Chris Shaw, a former Washington Township High School runner, placed second in the Atlantic City Marathon Sunday afternoon.
The 21-year-old Shaw ran 2:42.05 and finished behind only Bryan Morseman of Wheeler, N.Y., who ran 2:32.12.
From everything I can tell, this was Shaw’s first career marathon.
That 2:42 is well under the Boston Marathon qualifying standard of 3:00 for those in the 18-34 age group. Next year’s race is April 17, 2023.
Shaw graduated from Washington Township in 2019. He was No. 2 runner on the 2018 Minutemen XC team and placed 27th at sectionals at Delsea in 16:51. On the track, he PR’d at 3,200 meters at the Bubble in Toms River with a 9:59.57 in January of 2018.
Shaw ran two years at Stockton University and placed 12th in the 2020 New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Stockton in 27:34.
His marathon pace Sunday – 6:11 per mile – was only 38 seconds per mile slower than that pace for 8,000 meters – in a race that’s 21 ¼ miles shorter.
We wrote most recently about Shaw after this Stockton-meet in the spring of 2021: https://sjtrackblog.com/2021/03/06/daniel-do-stephen-conte-chris-shaw-lead-stockon-to-sweep-in-first-xc-meet-in-16-months/
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 