Rose City Runners Club

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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Hilary Claggett and Bob Little (Chester)

Hilary and Bob have been running more or less together since 2007. Bob's first marathon was the Twin Cities in 2008; Hilary thought he was nuts. But in 2009, when he had signed up for Chicago along with a co-worker and friend of Hilary's (coincidentally), she felt she could no longer be a spectator, and signed up as well. Her first experience was miserable--compartment syndrome--but she registered for the Flying Pig in Cincinnati the following spring, because she saw that other folks were having an amazing time and she wanted to have a good experience. Unfortunately, that race, too, was a bit of a bust due to pouring rain, but in the end, the endorphins kicked in, and a hobby was born. Hilary has now completed 15 marathons, including another Chicago in which she BQ'd, Boston, and New York City.

 

Since 2017 her pace has slowed tremendously as she encountered recurring shin splints every spring, but she is still on a quest to complete a half marathon in all 50 states--only 20 states left--if only at her current run-walk pace of 12:00. She now prioritizes health and being injury free over speed. Her biggest challenge is base building over the winter. In all, she's run over 200 races from 5K to 50K and is an RRCA-certified running coach. After six marathons, Bob got the triathlon bug, and completed a number of sprints and Olympic tris. We also enjoy hiking and biking but have not found the time to integrate these activities on a regular basis. Hilary would like to learn bridge this year, and perhaps finally finish a knitting project. Bob is an avid golfer who is looking forward to playing St. Andrews someday. They live with their two Pembroke Welsh corgis and a cat who is part Maine coon.