CLIFTON PULLS IT OFF DESPITE SECOND PLACE AT HARRINGTON PARK
The Clifton running club almost couldn’t lose in the USATF Coed grand prix. They had one win and one second going into the Harrington Park 5K on Saturday. Although they took second on at the 5K, there was no way any of the other clubs were going to beat them, unless they just didn’t show up. That didn’t happen.
What did happen is they showed up with their star age grading runners, like Suzanne La Burt who is 56 and ran 19:12 and age graded at 92.1% PLP. Oh, but the North Jersey Masters had their ace runner, Nora Cary who is 64 and ran 20:59 to top LaBurt with her 92.9%.
North Jersey Master’ combined top three men and top three women totaled 470.9% PLP to Clifton’s 463.4%. The RVRR club was third with 447.4%, Fleet Feet Essex finished fourth with 425.10%, the Morris County Striders were fifth with 390.80% and the DeNovo Harriers came in with 334.0%.
With only three races in the Coed grand prix and only a handful of the running clubs participating, my guess is that it was inevitable that there would be ties. Yes, Clifton was first with 32 points, and the North Jersey Masters were second with 27 points, but there was a tie for third between RVRR and the Essex club at 25 points. The Striders were fifth. The Shore AC club only participated at one race, the East Brunswick 12K and scored 8 points, with the DeNovo cub and the Central Jersey club tied for seventh place with 5 points.
ALBANO NOT SO POKEY
Rob Albano won the Harrington Park race in a not so pokey 14:37 with Miguel Galvez second in 15:35 and Rob Nihen third in 15:59. Fourteen-year-old Rose Coats of Brooklyn was the fastest female, finishing the race in 18:46, which is a pretty fast time for a fourteen-year-old. Naomi Nakai was second in 18:59 and Maria Metzger was third in 19:09. Just over five hundred and fifty runners finished the race.
GRONER HAS A GOOD ONE
Of course there was a slightly more famous race across the Hudson on Sunday and a certain New Jersey woman finished as thirteenth woman overall. Roberta Groner finished in 2:30:12 just a bit off her 2:29:30 at the Rotterdam Marathon last April. Rotterdam features a fast course, which is decidedly not true for the New York City Marathon course.
Finishing her second marathon in less than six weeks on the New York course just 42 seconds slower is remarkable, especially considering the conditions in Doha, Qatar on September 28th when she was one of only forty women out of 68 who started who completed the race in 90-degree temperatures. Sunday’s race featured probably perfect weather in the low 50’s.
My hope is that all of the New Jersey runners had a great race.