Largest Turnout Ever for Pizza 5K

Downtown Westfield came to a standstill Wednesday night.

More than 2,500 runners took over Elm and Quimby streets before and after traversing the town in the eighth annual Downtown Westfield 5K & Pizza Extravaganza. The event was organized by the Downtown Westfield Corporation.

Unlike last year, when the race was called off, there was no thunder and lightning, something race director Mark Zenobia mentioned to 2,519 runners as they poised to start on E. Broad Street near the front of the Rialto Theatre.

A slight breeze accompanied the runners as they started at 7:14 p.m. on E. Broad, made a left onto N. Euclid Avenue, and then ran through Mindowaskin Park before making their way through the north side neighborhoods on their way to the finish line banner on Elm.

The men’s winner was 20-year-old Brian Guterl, a Rahway resident, 2007 Union Catholic High graduate and now a student and runner at St. Joseph University in Philadephia. Guterl ran 15:40, 5:03 per mile. Runner-up Jeff Perella, a 21-year-old from Westfield, was second at 15:42. Karl O’Reilly of Morristown was third in 16:00.

The women’s champ was Catherine Smith of Wayne. Smith, a 36-year-old mother of three, and an English teacher at Wayne Valley High, won in 18:13. Second place went to Laura Gallo of Cranford. The 20-year-old, a student at Georgetown University, ran a 18:46. Third place went to 17-year-old Caroline Williams of Westfield. She ran 18:54. She’s a student at Mount St. Mary Academy in Watchung.

Both winners were racing for the first time in Westfield.

“I started out the race with the leaders,’’ said Guterl, who’ll be a junior at St. Joseph where he is majoring in criminal justice. “I wasn’t really worried too much about time. I was just going off of them and then around like right before two miles I broke everybody and ran the rest of the way by myself, but I heard people on the side cheering for the guy who came in second. That helped push me in.’’

Guterl runs the 800 and 1,500 in college, so the basically flat course was a solid course to attack. There were one hill in the park and two others in the neighborhoods, he said.

“There were some tough hills, but it wasn’t too bad and the downhills, especially the one at the end, really helped with the finishing kick,’’ he said. “It’s fast. It’s a lot of fun when there are a lot of people cheering for you. It helps.’’

Smith, another Georgetown graduate, ran at Wayne Valley in high school and later at Georgetown where she ran the 1,500 and 3,000 meter. She said she spent Wednesday afternoon at the pool with her three children.

“It seemed like a pretty fast course, there was a little hill at the beginning; I think I was pretty much in the lead for most of the race, there was a girl (Gallo) who was with me for the first mile or two,’’ said Smith, who started running at 11 and has continued through high school and college. “I did feel a presence of another runner (Gallo) and she helped me run a faster race. There were also a lot of guys around to help push the pace.’’

When the runners finished they headed for pizza on Quimby Street where the awards ceremony was held. As more and more runners finished—with Zenobia calling to them as they finished “all the way through, follow the leader''—the line for pizza lengthened. Zenobia said there were just over 2,000 runners two years ago.This was different—and the 500 boxes of pizza with 4,000 slices inside—carried diligently out of Ferraro’s by race volunteers with teal race shirts—hit the spot for the happy finishers.

“I have been preparing for this, so I did like a few races earlier in the summer, I felt really good when I started—I wanted to get in the top three, so I was really happy I was first woman for Westfield,’’ said Williams, who’ll be a senior at Mount St. Mary in the fall. “This is a really good place for me to start in the middle of the summer—a good bench mark for the middle of the summer.’’