Jonathan and Elliott Frieder, off for several months while rehabbing from injuries, came back strong on Saturday with their third and fourth place finishes in their M45 division at the Tulsa 15K national championship. Shawn Williams place fifth in the M40 division. The trio put their Garden State Track Club New Balance in first place in the M40 team division and with the win they had sealed their first place position in the national team grand prix.
Reno Stirrat placed second M65 and lead in his Shore Athletic Club M60 team to first place, with Kevin Dollard and Scott Linnell fifth and seventh respectively in their M60 division.
WET AND WILD RACING ON SUNDAY
As nice as Saturday was this past weekend, is how awful Sunday was with rain and more rain.
Fabian Daza won the East Brunswick 12K in 42:59 on the out-and-back and out-and-back course through the sometimes-torrential rain.
Hortencia Aliaga was the first woman to finish and with her time of 48:33 she hit 83.1% in age grading. But the fast 48-year-old was bumped town to fourth in that category by Suzanne LaBurt, age 56 whose 48:49 age graded at 91.1 % PLP, and Nora Cary, age 64 who age graded at 89.33% and JoAnn Coffee, age 71 who age graded at 84.03% PLP
Julio Aguirre, age 73, topped the men’s list with his 56:22 age grading at 80.64%.
Seven clubs put together coed teams with the Clifton Running club averaging 76.96% PLP with LaBurt’s 91.10% putting the team over the top, along with Aguirre’s 80.64%.
The Raritan Valley Road Runners were second thanks to Coffee’s 84:03%.
The Shore Athletic club was third, with the North Jersey Masters fourth, Fleet Feet Essex fifth and the Morris County Striders sixth. The Central Jersey Road Runners had an incomplete team, with only two women out of the four that are required for this division.
It looks like Jacob Edwards of Morristown ran away from the field at the Halloween Half Marathon in Morristown on Sunday. He finished in 1:13:18, well ahead of Karl O’Reilly who finished in 1:18:26. Megan Strobridge of Florham park was the women’s winner with her time of 1:31:14.
In the relay team division Fast Like a Mother was first in 1:25:52, Jack Rabbit second in 1:26:52 and Team Washed up third in 1:32:27. The Fast Like a Mother team had Caryn Gehrke and Izzy Gladstone, both of Maplewood and Anne Balfour of Morristown. Jack Rabbit consisted of only two runners with Christopher Rinaldi of Berkeley Heights running the first leg, while Elena Rozhko of Morristown ran the second leg and Rinaldi jumping back in to run the last leg. The Washed Up team, with Justin Macaluso, Mike Gostkowski and Tommy Gordon all of Wyckoff, didn’t appear to be so washed up at third out of 54 three or two-person relay teams.
The Hoboken Halloween 5K on Saturday had some fast runners up front, but some mighty slow folks in back. How do you account for people finishing a 5K in over an hour? While Ryan McGorty of Westfield finished 3.1 miles in 15:05, some people hadn’t hit mile one yet. Eloisa Cusi of Livingston was the first woman to finish and in a respectable 19:37. It turns out the 5K was a costume event to raise funds for The Hoboken Shelter. The folks in the back weren’t worried about how fast they ran but how much fun they had raising money for the shelter. The total number of finishers was 1,179.
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