By David Rogers. WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — $2,000/hour is a pretty good wage but it didn’t take even that long for Blowing Rock’s Josh Izewski to pocket the cash. A member of the ZAP Endurance elite professional running team, Izewski topped the field of some 1,500 competitors, finishing first in 48:08 on Sept. 3, in the inaugural running of the Wyoming Valley 10-Mile Run from Pittston, Pa. to Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
The race time, of course, does not count the hundreds, even thousands of hours that go into training at a professional level of competition.
As one of the elite competitors, Izewski started at the front when the starting gun wen off, along with ZAP teammates Tyler Pennel and Annemarie Tuxbury — and all three stayed near the front. Pennel finished fourth (48:42) in the men’s division, behind Izewski, Dylan Gearinger of Scranton, Pa. and Joseph Trojan of Syracuse, N.Y.
Finishing No. 11 overall, Tuxbury captured the $1,000 second place money in the women’s division, completing the advertised “flat and fast” course in 58:14. First place honors went to Providence, R.I.’s Regan Rome (56:23), for whom the race was a homecoming of sorts since she grew up in the Wilkes-Barre area.
For Izewski, Sunday was merely an early September training “jaunt” as he prepares to compete in the Sept. 24 Berlin Marathon. As a native of Pennsylvania, he said that his parents were able to come up and watch, along with other friends and family members.
For the better part of the first eight miles, Izewski was running in a pack of six athletes, including Pennel. “At that point, I was feeling pretty strong,” recalled the 33-yearold Izewski. “I decided to push it all the way to the end.”
Izewski finished the 10-mile run at a 4:49 mile pace, according to the official timers, Scranton Running Company.
ZAP Endurance has two other runners competing on Labor Day, Sept. 4. Tristin Van Ord and Andrew Colley will compete in the 2023 USATF 20km Road Racing Championship, held in conjunction with the Faxon Law New Have Road Race in New Haven, Conn.
