Race #35 - Belmar 5 Mile Run - 33:38

Wow, what another great day at the Jersey Shore running with over 2,500 runners. On a picture perfect day along with rather cool temps for running in July, race #35 is now history.

Bob's 50@50 provides transportation so I picked up the Senator at 6:30 to get to Belmar by 7:30. We had a quick stop at the WaWa which I am a big fan of their coffee. Ken spent much of the ride down creating his various teams for the team categories. He loves putting these teams together and usually just grabs anyone to add to his squads.

I took Friday off from running to give my legs a break after an easy run on Thursday and a hard 21 mile bike that night with Marshall Samtur. More on my biking later. We got a great parking spot and then headed to the start for bathrooms and some photos. I was immediately met there by Paul Russo who I played softball with many years ago. Paul is in great shape, does tri's and runs at a 6:15 clip for a 10K. Paul and look like we can both still patrol the outfield if I must say so myself.

Paul biked 10 miles from his beach house then paced me at a 6:40 pace for the 5 miles. I felt pretty good at the start doing a 6:38 and 6:41 first two miles respectively but struggled in miles 3 & 4 (6:44 & 6:53) but finished strong with a 6:39 final mile. Paul and I ran together for the whole race finishing in 33:38. It was nice finally catching up with him at a race. I don't run with the Senator (Ken V) because he is way to fast finishing in 31:56. Ken turns 50 very soon and is in great shape. Speaking of politicians, Governor Corzine ran today and finished in 55 minutes. I wish I would have seen him, he would have looked great in my banner picture.

I enjoy running the Belmar race because the post race party by the park is usually top notch with lots of food and vendors. The weather is usually hot which I don't like but I love running by the water.

We headed over to Bar A for our free burger and some great music. While there I met up with a few members of the Raritan Valley Road Runners who are a great bunch of folks. I wasn't drinking because I had to head to Branchburg to get to my son's Michael baseball game at 3:30. I did hang around Bar A till 1:30 for the team awards which our team came in second. I am still not sure how that works and who was on my team.

I also met up wit Rebecca Rothstein who is the architect of the website Post Race Party. It is a website where you can rate the races you run. It is a great idea to help you choose which races are the best. It will keep race directors on their toes. Put on a good race, and runners will show up.

Now for my biking. I am doing a 65 mile bike ride with the Princeton Free Wheelers on August 1st with my neighbor Marshall, who has been riding the last few months and does 50-60 miles regularly. I hope I can keep up with him, so I will be riding more in the next few weeks. I do have a goal of doing a century so this might be my incentive for next year.

15 more races to go so I will make sure the remaining runs are quality races. No fluff, just good races with good people. Check out my schedule. I don't think I will do the Teterboro 5K next week.

Life is not a spectator sport, so get out there and join me.