ANNUAL AWARDS 2020
We had to cancel our traditional annual awards meeting in 2021 due to the Coronavirus. Instead we held a virtual club meeting on Monday, April 12 to look back at 2020 and recognize some of the people and achievements that helped us stay strong and make it through a very difficult year. These are the people we honored for their inspiring efforts and accomplishments during 2020.
Fabian & Liz Castillo
Chris Andronopoulos and Ben Hyppolite
Mike Skara
Jacqueline Murphy
Jackson Bangs and Mary Manning
Stacey Slaughter
Team Quarantine Quest (MaryRose Dibiano, Carolyn Sharaway, Sarah Guelich, Carlos Lopez, Roselynn Bedoya and Ashley Grimes),
Pia Lopresti
Paula Fields
Christel Cogneau
Mick Close
John Fabbro / Fleet Feet Montclair,
Samantha Spitaletta
Donny Santos
Ed Trieste
Nancy Gitin,
Brett Biller
Rachel Wyman / Montclair Bread Company,
Liz Coogan Russell
Laura Messina
Chris Jaworski
See below for more details on the 2020 award winners.
Fabian & Liz Castillo: At the start of the pandemic when the New York City Half Marathon was canceled, Liz and Fabian sprung into action and organized the Lemonade Half Marathon in Saddle River Park which was enjoyed by about a dozen runners and attracted several new members to the club.
Later in the year when other races were being cancelled, they organized the Pirate 5K in Branch Brook Park, a fun event with many people dressing in costumes. They split the runners into two small groups to keep it safe and arranged for bikers to lead the route.
Fabian also organized a team called “Running Changes Everything” for a virtual run across the country called the Great American 5,000 where the team had to run a combined total of 5,000 kilometers from San Francisco to New York City between June and September with a memorable finish running together as a team across the George Washington Bridge.
At the end of August Fabian and Liz hosted an all-day event from their house as Fabian attempted to run his first 50 miler.by running loops around his block so runners could jump in and support him at any time. Each loop around his block was half a mile, so he ran 100 loops!
Fabian also completed running every street in Nutley and held HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) classes for a few people who truly missed going to the gym!
Liz battled injuries again for much of the year but still managed to complete the Virtual NYC Marathon.
Chris Andronopoulos & Ben Hyppolite: Chris Andrinopoulos and Ben Hyppolite are two of the people who joined the club after running the Lemonade Half Marathon in March. They would have been prime candidates for a Rookie of the Year award in a normal year as they became very active in other events during the year and continued to improve. The Lemonade Half was Chris’s first half marathon and he went on to run several more virtual events during the year and closed out the year by winning one of the best costume awards at the ERC Holiday Run. Ben went on to run his first ever 50K and his second marathon at the I Run NY event finishing in 4 hrs 25 mins.
Mike Skara: Mike Skara is one of our most prolific runners who loves to run marathons and ultras. When the pandemic started, he decided he was going to run a 50K to help raise money for charity by running loops around his backyard. He eventually completed his Backyard 50K on April 18 by running 781 loops around his back yard and raising over $3,000 for charity. Great job, Mike!
Jacqueline Murphy: Jacqueline Murphy was one of our most active and inspirational members last year, helping to bring the running community together in so many different ways. Early in the pandemic she organized a fund called “Runners Unite for Health Care Workers” raising over $1,000 and using the money to support local businesses by purchasing over 100 meals from Fitzgerald’s and De Novo which she delivered to Clara Maas Medical Center.
Later in the year she created a virtual race to benefit Covenant House which encouraged people to “go the distance” for homeless youth. She also organized a Christmas party for the youth at Covenant House where they were able to make gingerbread houses and decorate cookies and cupcakes.
She ran many virtual races and challenges including three virtual marathons each of which were very special for her. In April she ran the Virtual Boston Marathon mapping out a course that ran past the homes of relatives and friends who waited outside for her with signs, water and cookies before crossing a makeshift finish line where her family was waiting. She ran the Virtual Boston Marathon again in September one week after an injury and was only able to complete it due to all the support she received from family and friends along the way. Finally she ran the Virtual NYC Marathon for Covenant House by running around the block in Newark where Covenant House is located, running the same loop 131 times in a drenching monsoon.
