12:44.  Her favorite 10K is the Great Race of Pittsburg where she has recorded 34:41.

In 2013 Groner finished the Boston Marathon in 2:57:58 and in the fall she was clocked at 2:49:30 at the Columbus Marathon.

That time is now a target for this year’s Boston Marathon that is coming up fast.

“I would love to be around 2:50 or under but I don’t know if I’m quite where I was two years ago,” she said.  “But I’ve been training more and I’m hoping that the mileage - doing 65 to 70 miles a week will do it,” she said. 

Groner has a compatible running partner in Beau Atwater of Bedminster.  Both are running Boston and have used the Hanson Training Plan created by the Michigan running store group that has turned out elite runners.

Atwater won the M55 division in the New Balance Grand Prix in 2014.  Groner is still learning the ropes on New Jersey racing and the grand prix.

“This is all new to me,” she said.  “I’m still learning the whole concept of everything.  It’s just a completely different atmosphere for racing out here from where I was.” 

Last summer Groner Googled “running in Randolph” and found the Do Run club and contacted club president Mark Washbourne of Mendham.

“Roberta actually contacted me last summer before moving that she was interested in joining our club,” said Washbourne.  “I did a double take when I Googled her name and discovered how fast she was.”

After the Jimmy D race and before the awards ceremony, Washbourne gave Groner the club’s singlet to wear.  He was afraid that another team captain might try to recruit her.  Indeed she was approached but choose to stick with her new friends and club.

 “In that regard, we won the lottery because of her great athletic ability but even more importantly because of her kind and friendly personality,” said Washbourne...

When Washbourne first emailed Groner that he would love to have her on their team she responded in the affirmative, but added that she didn’t know what that meant.

Washbourne and her other teammates are coaching her on the fine points of the individual and team grand prix.  She won’t be able to run for the club in the 15K Clinton Country Run because it’s too soon after Boston but will do the Newport 10,000 in May.

Ryan Steidl Memorial 5K in Denville on Saturday

Once named the MK5K, the Ryan Steidl Memorial 5K is in its eleventh year.  Registration begins at 6:45 a.m. Saturday at the St. Clare’s Hospital parking lot on Pocono Road in Denville.  The start is at 8:30 a.m...  The course is mostly flat and very fast.  The race is a 500 point grand prix 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.

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, March 29, 2015

 

Randolph’s Groner wins women’s division of Miles for Music 20K

Two days after a snowstorm covered New Jersey the first race of the spring racing season began on Sunday, March 22^nd.   Although the snow had almost completely melted the 20K Miles for Music championship course in Johnson Park it had more the look and feel of winter than spring.  March winds that should have been sighing like a gentle lamb were in full lion roar. 

A double loop course of the park meant a strong tailwind running north and a headwind going south.  Mile splits were recorded with as much as 20 seconds difference even amongst the strongest and fastest runners.

With that kind of scenario one would expect the elite front pack to stay bunched to collectively shield from the wind.  And that is what the lead men did.  All but Hector Rivera of Clifton.  The forty four year old didn’t hesitate to break away right from the start and he maintained a lead of fifty yards for the first half of the race.  

Then spectators began to sense that the gap between Leader and Pack was narrowing.  Kyle Price, a 27 year old runner from Milltown noticed it too.   Price picked up his pace and began to run after Rivera.  With Price’s move the lead pack became a string of men, no longer a pack, with Michael Dixon of Fanwood now in the third position.

Knowledgeable spectators noticed that Rivera had not slowed down, but had actually increased his pace but not to the extent that Price had done.  With less than a mile to go Price passed Rivera and headed for the finish for first place in 1:07:35.

 A time clock had been set on the course with a sign indicating it was for a 5K split.  Although the runners had passed it on their first pass when it was a legitimate 5K split, the clock was still running as Rivera approached for a second time and it became a booby trap for him.  He saw the sign ahead and confused, mistook it for the finish line.  Rivera went into another gear, and when he reached the spot he was spent.   Slowed and momentarily stopped, Rivera was passed by Dixon who finished second in 1:07:57.

With the finish another eighth of a mile away, Rivera gamely resumed running to stay ahead of the rest of the field that he had lead for so long.  He finished in 1:08:06.

Surprises emerged in the Women’s race.   In 2014 Cheyenne Ogletree of Port Reading won the 20K in 1:15:28 with Greta Sieve of Lawrenceville second in 1:17:26.  Clearly last Sunday’s was not a good day for Ogletree as she finished third in 1:20:32, with Sieve ahead of her in second place with a time very close to 2014 – 1:17:55.   The surprise winner in 1:16:03 was newcomer Roberta Groner of Randolph.

