By: centraljersey.com
MANVILLE – Running is in the family and this weekend, Manville’s Evanylo family put their talents to good use. The trio Michelle, Drew and Amy all took part Sunday in the second annual Steeplechase Distance Run at Amsterdam School in Hillsborough to benefit the Steeplechase Cancer Center at Somerset Medical Center.
Michelle Evanylo, who works at Somerset Medical Center, decided to do the 5K Run this year, honoring the memory of her mother who succumbed to cancer in May 2009. "If those people can suffer through their pain and chemotherapy, with a little bit of training and running, we can suffer I guess," she said. "Somerset put out the flyer and being that both of my kids are in college and I have a lot of free time, I figured I would give it a try. I had to train but I got through it."
Even though Drew and Amy were prominent runners on Manville High School track teams, Ms. Evanylo had not participated in a benefit run before. She thought she could do this, and has been training since June to run in the event.
"It was hard to train in June because it was very hot," she said. I started out just running three blocks that was the most that I could run when I first started. I kept running the three blocks when I first started and then it got to be four and five, then a half mile, then a mile, and two miles, three miles. It was a long progression but it worked."
While training, Ms. Evanylo said she tried to run every day but sometimes she couldn’t so sometimes she could only run every other day. She said she likes running at night better than during the day. "It is hard to run in the morning. I find it was hard to run in the morning."
Sunday, Ms. Evanylo came in 10th of the 19 runner in her age group, 65th out of 127 women, with a respectable time of 33:32.10.
The younger Ms. Evanylo joined her mom and brother running, participating in the kids run to help the cause.
"Mentally, when I was running the race today, it was just like running the races in high school," she said. "It was the same idea that you just can’t stop and walk you have to keep going no matter what just get to the end."
She time of 28:45.76 put her first in her age group of 15-19 year olds, and 26 out of 127 total women.
"I tried not to be, but I was very competitive and I was trying to keep up a good pace," she said. "I saw Drew ahead of me and I said I can’t let him get out of my sight and I had to stay in that range of him. I didn’t want him to beat me by that much."
For Amy, training was not easy around her schedule as a freshman at Rutgers. She also works the before- and after-school Jointure programs in preparation of her goal of becoming a teacher. "I think I will definitely do it again, it was exciting," she said, adding she’s looking forward already to next year’s run.
Ms. Evanylo laughed when asked if she will also do it again next year, but she added she’ll have to practice more with hills.
"I really had a hard time with the hills – nobody told me there were going to be hills," she said. "Do you know how hard it is to run up a hill? It’s OK going down a hill, but when you are running and there is a hill, it slowed me down a lot."
Running with her son and daughter was fun, but Ms. Evanylo said they told her they wouldn’t wait for her. "I didn’t think I would be that far back but it felt good," she said.
As for Drew, he was motivated by watching his mom prepare, he said.
"She was making me look kind of bad, and she wanted someone to do it with too, so I said, ‘alright, I’d do it," he said. "She signed me up and I came home this weekend to do it."
Mr. Evanylo is a junior at Montclair State College but really didn’t have the time to train as much as he wanted to, either. Like his sister, he also went to the gym and ran on the tread mill, but also played intramural sports at school to stay active. In the end, he came in 61 in the crowd of 117 men, with a time of 28:21.8.
"I wasn’t surprised by it but it was not what I was expecting," he said. "Seeing that she (Amy) was right behind me and I only bet her by a couple of seconds. I heard footsteps and I automatically assumed it was her going faster."
The winning time for Drew’s age group was 19:10 which is almost 10 minutes faster than he ran. Drew said he will see about doing the run again next year depending on a few things first, getting in shape and running. All of the participants received T-shirts, a backpack filled with donated and collectible items.
There were 235 participants in the 5K alone this year, where last year there were about that in total. Two other runs were also held – a 25K run and a 1-mile walk. Over $90,000 was raised at last year’s event.
The funds help support the $28 million, 63,000-square foot Steeplechase Cancer Center, which opened in January 2007 to enable cancer patients to see their doctors, undergo outpatient treatment and participate in cancer research studies.

