2004 Westfield Downtown Review

On the final Wednesday in July the weather gods smiled on Westfield making for a happy group of race volunteers and runners at the third annual Westfield Downtown 5K and Pizza Extravaganza. With over 1300 registered runners, 1291 who finished, the race showed an impressive 20% increase over last year.

Most relieved was Sherry Cronin, Executive Director of the Downtown Westfield Corporation(DWC), who was extremely concerned at some ominous looking storm clouds that appeared at 5:30 pm, 90 minutes before race time. “I just hope it holds off until the race is over ,” she had said, “But I’m not sure.”

Just 24 hours earlier a torrential rainstorm had flooded much of the downtown area and Cronin and her staff prepared for the worst with extra tents and early transporting of race bags. Also The Sweet Sounds Downtown Jazz Festival, which is held every Tuesday
night in July and August was to be rescheduled for Wednesday, but due to the 80% chance of rain on Wednesday, Cronin made the decision at noon to cancel the four bands, which were scheduled.
“We would have had both events take place at the same time--a
challenge but nonetheless manageable ,” added Cronin.

The Tuesday storms had nearly flooded the DWC basement where the race bags had been packed.

“We were very concerned after the tremendous amount of rain we had on
Tuesday resulting in some flooding, particularly down Elm Street near
our office. Fortunately, we remained dry and the weather held out on Wednesday for the event.,” said Cronin.

According to Cronin, 423 runners post registered adding 30% from pre-registration..” We were very pleased that so many people were able to join us. Unfortunately we ran out of runner’s bags as a result, but we had enough t-shirts and other goodies
at the event including live entertainment.

Although they are from Franklin Lakes in Bergen County, the men’s and women’s winners, Gene and Amanda Mitchell had a Westfield connection. They are owners of The Running Company, which opened its seventh store in Westfield the day of the 2003
race. Gene Mitchell had been second the last two years but this time outran the defending champion Anthony De Benedictis of Roselle Park in a course record 14:50.

“Anthony’s a lot younger than me and a lot faster ,” said the 36-year-old Mitchell of the 26-year-old De Benedictis. “It’s always an accomplishment to beat him, “ added Mitchell a former Big East 300 meter steeplechase champion while at Villanova.

Amanda Mitchell also smashed the course record of Julie Culley with a time of 17:21, which far outdistanced runner-up Megan Phillips of Brielle.

For the second straight year, Westfield High School teacher Chris Tafelski was first township finisher just edging out fast improving Westfield sophomore Jeff Perrella 16:15 to 16:18. Morristown track coach Paul Buccino was the third Westfield resident followed by Rick Pingitore, the first Westfield master in 16:55.

Chris’s younger sister Claire made it a clean sweep for the Tafelski family by running 20:26 to outpace Westfield High School runners Dorothy Chore, Annie Onishi and Meg Driscoll. Kim Selert (22:20) was the first Westfield master.

But the real story of the race was the staggering numbers of food consumed. The Westfield Jaycees distributed 420 pizzas and over1,300 cookies.

“The business community was extremely supportive, not only in providing
goodies for the runners bags, but also in welcoming 1,400 runners and
the thousands of spectators to downtown. The race was a tremendous success. The race organizer, On Your Mark Productions, and all of the volunteers did a great job to create a
seamless event ,” said Cronin.