The Ridgewood Run

Memorial Day in the NJ running community means the Ridgewood Run.  It should be the Ridgewod RUNS because there are lots of them.  10K, 5K, and elite miles.  Money races with a long history.  There is money for placing, and for masters age grading.  This year, the 10K was the USATF-NJ Women's Masters Team championships.  ( 10K Results - 5K Results )

I ran both the 10K and the 5K.  I began the 10K wearing Saucony Killkenny XC flats.  I went out at about a 6:20 mile.  My left lower leg muscles were feeling massively tight and were not getting any looser as I hit mile 2 at about 13:30.  I kept thinking that it would loosen up if I didn't have the stinkin' shoes on.  So I stopped and took them off.  Within a few hundred yards my lower left leg was perfect.  Was it the shoes?  Was it because I was running slower?  Was it coincidence, and would I have loosened up even if I didn't remove the shoes?  Who knows.  It was unbelievably hot at this point - high 80's at least - so maybe it was dehydration or the beer I drank the day before at our pre-Memorial Day barbecue.  I stuck the shoes in my shorts, but I had to throw one down at the finishing mat at the end of the race because it had a timing chip on it.

Shod at first...  tightness...

Shoes stuck in shorts...

Retrieving shoe I had to drop onto the chip sensor

Finishing at 43:54, I had thrown that race away.

Newport 10K Review - Ran it on 5/8/2010

I tried posting this as a review at Active.com.  It keeps getting kicked out.  Is it something I said?

The management of this race does an outstanding job with parking, check-in, bag check, food and drink, and goodies like tech T race shirts.  They have a timely awards ceremony with plenty of raffle prizes.  For top runners, there are plenty of cash prizes to go around.  The Saturday 8:30 AM start time is rare in NJ, and leaves plenty of time to do other things during the rest of the weekend.

Jersey City is cursed with course length mishaps. See for example http://www.compuscore.com/cs2007/may/newport1.htm

http://compuscore.com/cs2006/october/LIBHM1.HTM 

This year's running was a minor revival of the Jersey City course curse.  I think it was at least 1/10th long, judging by the slow times of friends and elites, and  by Garmin readings that were in the 6.3x range.  The turns seemed unduly wide due to parked cars on the course, and I think we were sent out & back too far around some cement ornamental structures on a pier along the waterfront within the last half mile.