Ronald Joseph, who was never on a high school track team, started to compete and run after his schoolboy days were over and is now trying to make a name for himself in various road races at different distances. Sometimes he would compete in two races on consecutive days during one weekend.
Joseph finished second to Chris Koegel in the Five Town Community Chest 5K in Hewlett, Long Island, in an event that is part of a four-race series. He ran the Inwood event; did not compete in Malverne, and this month will be running in the last one of the series, in Lynbrook.
Now residing in Rockaway Park, Joseph was clocked in 18:23.18 almost two minutes slower than Koegel’s winning time of 16:55.38 in Hewlett. Rounding out the top five finishers were Wayne Vartabedian’s 19:35.40, Eric Friedman’s 20:21.01 and Albert Perez’s 21:19.23 in the Hewlett’s race.
A week later Joseph, competed in another 3.1 mile event, this one in Fort Totten, Bayside, and this time in a field of almost 200 competitors faced a real good and younger runner Riley Barnes of Manhasset, who is on his high school’s cross country team.
Barnes took the lead from Joseph after the half-mile mark, opened the margin up a little later in the race. After Joseph moved up took the lead again.
“After I caught him, I used everything up that I had,” Joseph said after the race. “He pulled away by 10 meters and went on to win the race.”
Once Barnes regained the lead, he felt confident that he would win the Bayside event.
Joseph and the rest of his teammates, certainly liked the course and didn’t struggle at all. He said that the hills were fine.
This race, contested in Fort Totten, for the 12th time, first began with 30 competitors in 2009.
While Ronald was never into sports while he was younger at Christ The King High School, located in Queens, his father Ronald Sr. was a runner, but in the sprints in his native land of Trinidad.
A day prior to the Fort Totten race, Joseph, ran a 18:32 for second place in Baldwin Park.
Ronald Sr. is a native of Trinidad, he was into the running activity as a sprinter during his high school days. He doesn’t talk to his son much about the running spsort.
“My goal is to run under 18 minutes for the 5K,” Ronald Jr. said, “And I want to go under 1:30 for the half marathon and qualify for the New York City Marathon. I would like to step up in my distances and run the 400 and 800. I feel that if I do, I’ll be pretty good at it.
For the first time, the race committee used the chips and used the electronic method of scoring and timing.
