Lake Takanassee still going strong after 42 years

BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, a pair of runners lead the pack around Lake Takanassee during Monday night’s 5K series. At right, Shrewsbury’s Jimmy Leslie reaches the finish line first. Elliott Denman was filling a need when he started the Lake Takanassee summer running series in West Long Branch.

The year was 1964. Lyndon Johnson was president, Ford introduced the Mustang, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was completed, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave the president greater powers to act in Vietnam, a young boxer named Cassius Clay, later to become Mohammed Ali, began his claim to “I am the greatest” by upsetting heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, and there was the “British Invasion” that changed the face of popular music forever.

The first big hit by one of those bands, the Rolling Stones, was “Time Is on My Side.” That could have been the theme song for Lake Takanassee, as well as the Stones.

The Lake Takanassee series is now 42 years old and going strong. It is the granddaddy of all Shore-area races. Anyone who has ever laced up his or her running shoes has run the lake at some point. Come summer, Monday nights belong to the lake.

Denman, a U.S. Olympian racewalker in 1956, didn’t know what he was starting that summer 42 years ago. He lived in West Long Branch and thought that Lake Takanassee, three-quarters of a mile around, would be ideal for a race.

“I saw a need for it,” said Denman. “The lake was a good place to do it. Athletes from the area were looking for something to do. High school runners flocked to it.”

One of those was Middletown’s Harold Nolan, who has raced at least one race at the lake every year.

“I was a junior at Middletown, and there were maybe 15 runners the first time around,” he said. “The race just continued to grow over the next seven or eight years, and it got very competitive.”

Word about Lake Takanassee started circulating around running circles, and it began to develop a reputation. Soon, top high school and college runners from around the state trekked to West Long Branch to take their shot at the course, which was 3.4 miles at first and later moved to its current 5K, or 3.1 miles.

Perhaps the most famous alumnus would be Marty Liguori, the former Essex Catholic High School star who ran a sub-4:00 mile (3:59.8) in high school in 1967, and went on to international fame as a 1,500- and 5,000-meter runner. He was top ranked in the world in both distances and a ’68 U.S. Olympian.

All of this activity around the Lake was before the country heard of Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter and the running boom of the mid-1970s. The numbers swelled when the distance boom took off, and another generation of runners was introduced to the lake.

The faces changed over the years as well. Nolan pointed out that the first woman to run the Lake was Patricia Barrett back in 1972. By the late 1970s, women’s numbers had increased, and now they make up one-third of the participants.

Numbers have remained solid at the lake with an average of 150 runners and racewalkers competing each week. It’s still ideal for high school and college runners looking to build their base for the fall cross country season, as well as those just looking for a race or a way to stay in shape.

Youth races for children ages 14 and under have been added over time and become popular, according to Denman.

They start the racing action at 6:30 p.m. followed by the run around the lake.

The lake’s success has spawned followers.

“Over the years, others have copied the idea,” said Denman.

Following Lake Takanassee’s lead, area running clubs have staked out their own nights. Tuesdays are for the Ocean Running Club and its 3-mile run at the Winding River Park in Toms River.

Wednesday evenings are the domain of the Freehold Area Running Club’s summer series of 5K races at Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Manalapan. The FARC series is the second oldest in the Shore, celebrating its 22nd year this summer.

Thursday, the scene shifts to the Wall Township Municipal Complex for the Jersey Shore Running Club’s summer race series, a 3-miler.

None, however, are like the lake.

“Lake Takanassee is a little different, unique, simply because of tradition,” said Nolan. “It was literally the first road race that happened in the Shore.”

This year’s series will continue through Aug. 29.