On Sunday, 50th running of the Polar Bear Races
Race is one of the longest continuously-held events of its kind
For the past 49 years runners have flocked to the Asbury Park boardwalk on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to take part in the Polar Bear Races.
This year is no different. The Polar Bear Races are set for Sunday, Dec. 29, with the five- and 10-mile race walks kicking off at 10 a.m. and a five-mile run at 1 p.m.
Even after Hurricane Sandy damaged a portion of the race route last year, event organizers forged ahead, determined not to break the tradition.
It is one of the longest continuously-held events of its kind in both the state and the nation, according to a news release from event organizers.
“It all started in 1964, this year will be the 50th running of it,” Elliot Denman, assistant meet director, told the Sun. “It’s a great historic event.”
Denman is a former Olympian race walker. He competed in the men’s 50 km walk at the 1956 Summer Olympic games. In the 1960s he was working as a reporter for a local news paper when he and others sought to bring more track and field events to the area. The Polar Bear Races have been a fixture in the Jersey shore running scene ever since.
Middletown resident Harold Nolan, now 66, has participated in all of the previous forty-nine runs and is expected to participate again this year. Nolan has won the race nine times and finished in the top three for a consecutive 35 years.
“Harry’s a fixture there. He’s a really great runner,” said Denman.
All races start outside Convention Hall on the boardwalk. Online registration is still open. Race day registration opens up at 9 a.m. for the walk and 10:30 a.m. for the run in the Grand Arcade of Convention Hall. The post-race reception and award ceremony takes place in the Berkeley Hotel.
A post-race dip in the chilly Atlantic is not a requirement to take part in the race, according to Denman. In fact, that tradition didn’t even happen in the early years of the race.
“That kind of came later,” he said. “That’s definitely an unofficial part of this event. Some people do it on their own just in the spirit of the season.”
[Photos by Bob Both of the Jersey Shore Running Club.]
————————————————————
Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook and Twitter.
