Just how windy was it? Two porta potties got blown off their feet in the parking lot at Bundt Park in Clinton. The good news, if having a porta potty go down can actually have any good news, is that they were blown on their backs.
How many runners were blown off their feet? I don’t have a count of that, but all of the runners had the wind at their backs part of the time and the winds in the face part of the time. The worst, the runners reported, was coming back into the park where the wide expense of fields allowed the wind to build up to freight train speed. Watching the runners struggle up the last hill on the park’s multi-use path with that freight train trying to push them back down was a sight you don’t want to see in a running race.
Fabian Daza of Fairview NJ was the first man to cross the finish line in 50:00., averaging a 5:21 pace. William Brancato of Rutherford was second in 50:30 and Matthew Eder of Wayne was third in 50:58. Finishing in Fourth pace and the first masters runner was Stuart Haynes of Chatham in 51:43.
Laura Cummings of Bay Shore NY was the first woman to finish and she did so impressively. Cummings finished eleventh overall in 56:10. Ingrid Wells of New York, NY was the second woman to finish, hitting a time of 58:18. Hometown girl, Kristen Prendergast of Annandale was third in 59:06
Daza was the top scoring member of the top open men’s team, Garden State Track Club New Balance. That was the B team while the club’s A team finished in second place. Haynes lead in the third place team, the Garmin Runners, while the Freedom Running Club took fourth.
The Garmin men took first in the masters M40 division, with Garden State fielding the next two teams. Fourth was taken by the Clifton Running Club.
Garden State placed first in the M50 division, with the Fleet Feet Essex team second and the Raritan Valley runners third and the Shore Athletic Club fourth.
The Fleet Feet team topped the M60 division with Garden State in second and the Shore club in third. The Clifton runners won the M70 division with the North Jersey Masters second and Clifton in third.
In the open women division Cummings brought her Garden State team in to first place, with the Garmin women second and Raritan Valley third and Fleet Feet fourth. Garden State also won the W40 division with the Garmin women second and the Clifton team third.
Clifton’s team took first n the W50 division, with Raritan Valley second and Fleet Feet third. Only three teams competed in the W60 division; Raritan Valley, Clifton and Central Jersey finishing in that order.
The top masters performers were Brian Crowley, 54, who finished in 55:54 for an 84.86 % PLP and Haynes who age graded next at 83.57% and Richard Osifchin, 54, who finished in 57:47 for an 82.09% PLP.
On the women’s side it was Suzanne LaBurt, 55, whose 1:00:54 age graded at 91.17% PLP who was at the top of the chart. Next was Joann Coffee,70, whose 1:20:43 age graded at 84.98%. Hortencia Aliago, 47, hit 83.40% with her 1:00:27 finishing time.
If some familiar names seem to be missing from the results (that can be seen at www.compuscore.com) remember that several of our top New Jersey masters runners are already in Dedham MA getting ready to run in the national masters championship 10K tomorrow morning.
It must be noted that this report is working off of preliminary results, which could be changed if mistakes are discovered and corrected.