By Robert Cavanaugh
LONG BRANCH – Nearly 10,000 runners from all over the East Coast made their way to historic Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport Sunday, April 27, to participate in the 18th Annual Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon and Long Branch Half Marathon.
Oz Pearlman, 31, of New York captured the men’s title and became a four-time champion after completing the course in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 24 seconds, which was a pace of 5:42 per mile. Pearlman also won this race in 2008, 2011 and 2012. Finishing in second place by more than 5 minutes was Steve Slaby, 31, of Virginia in 2:34:57. Rounding out the top three on the men’s side was Steven Monteleone, 24, of Berkeley Heights, in a time of 2:39:01.
On the women’s side, Rachel Clattenburg, 30, of Washington, D.C., claimed an easy victory in the marathon with a time of 2:57:58, which was a pace of 6:47 per mile. Finishing in second place was Sara Belles, 33, of Connecticut in a time of 3:10:01 seconds. Just 3 minutes later, Heather Wesolovski, 31, of New York crossed the finish line in 3:13:57 seconds to round out the top three female finishers.
In the Long Branch Half Marathon, Tim Seeley, 29, of Conshohocken, Pa., won the men’s race in 1:13:28 and hometown runner Dactilia Booth, 37, of Long Branch was the women’s winner in a time of 1:24 minutes.
The race day began with the sun peeking over the backstretch of the track at 6:45 a.m. Runners were given their final instructions before stepping over the starting line to begin their journey to the Long Branch promenade.
The sunny, but breezy marathon course took the runners through Monmouth Beach, Deal, Allenhurst, Loch Arbour, Asbury Park and Ocean Grove before ending on the Long Branch promenade.
For a complete list of finishers, visit www.njmarathon.org.
Robert Cavanaugh is an elite runner and the owner of RTC Training.
