Newark Distance Classic 20K kicks off new racing season
Sunday March 5th starts the racing season for New Jersey runners with the Newark Distance Classic 20K, which is the USATF-NJ 20K championship for all divisions, open and masters.
What makes the Classic such an interesting race this year is the demise of two other races. The Equinox 20K would be taking place later in March in Piscataway, but it is not being organized this year after a brief, three year run.
In 2005 the Equinox hosted the masters championship while the Newark race hosted the open championship. Now, with all divisions, the 20K is a must-do for the clubs and also for the individual who wishes to begin gathering points in the New Balance Grand Prix.
Which brings us back to the other race that has folded that is having an impact on the Newark race. That race, of course, is the Midland Run. No, it is not the same distance, but it is in the same distance category for the grand prix. With the loss of the Equinox and the Midland Run, there is now only the Liberty Waterfront Half Marathon in October and the USATF-NJ Ten Mile race in December where runners can find their two Category Three championships.
A runner who is only half-way fit knows that he or she really needs to enter the Distance Classic, just to be safe. Miss this one and you are locked into both the half marathon and the ten mile race.
The Newark race organizers are making it very attractive for the open and masters elite by offering prize money down ten places for open men and women and seven places for masters using the WMA age grading system.
LDR COMMITTEE APPROVED SOME CHANGES TO THE GRAND PRIX
At the Thursday Long Distance Running meeting the most interesting items on the agenda where the proposed rule changes for the individual and team grand prix. Among the changes the one that may be the most fun for the runners is a subset grand prix that will reward runners who love to go to races, many races, in the year. For want of a better name for now, the series is being referred to as the Participation Grand Prix.
Every grand prix race score will be added to each runners total for the PGP, which is much different than the NBGP, in which only the top nine race scores are used. In the PGP, all of them count. The scores will be the same as are used in the other grand prix so the faster runners may have an edge over the more prolific runners. It will be fun for the runners to see how high they will go and the top ten men and women will be rewarded with a t-shirt at the end of the season.
SCORES MAY BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT IN 2006
Another change to the rules is one that is very major and it has to do with how the points will be assigned to the runners in each race. Up until this year all members of USATF-NJ were pulled out of the results and then assigned their points – 500 for first place, using a non championship race for example, and one hundred points for last USATF runner.
With the new, all-inclusive scoring, all runners in a race will be assigned points, and then the USATF runners will have their points listed in the grand prix. Thus, the first USATF runner might finish fifth in a race and he will no longer be guaranteed 500 points. By the same token, the last USATF runner might have five runners behind him and he will have a higher score than the floor of one hundred.
Analysis has shown that this system will keep runners of equal ability much closer together in the scoring and make for more excitement in the grand prix.
A closely watched and debated proposed rule concerning the makeup of the masters division teams was defeated. It would have required that the preponderance of the runners on an age division team be of that same age division. It was considered to be too unwieldy on several fronts, which lead to it being defeated.
LDR ANNOUNCES NEW PURSE STRUCTURE TO THE NBGP
Another very compelling reason for the elite runners to make their way to the Newark Distance Classic is the revamping of the prize money purse in the New Balance Grand Prix prize money purse structure.
It will pay big to win the grand prix this year as the top man and woman will pocket one thousand dollars Second place will earn six hundred and third place will receive three hundred dollars.
The age division awards will not change, but those top three will be removed from their age division at the end of the competitive season, and the next people in succession will move up. Age division prize money is $200.00 for first, $ 125.00 for second and $100.00 for third.
Published in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, February 26, 2006
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2006