Jackson Bangs and Mary Manning: Jackson and Mary are two of our faster runners who had both qualified to run the Boston Marathon in 2020 for the first time. Their training had gone very well and they both ran a PR for the half marathon in early March. Jackson ran 1:19:32 at the Rockapulco Saint Pat's Half Marathon at Rockaway Beach, New York and Mary ran 1:47:13 at the E. Murray Todd half marathon. Sadly the Boston Marathon was canceled but they both continued their training and entered the Virtual Boston Marathon in September when they both had amazing races with Jackson breaking three hours to finish in 2:59:24 and Mary running a PR to finish in 3:50:20. They both said it was only possible because they were able to run with their friends who inspired them. Congratulations to Jackson and Mary on this tremendous achievement!
Stacey Slaughter: Stacey is another one of our faster runners who remained very positive during the pandemic despite also missing out on running Boston for the first time. She seemed to rediscover the joy of running and started a running streak where she ran at least three miles every day. Watch out for Stacey when she returns to racing after the pandemic!
Team Quarantine Quest - MaryRose Dibiano, Carolyn Sharaway, Sarah Guelich, Carlos Lopez, Roselynn Bedoya and Ashley Grimes: One of the most remarkable accomplishments last year occurred on one of the hottest days of the summer when a group of 5 runners completed a run of the entire length of the Lenape Trail, starting at Branch Brook Park in Newark and finishing at South Mountain Reservation in Millburn for a total of 36 miles. This was an unofficial event they named the Quarantine Quest (T-shirts were obviously made). The team members were MaryRose Dibiano, Carolyn Sharaway, Sarah Guelich, Carlos Lopez and Roselynn Bedoya. They said the best part of the day was the camaraderie between the participants as they ran, slogged and sometimes walked all those miles together They also very much appreciated the help of some fellow club members who supported them along the way including the Castillo family, Mick and Catherine Close, Tim Panebianco, the Perry Family and Pia Lopresti.
One additional member of the team was Ashley Grimes who was unable to join them for the Lenape Trail Run but she teamed up with Roselynn Bedoya a few months later in September to run her first ever Ultra run on the trails in Watchung Reservation where she completed more than 27 miles in the Squatchung Surprise 6 hour race. This race has 4 different colored loops and each loop you run is a surprise based on the luck of the draw by picking out a colored ball.
Pia Lopresti: Pia is a very positive person who continues to support and inspire her friends. She is now in the second year of a running streak which she started on New Year's Eve 2019 and proceeded to continue it throughout the pandemic.
Another event that Pia supported and helped organize was the “Mini Me Miler Edition” of Huffin' for the Stuffin' where 4 friends all under the age of 5 ran 2 loops around Edgemont Park. This presented a unique challenge for the participants since they had to pass the playground not just once, but twice. This was truly a fun run and almost certainly the cutest event of the year!
Paula Fields: Paula is an invaluable member of the club who has been our vice president for the past few years. She is a very tenacious runner who enjoys participating in events and logs a lot of miles often with her husband, Kevin. She is very active within the club, always willing to help out and very supportive of other club members.
Christel Cogneau: Christel joined the board of directors last year and quickly became an invaluable member of the board. She was a tremendous help setting us up on Zoom, moving the club into the virtual world and organizing the club meetings with some top notch speakers like Mary Cain and Katie Arnold. She has also helped manage our Facebook group, organize the hosted runs and was instrumental in starting the virtual strength training class.
She has also brought a number of new members into the club and been very active in the virtual events bringing a lot of fun to many of the team events as part of her team “Running from the Coffee… To the Finish Wine”.
Mick Close: Mick continued to lead the club through a very difficult year, helping to organize virtual club meetings and other virtual events while keeping everyone informed with the club newsletter.
John Fabbro / Fleet Feet Montclair: Fleet Feet deserves special recognition for everything they did last year to support the local running community and to help raise money for local charity groups while doing everything possible to keep the store open and serve their customers.
They created a special Facebook group “Beyond the Pavement” to help keep people motivated and they organized numerous virtual events such as “Running Is NOT Cancelled / Together We Move”, “My Big Run”, “Montclair Brewery Pride Run”, “Summer Shuffle / Relay to Nowhere”, “I Run New York” and “Huffin for the Stuffin”.
A huge thank you to John Fabbro and the rest of the crew at Fleet Feet for everything they did last year to keep us going!
Samantha Spitaletta: Sam is a bright light within the club who not only loves to participate in events but also loves to post photos and collages capturing the fun of each event.
