Hundreds of Runners Flock to Downtown Woodbridge for Pizza Run

Hundreds of runners took the the streets of Woodbridge and Sewaren Wednesday night to participate in the "Run For Pizza," a four-mile race and pizza party that began and ended on Main Street.

"This is our third run, and it benefits the Mayor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports," explained Jeff Ziprolo, who owns the Club at Woodbridge with his brother Ray. "The Council funds yoga classes, small grants for youth sports, CPR training," and so on.

The run drew approximately 350 runners, said Zirpolo, and was sponsored by local businesses, including Wegman's, who, with businesses along Main Street, provided pizza for the event.

"Our numbers keep going up and up," said Zirpolo of the race registrants. "The weather's perfect, too."

"I try to run every day," said Alan Pytlowany, who ran the four miles with his son, Nick. "I go to the gym three days a week, our miles is about normal."

"I'm just running it, not really racing," said Nick. "It should be interesting. We haven't seen the course yet."

Nick, who ran track at Bishop Ahr High School and will be attending Rowan in the fall, said he hasn't been running much this summer. "I stopped running when the school year ended, so this is the first I'm really running this summer," explained Nick.

"This may jump start you," added Alan.

The runners gathered on Main Street near Floral Expressions at 7 PM for the start of the race. Included in the participants was Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac. With the blast of a police siren, the runners were off.

The track took the runners down Main Street to the entrance of Alvin P. Williams Memorial Park in Sewaren and back again.

Juan Martinez of Syracuse, New York finished with the fastest time at 21:26.54. He was followed by Alan Wells of Orlando, Florida at 22:32.02, John Sellers of Long Valley at 22:40.66, and Michael Fernandes of Port Reading, who finished in 22:45.77. The top female finisher was Elsy Panduro in a time of 27:20.50.

Alan and Nick Pytlowany finished back-to-back a little less than ten minutes after Martinez crossed the finish line.

"Feeling better now!" said Alan after catching his breath and having a post-race orange. "I'm very happy," he said of the time that he and Nick finished with - Nick besting his dad by a couple of seconds.

Did the race jump-start Nick's desire to run again?

"Yeah, I have to now."