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Sports

On Mother's Day, the Mother of All Races

The Hoboken Harriers running club held its 14th annual 5-mile race on Sunday.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, the Hoboken Harriers running club staged what it dubbed the “Mother of All Races,” its 14th annual five-mile, waterfront-route race for charity.

The race is the longest in Hoboken. This year over 365 runners participated, along with two dozen children who ran a kids' size one-mile race, and a handful of parents who ran a mile while pushing their children in strollers.

The Harriers stage the race every year with the All Saints Community Development Corporation, which runs the Jubilee Center, an after-school program for under-served children who live in public housing. The runner registration fees will go towards the Jubilee Center's services, which include tutoring, field trips and positive activities.

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Ten children from the Jubilee Center ran in the kids' race, and three of them, Justin Brown, Charles Gaston and Elizer Brown, finished in the top four. All of the Jubilee Center children ran with new sneakers donated by the running store.

Oliver Pavot, a counselor at the Jubilee Center, helped the children train for the race. He said they ran for a couple of hours each week for a month, though the kids were already well-prepared.

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“They're active, they're playing other sports at the Jubilee Center, so they had a good start,” Pavot said.

Because the race was on Mother's Day, the Harriers gave each mother who ran a flower once they crossed the finish line.

“If you are a man who is not a mother please do not take a flower,” joked Jim Doyle, the longtime Harriers leader who emceed the start.

At least in terms of a competition the race was over soon after it began. Ross Weller, 27 of New York, won with a time of 26:38, beating second place finisher Jon Lindenauer, 24, of New Paltz, NY by only eight seconds.

Weller said he runs an average of 50 miles every week. He said that he is friends with many of the Harriers and had helped them stage the race in previous years but that this was the first time he ran it.

“It's a wonderful course,” Weller said while catching his breath.

Among Hoboken residents, 29 year-old Jeremy Klapper finished 6th overall with a time of 29:44, and 31 year-old Angela Colarusso was the fastest female and 22nd finisher overall with a time of 33:40.

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