Laura and James Novotny
Laura resides in Morristown, and works as a paraprofessional for the Livingston School District. Her father, James is also a new member of Rose City Runners Club. Laura is former Madison High School cross-country and track runner (2009-2013). She joined the club to not only meet new people, but also to get back into shape and rediscover her love of running. Laura is very fond of her family, animals, children, nature and traveling. Her other hobbies include: reading, baking, arts & crafts, listening to music and watching true crime documentaries.
 

James resides in Morristown with his wife, Louise and daughter, Laura. It was actually Laura who encouraged him to join the Rose City Runners Club. James has run several marathons in the past, which included the New Jersey Marathon, the New York Marathon, and the Marine Corps. Marathon in D.C., and hopes to get back into running. James is also a retired Technology Education supervisor for the Livingston School District. He is a true handy man who is passionate about building things and working on cars.

 

Viyjanta Ruparel (East Hanover) 

Viyjanta lives in East Hanover with her husband Anupam. They have three children: Jai, Neel and Tara, a dog named Pepper and a cat named Pumpkin. Viyjanta decided to join the Rose City Runners Club because she likes to walk/run and would like to meet others who do as well.  When I was having trouble pronouncing her name she said “Think of Magenta with a V”!  

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Fatih Karakurt (Short Hills)

Fatih moved to Short Hills in 2019 after living in Jersey City for 20 years. Since he can't run fast, he tries to run longer distances. He fell in love with trail running a long time ago and still prefers it over road running except in very muddy conditions. He works as a software developer full time and volunteers as an EMT on Tuesday nights at MSHVFAS. He is still trying to get his miles up after recovering a knee injury earlier this year. Originally from Turkey, he has two daughters: one is graduated from UCLA this June and the other is a senior at Millburn HS.

 

Bobbi Davit (Basking Ridge)

Bobbi is an animal lover. She sometimes pet sits for people she knows.  She enjoys running, hiking, bird watching, baking, reading historical fiction, and word games, especially Wordle and Spelling Bee. She joined the club to meet fellow runners, hopefully pick up some tips so she can increase her speed and set a new 5k PR, and of course, for the post-run breakfasts🙂.

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Kris Miller (Summit)

Kris has 4 grown children.  She is currently a consultant specializing in Financial Services Companies.  Running is relatively new for her unless you count her cross-country days in Middle School.  In Oct 2021 she completed a half marathon for the first time to raise money for a charity. She loves the camaraderie of training with others so decided to join our group to experience that again.  She loves to be active.  Currently she plays tennis, pickleball and hikes.   

 

Karen Corrigan (Morristown)

Karen started running in her teen years in an attempt to get stronger and to have more endurance and confidence. She ran cross country & track in high school and college. She was also an alpine skier in college. She won a partial scholarship for both cross country and alpine skiing. According to Karen, she was never a shiny star but provided the warm body that the team needed but I suspect she is being modest. Sports were her confidence builder. She has a degree in Kinesiology which is Latin for “you’re never going to own a yacht”. She managed several AT&T fitness centers for 15 years. When they started to eliminate the fitness centers, she began to train executives privately in their homes.  Her business of in-home training was born out of necessity. She’s also been a licensed massage therapist since her 20’s. She works for the NY Jets as a massage therapist during the football season which is April through January.

 

Vanessa and Tim Urie (Chatham)

Tim and Vanessa have lived in Chatham Borough since 2010. They have a 9 year old son and twin 7 year old girls and a super-mutt Rocky that they adopted from St. Huberts in 2020.  They met at The College of New Jersey (TSC at the time) on the cross-country team their freshman year.  They both ran in high school, ran xc and track in college, and ran regularly in their 20s and 30s.  They ran the Philadelphia Marathon in 2003 and the NYC Marathon in 2008.  With careers and kids they are now more inclined to run the Fishawack Run and Trot the Manor in town.  They joined the Rose City Runners this year in hopes of staying motivated and meeting up with a community of runners when time permits.  They say “Thank you for welcoming us!”

  

Larry Pedersen and family (Madison)

Larry and his wife, Julie moved to Madison in 1997.  They have a son, Christian (24), and a daughter, Erika (22). Larry has been working for PwC since 1995.  Larry grew up on Long Island playing football and lacrosse which he continued at Dartmouth College (Class of 1987). He would classify himself as a “casual” runner with most of his running aimed at dropping football weight in anticipation for upcoming lacrosse seasons. As an adult, he’s run some 5 and 10K races several years ago.  He looks forward to running a few races this coming summer/fall to help him prepare for upcoming high school and college alumni lacrosse games. Julie and Larry like to travel. They love escaping to Quebec City every few months and are very excited about their first trip to Portugal in April.

 

Carolyn Reagan (Parsippany)

Carolyn joined the club in early 2023 and is excited to run with the Rose City Runners! She recently graduated with a degree in Accounting from Lehigh University this past December. When not running, she is studying for the CPA exam, working part time, and spending time with her family (and cat!). She is excited for many runs in the coming months!!

 

Michele Soncini

Michele was recruited by Wendy Weinstein and is looking forward to joining Saturday morning runs. 

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Jennifer Sabattis (Summit)

Jen has been running consistently for the last 3 years. She’s competed in 5 half marathons, 2 full marathons, and 1 10k (including the Goofy Challenge in January 2023). For some runs, Jen loves taking her 2-year-old white German Shepherd mix, Coconut. When she’s not running, Jen loves to bake, write, and craft. She especially loves making her homemade sourdough bread. In addition to Coconut, Jen has 3 cats and 1 husband. Her husband, unfortunately mostly loves treadmill running. 

 

Francine Leff (Chatham)  

Fran has lived in Chatham for 20 years.  She has a 27-year old son (DC fireman) and a 19-year old daughter, a Villanova freshman. Fran works full time as a client exec for a Global IT Solutions Integrator and travel often to see family in NC. She’s also an avid Carolyn Girvan follower for strength training. 

 

She’s been running since 2005 as exercise for her dog JJ who was 1 at the time.  Then she got hooked on racing starting with JJ at the Hounds and Harriers Run.  She started doing other races and using JJ as a training partner.    Fran has completed over 75 races, many 5& 10k’s and ½ marathons. She completed NJ, Phili, NYC (twice) and Chicago marathons and will be racing in Berlin this coming September. 

 

She misses her JJ beyond words- 3 years since he crossed the rainbow bridge.  
Now she runs every run for him!

 

Valentina Vedeshenkova (Basking Ridge)

Valentina came from Russia over 20 years ago.  She had a family membership a few years ago but more for her high school daughter Natassja who is a runner.  Her daughter Natassja is now a senior at UPenn.  Valentina is IT professional who wants to start running again and to lose some newly acquired extra pounds.

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Charlie Lehman (Madison)

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