The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Close to 900 runners from New Jersey and elsewhere were estimated to toe the line on March 23 at the annual Garden State Track Club’s 10-Miler and Cookie chase 5K in Colonial Park.
Also offered was a 10-miler relay and a youth mile run.
Proceeds from the event will be used for scholarships for certain Franklin High School graduating seniors, according to Franklin Township Police Det. Robert Brown, one of the event organizers.
“Everything that we’re doing today goes to our scholarships that are awarded to graduating Franklin seniors who are participating in either JROTC or any of the FTPD community programs: Franklin Fit, FTPD Basketball, Cooking with the Cops, Chess Club,” Brown said. “Anyone who’s involved in any of those things, our youth academy, are eligible to fill out the application for our scholarship.”
“Then from there, we look at the submissions, look at kind of the student record, you know, how they’re doing academically, what kind of involvement they’ve had,” he said. “And we just try to really pick the best candidate to receive those scholarships.”
This is the third year that the scholarships have been offered, Browns said.
Brown said the organization awards up to five $500 scholarships each year.
“We just want to build this out bigger, so we can maybe the checks a little bit bigger every year, maybe award a couple more,” he said. “But every year we just try to make the race a little bit bigger and better, and this is our biggest year yet.”
Courtney Newman, the acting race director, agreed with Brown. She said that between advance and same-day registrations, the organization expected about 900 runners in the park.
“It’s the highest numbers we’ve had,” she said. “People know it’s a great race and they can come here and have a good run. Ten miles is a really unique distance, and I think the challenge combination really inspires a lot of people.”
“Year after year, you know, if we get a good race, people come back, so we’re getting return business.” Brown added. “And then, you know, we’ve done a pretty good job doing different promotions and just, word of mouth.”
Here’s the start of the Cookie Chase 5K:
Here are some scenes from the day:
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