THANKSGIVING DAY RACES STILL HITTING HIGH MARKS DESPITE THE WEATHER
Up here is the Highlands country, Morris area residents woke to a fine blanket of snow on Thanksgiving morning. All runners could have been forgiven for opening one eye, seeing the snow cover, and rolling over to go back to sleep in their cozy cocoon of blankets.
Ah, but Morris area runners are a hardy lot. They are not bowed by a mere inch of snow and cold weather. They dutifully tossed off the covers and headed out the door to one of the three races being held that morning. None were in the immediate area and so they were throwing in their lot with other stalwarts who do not mind cold and snow.
At the Dick Meighan Memorial 5K in Upper Saddle River, not only did the number of runners not go down, they went up from 885 in 2004 to 910 finishers this year. At the Ashenfelter 8K in Glen Ridge, one more runner came than in 2004, which had 959 to 960 finishers this past Thursday. Only the Flemington Turkey Trot showed a decline and admittedly it was a sharp decline, from 1,733 in 2004 to 1602 this year. However with a field as large as Flemington draws, and many of those runners not understanding how to use the computer chip that is issued to them, it is probable that the race had many more runners than were actually counted.
Out of those three races comes another interesting statistic. At the Dick Meighan 5K and the Turkey Trot 5K, 63 percent of the runners finished in under 30 minutes, which is 9:40 pace. At the Ashenfelter 8K, which was the USATF-New Jersey Open Men and Open Women Championship, the field was much stronger. Nine forty pace at 8K brings the runner across the line in 48:01. Seven hundred and forty two runners did that, representing 77 percent of the field.
OPEN TEAMS MAKING THINGS INTERESTING
The Fleet Feet racing team remains unbeatable in the Open Men Division of the Liberty Waterfront Team Grand Prix. At the 8K championship, their five scoring men claimed victory over the next scoring team of the Morris County Striders by an eight minute margin, 2:11:42 to 2:19:42. The Striders were aided by Ken Goglas, home for the holiday at Randolph, who finished first from this area in 26:05 for sixth place overall.
The Raritan Valley Road Runners took third with the Morristown based Sneaker Factory team in fourth. The Essex Running Club was fifth and then the Morris County Striders struck again for sixth and seventh.
In the Open Women division, the Sneaker Factory had no trouble claiming first place with their top three women adding up 1:36:42 to Raritan Valley’s 1:40:05. The Morris County Striders were only a minute and change behind Raritan Valley for third place.
Morris County’s B team placed fourth and their C team took eighth. Essex Running Club was fifth and Sneaker Factory’s B team placed sixth.
Two local women placed in the top ten at the 8K. Heather Gardiner of Morristown was second in 29:06 and Karyn Layton of Rockaway was sixth in 31:57.
Team competition will end with the USATF-New Jersey ten mile championship on December 11th at Mercer County Park. Some teams cannot be beat, while others need to stay on guard. Even teams that have a lock on their place can play the role of spoiler by bumping a rival team out of a top spot.
In addition, the overall club title that the Morris County Striders are presently holding with an unofficial margin of 23 points over Raritan Valley Road Runners needs to be protected.
Originally Published on Sunday, November 27, 2005 in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County
Copyright MADELINE BOST, 2005