A Real Life Hero

I just remembered to mention this - because if I don't it will get lost in the complaints about a poorly marked course at the USATF-NJ 10 Miler yesterday. A number of runners made wrong turns yesterday. At about 4 miles into the course there was one spot where the course followed a bike path, then crossed a road and continued on the path. You were supposed to run straight - a logical assumption. But if you didn't see anyone in front of you and you knew the course had to loop back on a road eventually, and it was the first lap, and you were running fast and not thinking, then you could be tempted to turn right thinking that was the way to finish the loop. The just-over-6-minute-per-mile group included Roger Price, John Kane, and myself, as well as some others I don't know or can't remember. There was a group of just-under-6-minute runners in front of us, which included Sergio Cano and others. They took the wrong turn. As our just-over-6 group emerged from the wooded bike path to cross the road, Roger saw the just-under-6 group that made the wrong turn. He took personal responsibility for them and called them back. Furthermore, Roger stopped running, sacrificing his own race, to move some barriers and mark the course. Carl Rocker came along, and took the course correction job from Roger so he could get on with his own race. Roger continued on to still run a 1:05:51 for 4th place in his age group. Had he hung with our just-over-6 group, which we all know he is fully capable of, he would have won the age group. Then, to top it all off, after jogging his cool down during which he did the job of sweeping the course of some of the mile markers, he was the announcer at the awards presentation. Somebody should have given Roger an award for the most unselfish runner of the year!

USATF-NJ 10 Miler

What a race by Mark Zamek finishing 2nd in 55:27! He is planning on running the January 3th Las Vegas Marathon. Looks like he is heading for sub-2:30!

I have some good news and some bad news...

By my calculations the 44-49 NBGP standings are now:

3rd John Kane 5068
4th Mike Ferinden 5006@800 or 4943@500 (don't know what he designated)
5th Charlie Slaughter 4934
6th me 4704

Good news for John, taking 3rd in the AG. Bad news for Mike :(
Good consolation news for Mike, who was only 1 point ahead of Slaughter and is now solidly ahead of Slaughter.
Bad news for me, who is as good as he is gonna get this year at hundreds of points behind Slaughter.... and Kane and Ferinden....

I guess John is buying the beers at the USATF banquet~!

Great race, guys!

Mark Zamek

Sergio Cano

All the photos