Half-marathon set for Sunday
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
When Mark Censits fires the starting gun at 7 a.m. Sunday, it will send 1,250 runners down Paul Robeson Way in the Princeton Half-Marathon that is expected to be a little bigger and a little better than its inaugural running.
Censits is grand marshal this year for the race that is organized by HiTOPS. He has lived in Princeton the last 20 years, has a son who is a Princeton High School and former HiTOPS volunteer. Censits owns CoolVines on Spring St., just around the corner from where the race starts and ends and where Censits will hand out awards.
”Anything that puts Princeton on the map in terms of doing events like this, I think is good,” Censits said. “I think we’re a very inspired town. Part of what made this event come to be is not only HiTOPS’ goals of getting exposure and raising funds for them, it was putting it on the map.”
HiTOPS is in its 25th year of offering healthcare to youth, 13 to 26 years old. They provide risk reduction education and promote healthy decision-making. Last year’s race helped to raise about $75,000.
”HiTOPS has some very exciting things happening in terms or risk reduction programs and focusing on prevention more than anything we’ve had,” said race director Catharine Vaucher of HiTOPS. “Like teaching kids younger how to make healthy decisions and what a decision making process includes and providing them those sorts of tools so if they’re faced with whatever situation they have, they can handle it.
”HiTOPS is really prioritizing where the highest needs are and those needs don’t always come with funding,” she added. “The more we have, the more we can deal with. It provides money we can say yes to more. It’s very helpful. It’s helping us to build visibility at the same time so we can go to larger funding sources and it helps us compete for funding.”
And it welcomes the running community to Princeton. The initial Princeton Half-Marathon had to be canceled in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, but last year’s debuted without a hitch. There are only minor changes to the race this year. HiTOPS was granted permission from the township to up its cap from 1,000 last year to 1,250 this year.
”We’re testing that out and seeing how manageable that is,” Vaucher said. “There’s so much interest out there, it’s amazing. Once it closed in July, we had a waiting list.”
Michael Davis, last year’s winner in 1 hour, 21 minutes, 23 seconds, is expected back to defend his title. The Scotch Plains resident will wear bib No. 1. Last year’s runner-up, Albert Lee, a West Windsor-Plainsboro High South graduate now at Princeton University, will not run, but only due to injury. He would love to be back out there.
”The course is really beautiful,” said Lee, who is a junior. “It goes through all the different parts of Princeton. It’s definitely a challenging course. There are a lot of hills in it. It’s a fun race. Every mile, there were locals cheering you on. I liked the energy and you got to see a lot of different parts of Princeton.”
Lee ran as part of a relatively new group started at Princeton, Team U. Princeton University students represent Team U while raising money for the charity Shoes for Africa. This year, 40 members of Team U are expected to compete in the Princeton Half-Marathon.
”They’re trying to build the largest children’s hospital in Kenya,” said Ashley Wang, the chapter president at Princeton. “Our goal is to run for a cause.
”We try to encourage runners to tell their friends about the race and their family friends. We set up a fundraising page. We have a goal. We’re still in the midst of getting a last push. In years past, we were able to raise over $5,500 per half marathon.”
Team U typically sends runners to two half-marathons per year. There is a half-marathon in the spring at Rutgers, and the Princeton Half-Marathon has become their fall option.
”We’ve been doing the Princeton Half because it’s more convenient,” Wang said. “It’s a block or two from the Princeton campus. If there was a bigger interest, we might do the Trenton Half.”
Team U has grown considerably since current Princeton University senior Joe Benun founded it as a freshman. It’s alive in different colleges around the country. The Princeton chapter organizes a couple small races on campus, and has expanded to include a triathlon division this year while remaining a strong group for runners.
”We know there’s good interest for more runners,” Wang said. “It’s a pretty big running community. Within Princeton, it’s pretty inspiring.
”We try to organize group runs every week. We try to meet up with the runners and get to know them, not just email them. You get to know the more veteran runners and good running technique and injury prevention. It’s a nice running community.”
Wang was inspired to run her first half marathon last spring. She ran the Unite Half Marathon around Rutgers campus.
”You don’t want to miss out,” Wang said. “It was a great experience. During the school year, it’s so inspiring. Everyone is involved with classes and other experiences, and the fact that they’re dedicating a certain amount of time, it’s nice to see. To see their progress and see everyone finish on race day, it’s really inspiring.”
Wang went to last year’s half-marathon to volunteer, and this year she will be along the course to support Team U runners while taking pictures of their team in action.
”Maybe next year I’ll try to do the Princeton half,” Wang said. “It’s a more challenging race. I did watch it last year and it’s fun. It’s good to see not just Princeton but the whole town of Princeton coming together.”
Princeton will be welcoming not only its own local runners to its streets, but also runners from more than a dozen different states as well as a number of different countries.
”I’ve done a number of races like this,” said Censits, who will stick to marshalling, not running this year. “As a kid I helped organize a local run. There’s something about running in your own town that’s pretty amazing. You can see people on the side of the road that you actually know, and you’re on roads that you know. It’s something special to have the roads cleared for you.”
Only Paul Robeson Way will be completely closed to traffic. Roads will be closed temporarily along the route for the runners, but then immediately opened when they pass. This year’s pace limit has been lowered from 15-minute miles to 14-minute pace, another attempt by race officials to lessen the impact on churches and businesses Sunday morning.
”We got very good constructive feedback,” Vaucher said. “We got excellent feedback and we’ll ask them in every year and make some minor changes.”
The minimum pace is one of the minor changes to this year, as are balloons to make port-o-johns on the course more visible for runners. There is a big increase in corporate team entries, and this year there will be a Mayor’s Business Cup sponsored by the mayor and the Princeton Chamber of Commerce and HiTOPS.
”It’s presented to recognize the fastest male and female runners representing a downtown business or bigger business in our area,” Vaucher said. “A&B, Triumph, Small World Coffee, they all have runners competing. The Cup will be awarded to that business and they’ll keep it for the year and then the next year we’ll add another name to it. That’s really fun. That grew out of efforts to work closer with the downtown businesses.”
Race packet pick-up remains at the Princeton Running Company today and Saturday. The Running Company is also providing pacers for the race Sunday, an answer to another desire of runners. Volunteers are still welcome, but must sign up ahead of time, to help with race support. The countdown is on, and organizers and runners are looking forward to Sunday’s start.
”We’re ready,” Vaucher said. “We’re excited for it again.”