She really enjoys running with her friends and taking part in all the different activities. She said her favorite virtual race in 2020 was the Detroit Half Marathon mostly because she got to run it with a few friends. She also credits the Toll Booth Challenge with helping her keep moving forward when the pandemic started.
She had a lot of fun jumping into other people’s virtual races, helping them, supporting them, pacing them or just running with them because they wanted company. Some of her favorites were Fabian Castillo's Loopy Ultra, Jacqueline Murphy's Virtual Boston Marathon, Brett Biller's Heroes for Children Virtual Marathon, and Mary Spink's Virtual NYC Marathon.
Sam is one of the people who makes this club tick!
Donny Santos: Donny only started running in 2019 but has quickly discovered a true love for running. He kept running all year long in 2020 finishing the year with over 2,000 miles and running his fastest time in all distances from the 1 mile to the half marathon even though there were no races.
He especially enjoyed running in the team events in 2020 on the team he created with Daniel Garcia called The Knight Runners taking first place at both The Summer Shuffle and I Love New York (marathon division).
Donny has become famous for some of his posts especially the very creative video he made of The Knight Runners participating in the team events. These really showed off his passion and fun for running.
Ed Trieste: Many people completed a few virtual challenges last year but Ed Trieste probably did more than anybody else. Overall he managed to complete all 5 virtual challenges organized by CompuScore, 12 virtual races including a virtual marathon and 9 live races setting several PR’s along the way. In addition, Ed posted regularly about these events providing detailed summaries of the virtual challenges and race reports from many of his races including a list of ERC finishers.
Nancy Gitin: In a year when it was very hard to find any in person races to run, Nancy went on an amazing streak in October and November finding a 5K race to run every weekend and winning an award in almost every race. Her favorite was the Rev Frank Napier race in Paterson. She loved how the community came together to run for a very good cause and the trophy she won was amazingly huge for finishing in 2nd place!
Brett Biller: Brett helped organize an event called the Heroes for Children 5K which supports Child Advocacy Centers throughout New Jersey. The event was set up so participants could run a virtual 5K in Saddle River Park and Brett ran with everyone that showed up on his team until he had completed a full marathon.
Rachel Wyman / Montclair Bread Company: Rachel faced many challenges with her business when the pandemic started but she once again rose to the occasion and did an amazing job in transforming the Montclair Bread Company to serve the local community providing bread, milk, groceries and other essential items while also helping out the Montclair food pantry as much as she could.
She also continued to support the local running community as much as possible with her group runs and other events. She even found the time to keep up with her own training and capped off a crazy year by running a PR of 22:13 at the RaceFaster Thanksgiving Day 5K.
Liz Coogan Russell: In a year that put her through the ringer and complaining became the norm for many people, Liz was truly an inspirational beast. She showed up regularly to support club members, cheering at events when she wasn’t cleared to exercise and celebrating everyone’s runs on Facebook when she was quarantined at home.
Laura Messina: Laura has always been one of the club’s leading cheerleaders and, although she couldn’t cheer as much in person last year, she was always posting positive messages on Facebook to encourage and motivate other runners.
Laura also became a very familiar sight on the roads last year. After having major back surgery just prior to the pandemic, she was unable to go for physical therapy after the surgery but was told it would be okay to walk. So she started walking and she walked, gradually lengthening the distance, eventually adding bouts of jogging, then some miles of actual running! After a few months she was completing 70 miles a week and managed to cover 836 miles during May and June. She has continued to amaze and inspire us with her recent performance as the top overall finisher in the ERC Winter Warrior Challenge.
As Laura likes to say, “Don’t stop moving, friends! It’s awesome medicine!”
Chris Jaworski: Chris Jaworski really found his running legs again in 2020 running 1,379 miles, his third highest total ever. He credits the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee with helping him get his running mojo back running the 1,000 kilometers in 84 days between May and July. During this time he also enjoyed running the 10 Days of 10Ks, benefiting MEND Hunger Relief Network, and he especially liked the charity fundraising aspect of both these events.
He also did a number of trail races including the Lenape Trail Run (36 miles) and the Squatchung Surprise 6 Hour Run in Watchung Reservation but one of his most impressive and unusual accomplishments was running every street in three different towns - Glen Ridge (96 streets), his home town of Bloomfield (409 streets) and Essex Fells (47 streets).