DICK HELMER AT THE HELM OF GIRALDA FARMS RACES FOR FIVE YEARS First you run the race. Then you find yourself volunteering to help out. The next thing you know, you are the race director! For Dick Helmer, 60, of Short Hills that was his time line for becoming the Race Director of the Giralda Farms runs that are taking place next Sunday in Madison, hosted by the Rose City Runners. Five years ago Helmer took the helm and has been at it ever since. He is quick to point out that he could not do the job without the assistance of his wife, Pam. "I have a spouse who is unbelievabley helpful," said Helmer. "It's really Pam. Pam is basically my co-race director." "She does a lot of the registration work. She just is fantastic as a helper," said Helmer. "She knows what needs to be done. Pam Helmer can actually be credited with her husband taking the position but the thread goes back a few years before that. Helmer was a high school sprinter in suburban Chicago who never ran more than five miles in his life until he was forty. On the football team he played tight end or line backer and on the track he was on the sprint relay team. |
"I saw myself as a sprinter - a quarter miler," said Helmer. "Running a mile or more is a different religion."
Fast forward a few years and more than a few business lunches in New York City where he works and the sprinter was up to almost two hundred pounds on a five eleven frame. Helmer knew he was going fast over the hill, when he was unable to run a sub six minute mile.
"Throughout my life, my idea of being in shape was to be able to do a six minute mile," he said.
About that same time his son Bryan was beginning to run cross country in high school, and his daughter Kim entered a program that helps kids slim down through diet and exercise. Pam Helmer put the whole family on the plan. It was just what they needed and the results were spectacular. Kim followed in her brothers footsteps and ran in high school and for four years at Princeton.
"So when I was forty and my son was starting to run and my daughter needed to trim down, and I needed to trim down and we went through this revolution," said Helmer. "I lost forty pounds."
Beyond the family makeover, Helmer credits Dean Shonts of Morris Township and the Sneaker Factory workouts for getting him under six minutes again. Even better, he ran under five minutes at the Ridgewood Run in the open mile race.
"It was just so wonderful to go from 200 pounds to light and quick," he said. "At age forty it felt real good."
A five minute mile may not be in the cards at age 60, Helmer is still a quick footed runner who posted a 21:47 at the President's Cup 5K last June in Millburn, and a 36:59 at the Our House five miler in May in Summit.
But with the Giralda Farms runs only a week away, both Helmers are focusing on final preparations for the races that both start at 12 noon on Sunday. A three quarter mile fun run goes off at 11:15 a.m.
Due to the layout of the Giralda Farms corporate complex and the way the 5K and 10K courses need to be laid out, there have been challenges in managing the two races with their simultaneous start.
"It's been a challenge," said Helmer. "We've had a few meetings. We have not found a better solution."
"There is some crowding at the end, with the 10K winners going through some slow 5Kers and some slower 10Kers," he said. "It's not ideal. But we don't think we have a solution due to the traffic and the topography. It's acceptable."
Helmer said that they would have liked a cleaner race at the finish, but they have taken steps this year that will please all of the runners. The race will be timed using the ChampionChip system and there will be computer mats at the start as well as the finish. This will set the races apart from many other New Jersey chip timed races that only use the chips to record the finish times of the runners.
"We're big enough that some of the people can be ten seconds back [from the start line]," said Helmer. "If we're going to use a chip at the end it seems silly to not have a chip at the beginning. Because then they'll get a real time."
"Having a chip at the end helps the race director and the scoring firm," said Helmer. "Having a chip at the beginning and the end helps the runners."
That kind of dedication to the runners is typical of the club that prides itself on holding a race for runners that is put on by runners.
Another innovation this year is team scoring based on the current WMA age graded scoring tables. All of the team runners will be age graded and those scores will be used to determine the winning teams. Those interested should go to www.concentric.net/~rc02 for full explanation and team roster forms.
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, November 4, 2007
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2007
