AMAZING FEET RUNNING CLUB IS APTLY NAMED Sometimes the name says it all. The Amazing Feet Running Club, centered in the southeast portion of Morris County, with members from Union and Somerset as well, fill a niche that is unchallenged by any other club. Their amazing feet carry these runners for miles, and miles, and miles. This is the running club for marathoners and ultra runners. Certainly the other clubs boast of such distance runners, but the Amazing Feet runners rarely run short and rarely race short. They love to run and to keep on running. "I was running with them one time," related Mark Washburne of the Rose City club, "and I overheard one person say 'I'm going to run ten today,' to which his friend replied, 'OK, I'll run short with you.'" |
If ten miles is not short in your mind, that's OK, according to Rob Brigham of Basking Ridge who is the President of the club. You can still join up with the club every Saturday morning at the South Street entrance of Loantaka Park. The first four miles of the run is on the bike path in the park. They exit onto Green Village Road in that town and from there the course works its way back to the starting point at South Street. A "short" runner has options too.
"The short course is eight miles," said Brigham. "Although runners wanting to do less can do an out-and-back and be able to run with the group as they are going out."
There is a two mile add-on and there is a thirteen mile course and upwards from there according to Brigham. Some members wanting more distance gather an hour earlier to begin with a five mile warm-up before going out with the main group that leaves at 8:00 a.m. With warmer weather the start time moves to 7:00 a.m. This is a necessity on hot summer mornings when the run might be for two or more hours.
"We tend to run a little bit slower," said Brigham. "We have a fair number of Boston qualifiers so we're not slow, slow, but we tend to have a lot of people running marathons."
"If there are forty members who are active I would say thirty of them are marathoners," he said. "It's the long runs that we enjoy. I went out this morning and ran nine miles with two other people at six a.m. Somewhere around seven miles the endorphins are kicking in and we're having such a good time and this is just great."
Brigham described how he started training for and running marathons with a group of friends several years ago. In 2000 he ran the Jersey Shore Marathon and was disappointed at not breaking four hours. His younger brother by only four years was breaking three hours.
"I felt humiliated," said Brigham. "I've got to do better than this."
That's when Brigham discovered the Amazing Feet club and began to learn the proper way to train for and run a marathon.
"Oh, you're supposed to carry power gels," said Brigham. "What are power gels?" Who knew that there were power gels and that they could be helpful? Or that I should run more than twenty miles before the marathon."
"So I learned a lot of good things," he said. "I've become a long distance runner."
"I used to run Midland [the 15K] and I would come home and collapse on the couch and not be able to move the rest of the day," said Brigham. "Now I do that on Thursday morning before I go to work."
Brigham further illustrates how extreme training enables a person to be able to endure a full Ironman or an ultra marathon.
"Imagine doing a two mile swim, then a 112 mile bike and then running your marathon," said Brigham. "Or people like Celeste and other people who do fifty milers. Imagine getting to the end of a marathon and turning around and going back to the start again. I just can't even imagine. Or folks who are doing a marathon a month, or the fifty marathons in fifty states. Those people are doing a marathon every other month."
Celeste Fondaco of Chatham, who Brigham referred to, is a charter member of the Amazing Feet. She joined three years after the club was founded in 1976 and soon became the club president and avid recruiter. She is credited with keeping the club active during a lull in membership and although she is no longer the president she is the club treasurer.
Fondaco might be considered typical of Amazing Feet members. Although she does occasionally run in short races like 5K or 10K, it is distance racing that she loves and excels at.
"I've done about five or six fifty milers, and maybe ten fifty kilometers, she said."
What Fondaco did not mention is that she is usually wins or places close to the top in her age group, which is now the W65. Despite long distance training and racing, Fondaco is rarely injured. So the Achilles tendon injury that she is currently nursing is vexing. Still, she is planning to run the half marathon distance at the More Marathon in Central Park in April with some of her friends from her club, and hopes to be able to run in next month's Newark Distance Classic 20K.
"I think it's a wonderful group of people," said Fondaco, and then echoed a recurring theme. "My best friends have always come from the running club."
For more information about the Amazing Feet and for their Saturday and Sunday run schedule, go to www.amazingfeetrc.com.
TRACK MEET NEXT WEEKEND
Some New Jersey track racers have been going to the 59th Street Armory in New York for competition, but next Sunday they can compete in the New Jersey open and masters meet taking place in Toms River. Those with a current USATF membership can still pre-enter by going on-line to www.usatfnj.org and going to the Track & Field page.
LDR MEETING RESCHEDULED FOR THIS TUESDAY
This past Tuesday's winter snow and ice storm caused the rescheduling of the USATF Long Distance Running committee meeting to this Tuesday, February 12th. The meeting is held at the Bedminster Verizon Wireless building, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Directions are on the USATF website.
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, February 17, 2008
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2008
