WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR SUCCESSFUL THIRD ANNUAL RUNNING THE AVE 5K IN DOWNTOWN VINELAND

142 Runners Finished

Organized by Main Street Vineland in Cooperation with Second Capital Running
Lidl was Major Sponsor

VINELAND, NJ—A large field of runners, helped by excellent weather, helped put the third annual Running The Ave 5K, which took place in downtown Vineland on Sunday, June 27, went into the record books, with another new course record being set.

The run was organized by Main Street Vineland, in cooperation with Second Capital Running, with Lidl as the major sponsor, and NovaCare Rehabilitation, East Oak Animal Hospital, and Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) as other sponsors.

Aside from several counties in Jew Jersey, participates came from New Mexico, Maryland, and New York

When the event was over, the winners were:

Winner: Tom Cooke, 26, of Glassboro, with a time of 16 min. 14 sec.—a new course record by 3 seconds.

First Female Finisher: Victoria Thaler, age 25, of Millville, took the prize of top female for the second year in a row with a time of 20 min. 23 sec.

Vineland’s Fastest Finisher: Joshua Arocho, age 33, with a time of 19 min. 12 sec.

True Grit Award (last place finisher—”to celebrate the spirit of never giving up”): Beverly Jeffries, 70, of Williamstown.

The race also boasted a large showing of youth runners, with almost 30 percent of participants being under the age of 18, many of them were from the Vineland Youth Running Club.

For this sanctioned race, Vineland’s downtown business district was transformed into a magnificent 5K course, which included a run through beautiful Landis Park. Signs painted by a Vineland High School art class encouraged the runners as they traversed the course.

“This race did Vineland and The Ave proud. The tremendous response was an indicator of people wanting to get back to normal,” said Main Street Vineland Executive Director Russell Swanson.

“Event coordinator Andre Rivera, of Second Capital Running, was, again, the strong leading light for this project, from start to finish, and making it a fun, competitive, safe event,” Swanson said. “Andre, the runners, as well as all the sponsors and providers of services, did themselves proud. This event maintains its place as a key part of Main Street Vineland’s summer season on The Ave.”

For more information on all Main Street Vineland programs and events, call the Main Street Vineland office at 856-794-8653, visit the organization’s website at www.TheAve.biz, or its Facebook page.