Course records fall at the Ridgewood Run
The North Jersey Masters running club will be sending out a little extra cash to their Ridgewood Run competitors after three women set age division course records this past Monday.
Nora Cary of Morristown took down Toshiko D’elia’s W60 record of 44:47 with her 44:18. That time put her at the top of the age grading chart at 92.75%. Suzanne LaBurt of Greenwood Lake NY dropped Lisa Swain’s W55 time of 43:38 to 40:04. LaBurt finished as the first masters woman and second only to Cary in the age grading with a 92:07%.
Roberta Groner of Ledgewood finished the 5K in 16:38 and took a minute off of Elena Rozhko’s W40 time of 17:38. Groner finished second woman overall. Groner came back to run in the masters women’s mile race, which she won in 5:12. Get out your calculator. First in the masters mile – $300., second in the 5K – $175., first masters woman in the 5K – $300., an age division course record in the mile – $50.00., and an age division record in the 5K – $50.00. Did you get $ 875.00? Oh, and yes, they do duplicate awards at the Ridgewood Runs.
This has been a great week for Groner. USATF has just announced the names of the six marathoners who will compete for the US in the IAAF World championships in Doha Qatar this fall. Yep, Groner is one of the three women selected. Congratulations all around for Roberta!
Others had good performances at the Ridgewood Runs. As usual the top open competitors were professional runners from outside the state who are attracted by the prize money purses. Looking at the masters divisions Beau Atwater, 61, of Bernardsville topped the age grading charts in the 10K with an 83.43% for his 39:40. Sam Teigen, 44, of Hawthorne was next with 83.30%c for his 34:19, Kevin Higgins, 60, of Randolph reached 80.47% for his 40:45 and Freddy Evangelista, 67, of Bogota, rounded out the over 80% PLP runners with 80.13% for his time of 43:44.
In addition to Cary and LaBurt, Erika Campbell, 69, of Ridgewood age graded over 80% with her time of 52:29 – age grade at 84.29 and Barbara Willock, 56, of Ridgefield Park scored 82.34% with her time of 44:48.
Races abound in June
Checking the USATF NJ race calendar one can see that there are plenty of races this weekend. Saturday and Sunday are full of races. But there is only one on Monday night and that is the Roxbury Community Benefit 5K that is taking place at 7:00 p.m.
Check out the website at https://www.roxbury5k.com/ and look under “course” and you will see a familiar name under the course records listing. Yes, Roberta Groner set the course record in 2015 of 17:11. Youseff Rochdi, who is now coaching in Morocco, set the men’s record of 15:19 in 2014.
Time to put on your track spikes
Some track meets have already taken place but June is when the calendar fills with track & field meets, some for Youth and Junior Olympic meets and some for open and masters.
Check it out here http://newjersey.usatf.org/Sports/Track-Field/Calendar.aspx
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