Newman, Rosen capture cold, wet run
By: Justin Feil
The rain and chilly breeze kept some away from the ninth annual Run With Aimee, but nearly 700 still came out for the 1-mile ramble and 5k road race Sunday at Montgomery High.
The Run With Aimee has had only one back-to-back winner, male or female, in its nine years and Sunday’s race was no exception as Michael Newman was the overall winner in 17:03 while Dana Rosen defeated last year’s female winner, Rocky Hill’s Christine Witt, in a time of 19:06, good for 13th place overall.
"The very first year they had this race, I did it," said Rosen, a 1997 Montgomery High graduate who this year moved back to Montgomery. " I’ve been away for a few years and I decided to come back for this one.
"That was my very first 5k race. I think I did OK for my first one. I continued on from that one and I’ve done many more 5k races since that one. I guess this is a culmination. I woke up this morning and decided to run it."
Newman was committed to run the race earlier, but never envisioned actually winning the Run With Aimee.
"It’s the first time I’ve run Run With Aimee," said the 34-year-old Hillsborough resident. "It went well. I’m training for a triathlon now, so I figured I would just call it a speed workout day. I went out and held pace and ended up winning.
"During the first mile and a half, a gentleman was running with me and he slowed down and I just kept holding my pace and that was about it."
Newman is more a veteran of the longer races. He was 20th at the Philadelphia Marathon in November in 2:37.19. He will enter the New Jersey Devilman half-ironman in Millville mid-May. But for one day he was committed to doing his first Run With Aimee.
"It’s very rare for me to do a 5k. I run marathons," Newman said. "I know a lot of the people that sponsor the race. I’ve been friends with a lot of the people here. They talked me into doing it.
"I like the course. It’s nice and flat. It could be a great course to PR in the 5k on, if the weather’s right."
Newman admits it didn’t take a best to win Sunday, but bests were hard to come by in the conditions. It didn’t take anything away from what was otherwise a great debut.
"I’ve run 5ks a minute and a half faster," Newman said. "It’s real surprising I won. I didn’t have to run hard. It was fun. Even with the weather, it was a lot of fun."
Rosen agreed, "Considering some of the weather conditions, it was fine. I was pleased with the time."
More importantly for Rosen was the chance to reconnect with some old friends, and even her former track coach, Jim Goodfriend, at MHS.
"I just had a fun time," said Rosen, who ran at the University of Richmond. "I did manage to see my old high school coach. He lives along the course. That was a really good part of the race."
Rosen graduated well behind Aimee Eve Polack, the 1990 MHS graduate in whose memory the race is held in honor of, but that connection to the school is part of what made coming back to the race so worthwhile.
"It’s good to see a lot of familiar faces," Rosen said. "It’s very nice. A reason that I like this race is because it goes to a scholarship fund for Montgomery. The Polacks have made a really good effort to generate donations and really give back to the community, which is important."
The Polacks were again on hand for the race, helping with registration as well as actually taking part in the race. Aimee’s mother, Elaine, again helped introduce the race. Aimee’s father, Joe, ran the race and finished 225th overall.
"Personally, I did OK for the shape I’m in," Joe Polack laughed. "I did OK. We’re pleased with the turnout, based on the weather with the cold and the wet. We would have liked a nice day blowing everything out and had nothing left over. But we made out OK. Everybody seemed to have a good time."
Finishing just one second behind Polack was Kate Lynch, one of the first MHS students to earn a scholarship from the Aimee Fund. Lynch, a 1999 MHS graduate, used the scholarship to pay a portion of her tuition at Boston College. Lynch has since graduated from BC, and returned to live in Montgomery while working at Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton.
"I just started running recently," said Lynch. "I felt good today. I ran with my sister."
Mary Beth Lynch was a classmate of Aimee Polack’s. Kate Lynch would like to continue to return to support the race that helped support her education after MHS.
"I’ll try to come back every year if I can," Lynch said. "It’s great. I love to come back and see everyone."
Even for those without a personal connection, there’s plenty of reason that the turnout wasn’t affected more by the difficult weather conditions.
"There’s a lot of good stuff," Joe Polack said. "I think we have the best goodie bag. I think other people say they do, but I think we do. There’s so much. We always have plenty of drinks, plenty of food. We have the big tents out. If you’re going to go to run, where else are you going to go?"
Lynch would like to return next year for what will be a milestone 10th running of the Run With Aimee. Newman and Rosen would also like to defend their wins. Rosen almost didn’t come Sunday because of the weather.
"It almost got me," she said. "Every year’s been like this. I can’t win with the weather."
But she did win in her second appearance at the race, and she’d love to return. Newman, too, is looking forward to his second Run With Aimee after such a positive experience Sunday.
"It’s a total bonus," he said of winning. "I wasn’t expecting it. I had no expectations at all. I just got up this morning, and said, ‘It’s a nice day for a little speed workout.’
"I’ll come back next year. Absolutely. It’s a good race. I like it."

