County sports Hall of Famer returns to inspire runners

By Laurie Gordon
NEWTON--Sparta native and Sussex County Sports Hall of Famer Justin Scheid returned to the county Monday to give back to the sport of running by motivating 70 plus campers at X-Treme Youth Running Camp held at Lodestar Park in Newton.
“Its great to look out at the audience and remember when I was at a running camp and to be able to give them some advice,” Scheid said. “Work hard this week and try to learn as much from the speakers and coaches as you can.”
As the week-long camp's kick-off speaker, Scheid traced his running history back to running around his neighborhood with his father, Larry, and brother, Jeremy. “My dad would run with us and we played soccer and baseball, but after school we would run around our development.”
In fifth grade, Scheid joined the track team at Reverend George A. Brown Memorial School in Sparta, which his mother coached.
"My mom never ran that much but did it entirely because she knew it was something I wanted to do and there was not a way to do without her," said Scheid. There was no track team until she stepped up to coach.
Scheid's first racing memories were at Brundage Park, in Randolph, where there were age group races on Sundays. “About 200 meters into the race, you went from a field that funneled into a narrow trail. I was always at the back because I didn't go out hard enough,” he said. That is until one day when he went out like a gazelle and came in second. “I went out hard that day. I wanted to put myself in the game and just cared about putting myself in it and not necessarily the end result.”
Scheid ran right through middle school, high school and into college and was a stand-out runner at Pope John and Georgetown University. He said his college decision came down to a choice between Villanova and Georgetown, and that it was a tough choice.
“I'd gone to Marcus O'Sullivan's (the head coach at Villanova) camps in the summers and became close with him. It was hard to decide on Georgetown over his school, but it just seemed like a better fit for me.” A four-time Olympian, O'Sullivan will speak at the camp later in the week.
Scheid is big on goal setting. “It's important to nut just go through the same routine but set goals and re-asses them,” he said. “If you have a bad race, don't dwell on it for too long. Look at what you did, learn from it and move forward.”
Scheid's personal best times are: for the mile 4:05, 3,200 meter 8:55, 5K (3.1 miles) 14:05, Half Marathon (13.1 miles) 1:07:31 and Marathon (26.2 miles) 2:27:47.
Scheid credits his parents with an amazing amount of support. “If my parents couldn't be at a race, they'd call on the phone as soon as it was over. They made every race during high school and just about all of them during college, and if not they would call on the phone as soon as it was over," Scheid said.
Scheid was inducted into the Sussex County Sports Hall of Fame in November of 2014. The Sussex County Sports Hall of Fame was founded in 1976 based on the efforts of Joe Bigg fto honor County athletes, coaches and benefactors who had distinguished themselves through outstanding, extraordinary and exceptional performance in their chosen sport.
"Enjoy the sport, work hard and always set goals,” Scheid said to the campers. “Also don't be so concerned about time. A lot of cross country races, you're going for place, so race that way. Above all, never stop having fun with the sport.”