Report from Veronica Jackson of the Open:
Congratulations to everyone who raced in the 2016 New York City Marathon. Marathon Sunday is a great day to be a New Yorker, and the CPTC Women’s Open Team took on all five boroughs with New York pride this past weekend. In a day that was crisp but windy, our team fought hard through headwinds, crosswinds, and up the dreaded 5th Ave. In hearing from some of our great racers, it’s clear that no matter the outcome, the New York City Marathon is a magical day, made even better by the tremendous CPTC support along the way.
Alysia Dusseau
Photo: Andy Kiss
The first woman across the line for CPTC was the ever consistent Alysia Dusseau. Alysia has consistently been a top performer at the NYC marathon, and this year was no exception as she finished in 3:02:28. Alysia loved seeing so many teammates on and along the course, and used the Wall of Orange for some extra strength heading into the park. Next to score for the team was Katherine Carrington, who had a PR of over four and half minutes, in 3:04:16. While pushing through the pain on the backstretch of 5th Ave, Katherine used the awesome CPTC squad to pull it together before entering the park. New York is one of the slower courses out there, making a PR of that magnitude even more impressive.
Elleree Erdos
Photo: Andy Kiss
In her first NYC Marathon, Elleree Erdos was our third and final scorer of the day, with a 4 second PR of 3:07:04 to continue her streak of PRing in every marathon she’s run. Elleree said that the whole day was just such an incredible experience, and that it was so much fun to find teammates popping out of the woodwork in the cheering sections yelling for the blue & orange.
Dani Sturtz
Photo: Andy Kiss
Dani Sturtz also had a great day on this challenging course, breaking her seven year course PR to finish in 3:24:01. Dani and Meredith Kennedy (coming in hot at 3:31:57) were grateful to run side-by-side for the first half of the race, working together, taking turns getting water and encouraging each other throughout. Even when the going got tough for Dani, she stayed calm, didn’t panic, and kept a smile on her face. After seeing Dani at multiple points along the course, I’m not sure there was a happier looking racer out there. Dani and Mere both appreciated seeing so many teammates both on and along the course and enjoyed the beautiful race through this great city.
Congratulations again to everyone who kicked some butt out there!
Report from Ani Go of the 40+:
Well, the 40+ women really didn’t have much of a team…but the marathon is a big deal, so here’s my little blurb (albeit VERY late)
“CPTC masters 40+ women made the 26.2 mile journey from Staten Island and through all five boroughs–we were represented by new master Kassia Yanosek, distance enthusiast Meg Blake, the rare Emily Boucher, and Teiko Shigezumi (camouflaged in Team Happy Hour gear…after all, its 5pm somewhere).
Congrats are in order for these ladies–the marathon is always a big commitment, and come race day, no matter how well you train, things can happen to undermine that training. Finishing 26.2 miles is always an amazing feat.
Congrats to all our teammates who ran!
GO ORANGE!
–Captain Ani”
Report from Judith Tripp of the 60+:
First, I took the NYRR library bus for the first time in years (I still have the awful memories of how chaotic it was last time I took it). Well, it is hugely improved: streets closed to traffic, buses lined up in order, police managing the crowds, and an organized line behind barriers making it clear where to go, and bus personnel shepherding the runners into the buses. It was a real pleasure and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. To the actual race: I found myself realistically hoping for a 4:30 but was derailed by a sore left calf which morphed into sharp pain on the outside of the left knee. Some Advil helped for a few miles but the last 2-3 were painful and I was reduced to limping into the finish! In view of this I was relieved to get a 3rd place finish, behind two Brits, one with a very fast time! And happy that 3rd place actually counts as an award now (fairly recently it was only the top two in the older age groups). The weather was pretty nice and I wore enough to not get cold, and any worries about starting with fast people were allayed by a pretty decent bunch of runners not knocking into me! It was actually towards the end that I suffered a couple of hits but stayed upright. After the race I was enticed into an Under Armor pop up on 72nd Street that had some Lloyds carrot cake which was an unexpected treat! All in all a good day.
(note: Judith was our only CPTC woman runner 50+)
Photo: David Greenberg