 The 20K was a championship for all divisions.  Reading the results is like reading a directory of which teams are gone, which are improving and which are new.  Coupled with that is discovering which teams the former Sneaker Factory runners have moved to.

Still claiming first in the open division was the Adidas Garden State Track Club on both the women and the men’s side.   Second on the men’s side went to the Pearl Izumi Mid-Atlantic team followed by the Garmin Runners.  On the women’s side second place was taken by the Garmin team and the North Jersey Masters were third.

The Pearl Izumi team placed first in the M40 division.  The Garmin Runners second and the North Jersey Masters third, but only one minute separated the two teams which is almost a tie when running a 20K.   The Do Run Running club was fourth.

The North Jersey Masters kicked everybody’s tail in the M50 division, winning by seven minutes over the Garmin team, which in turn outran the Do Run Runners by fourteen minutes.  Reno Stirrat of Rockaway brought his Shore Athletic Club home first in the M60 division with the North Jersey Masters second and the Raritan Valley Road Runners in third.  The Clifton Road Runners took the M70 division.

The Garmin Runners W40 team has not lost any speed over the winter.  They won their division by over nine minutes while their W50 team also placed first in their division.

Plagued by either injuries and/or switches to other clubs the Morris County Striders, Rose City Runners and the Geezers were all missing from the team line up. 

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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.

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, March 15, 2015

Manhattan not Morristown

It’s pretty cool when a local runner is getting national headlines like John Trautmann of Morristown did last week.   Let’s Run and Masters Track picked up the story that Trautmann had almost captured the world record for the 1,500 in his age division.  His time of 3:59.47 came close to the record of 3:57.91 held by Tony Young of Washington state.  Trautmann had already broken the indoor M45 mile record in 4:12.33 in February.

Runners in New Jersey who follow track racing were scratching their heads about a former Olympian living among them who they had never seen out training or at any local competitions.

Turns out Trautmann, while certainly a star athlete is not a star athlete living in Morristown. 

“I was born at Morristown Memorial hospital,” relates Trautmann, whose family moved from their home in Chester when he was still a young child.  He grew up just across the border in New York state, where he developed as an athlete at Monroe- Woodbury high school.

How did a mistake like that happen?  It started with his needing to send a copy of his birth certificate to the national USATF office in Indianapolis to establish his credentials of being 46 years old.  Then in order to run at the national meet two weeks ago in Boston the meet director asked for proof of age also.

“When I sent it to him he wrote up a little bio on me for the meet. For some reason he used that [Morristown] as my home town.”

While Trautmann may not live in New Jersey, he is close, living just across the river in Manhattan.  He does have connections though as a summer resident at Ocean Grove.

Trautmann’s story has appeal wherever he lives.   He was an outstanding high school athlete and broke Steve Prefontaines 3,000 meter high school record in 8:05.8.  After college he went on to the highest level, making the 1992 Olympics team.  Suffering from a troublesome toe he did not reach the finals at the Olympics and with the toe still a problem he dropped out of competing entirely.  Like many of us less elite folks, over the next few years he managed to gain a bit of weight – in his case over 60 pounds.

Six years ago Trautmann took a hard look at what he had let happen to his body.  He reconnected with Frank Gagliano who had been his coach at Georgetown University.  Gags, as he is known is now the coach for the NJ/NY Track team that has many members living in New Jersey.   Troutmann changed the way he ate and began to run again.  He has lost those 60 plus pounds and under Gagliano's coaching has brought himself back to the elite level where he once was.

Troutmann recognizes that his story may be inspiring others to look at improving their health and fitness as he has done.

“The one thing that excites is that when you get older and out of shape you can still get back again,” he said.

“It takes awhile and you make small goals and achieve them and if you stick with it you can still do it,” he said.  He acknowledges that not everyone can set records but they can still be back to where they once were.

Inspiring stories have their setbacks too.  This past Tuesday night at the NY Armory Troutmann was set to lower his M45 mile record and catch a 1,500 meter split that could be a record as well.  He was well seeded with men who could help in the effort.  But only 200 meters into the first lap another runner caught the back of his shoe and tore it off.  Troutmann ran for a lap with one shoe on and one shoe off, then realizing that it was foolish to continue he stepped off the track.  He says the season is over for him and he will wait until the 2016 indoor season to go for that elusive record.

First New Jersey Championship next Sunday in Piscataway

The Miles for Music 20K in Johnson Park in Piscataway is next Sunday, March 22^nd.  It marks the beginning of the USATF New Jersey championship races.

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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.