FREQUENT RACERS HAVE THEIR OWN GRAND PRIX
Just for fun, it was suggested that a tally be kept on each runner competing in the New Balance Grand Prix to see who could amass the most points. In the official grand prix, only a runner's best nine races count toward the year end score. The inferior race performances are thrown out.
But what would happen if all of them were counted? The answer is, an interesting and exciting new grand prix - the All Points Grand Prix. Runners who love to race and do it often, had a great time calculating how to maximize their tally and how to get to more races and gather more points.
Perhaps it can all be blamed on Robert McGill of Budd Lake. A few years ago McGill and a buddy fell into a two-man contest to see who could run in the most races in one year. They both topped out at over one hundred and the next year McGill ended up in an article in the Home News Tribune in Middlesex County where he lived at the time and Runners World magazine.
As it happens, McGill is not the only person who loves to run races and that is where this story begins. There is a sizable number of people like McGill, but perhaps not quite so extreme, who race every weekend and in more than a single race if they can fit it in. Many of the racers, especially McGill, also run outside the state or in non grand prix races so they may have a far larger number of races run in 2006, making their stories all the more remarkable.
While they may not be the fastest man or woman in the race, they are not slouches either. Sergio Cano, 42, of Union City was the top man in this grand prix with a total of 44 races and 23,067 points. Cano was in the top three in both of the Mini Grand Prix that were featured here last week.
Six Morris area men placed in the top ten. Ed Neighbour of Sparta, 44, tallied 22,607 points from 53 races. Neighbour is a reliable member of the Morris County Striders racing team and for good reason. He can obviously be counted on to be at the races when he is needed.
Also a Strider, third place man Bruce Langenkamp, 57, of Wharton completed 42 races to garner 20,712 points.
The Morris County Striders were well represented in the top ten with Adam Hantman, 35, placing fifth and Peter Tummey, 44, of Boonton placing sixth. McGill, also a Strider, placed ninth.
Charlie Slaughter, 51, of Parsippany, who competes for the Essex Running Club, was seventh. Both Slaughter and Langenkamp were also top scorers in the conventional grand prix.
On the women's side the not surprising top points earner is Patricia O'Hanlon of Jersey City who competed in 49 races for 20,365 points. What is remarkable about O'Hanlon's accomplishment is that she is 63 years old. She also managed to fit in at least one out-of-state marathon along with all those New Jersey races.
On the opposite end of the age spectrum was 30 year old Karen Kreoll of Blairstown, who totaled 15,723 points in 37 races for second place.
Pam Fales, 46, of Boonton, who is the Managing Director of USATF-New Jersey managed to race in 31 grand prix races to place third with 14,877 points.
Karyn Layton, 36, of Rockaway was fourth with 14,562 points. Jane Parks, 53, of Morristown took sixth with 13,079 points, while Diane Ross, 38, of Flanders was eighth with 11,976 points.
Fales, Layton, Parks and Ross were also top performers in the New Balance Grand Prix and the Mini's.
CORRECTION TO LAST WEEKS COLUMN
Jane Parks, who won all three Grand Prix in 2006, (as well as sixth in the All Points GP) began her winning ways in 1994, not 1995 as was stated.
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, January 21, 2007
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2007
