Shute Wins Jonas Cattell Race BY JACK HEATH PENNSVILLE, NJ--While winning the 42nd annual Jonas Cattell
10-mile Run, held on October 23, in 56:08, Geoff Shute may have
run the most interesting 10 miles from Haddonfield to Woodbury
of anyone since--well, since Jonas Cattell himself covered the
distance in 1777. While it is common for runners to mention that they were just using a race as a “training run” Shute actually did so, incorporating the 10-mile Jonas Cattell race as the second half of a 20-mile training run at his projected marathon pace. Shute parked at the finish at Red Bank Battlefield in National Park in New Jersey and ran 10 miles to the race’s start, timing his run to arrive just before the race’s start. As the gun went off, he reversed course and ran the ten miles back to the finish and his car almost six minutes faster than second-place finisher Jim Sery. Believe it or not, Shute was not entirely happy with his remarkable performance. “I wanted to run the race at marathon pace, around 5:28--5:38 a mile but the adrenalin kicked in and I ran the first mile through Haddonfield a little too fast, around 5:12 pace. I felt good and kept that pace for a while, but started to tighten up and slowed down to around 5:48 pace later in the race. I didn’t use my head and went out a little too fast that first mile.” Shute, who was out of sight from the rest of the pack after the first mile, has won a number of South Jersey races this year, including a repeat as winner of the Benjamin Ross 5K in June in 16:25. The first female, Julie Cattell, proved that running is still
in the Cattell blood by winning the race in a fine 1:07:50. Julie
was the first of a number of Cattell relatives who annually keep
up the family tradition of re-enacting the historic run of distant
relative Jonas. Lisa Wixted, 1st female 35 to 39 in 1:14:10, second overall.
Britta Deklyver 1st female 40-44 and third place overall. Boston
Marathon age-group winner Joy Hampton was the first place female
over-60 finisher in 1:22:12 and Ken Underwood was the first male
60-64 winner in 1:22:42. There were 122 finishers on a picture-perfect October day
ideal for running 10 miles (or 10 miles twice). For more on the history of the Jonas Cattell run: http://www.runnersgazette.com/results/cattel09.htm For 1970s newspaper coverage of early Jonas Cattell races: http://ramscrosscountry.blogspot.com/2010/01/jonas-cattell-10-mile-race-coverage.html 1. Geoffrey Shute 56:08 |
