Jeannine Antus, Sherrel Harmon, Sylvie Kimche
Photo: Sam La Fata
It was a lovely morning for the ladies who were lucky to start their race at 7:00am, as the July 27 temperature was still manageable, the humidity bearable and the course was well shaded.
Our four W60+ & W70+ racers all had excellent personal results.
Barbara Byrne: 39:29 7:54 pace, 1st in her W65-69 age group, 1st for our W60+ team and 85.93% AG%.
Sherrel Harmon: 49:33 9:55 pace, 6th in the same age group, 3rd for our W60+ team.
Deborah Barchat: 50:44 10:09 pace, 3rd in her W70- 74 age group.
Sylvie Kimche, yours truly: 42:03 8:25 pace, 1st in her W70-74 age group, 2nd for the W60+ team and 86.94% AG%
Unfortunately, no W70+ team result as it’s summertime and 3 of our 5 W70+ runners were out of town….
And the aging CPTC W60+ team (average age over 69) managed 4th place behind much younger teams: only 50″ behind Taconic RRC (average age 61+). NY Flyers were 1st team – average age under 61. They were far ahead of Van Cortlandt TC 2nd – average age under 63.
Such is life…. but with the incomparable Stacy Creamer turning 60 in October and with our new recruit Jeannine Antus who just turned 60 and will be able to score for the team after Sept 13, the CPTC W60+ team is going to kick butt again in 2020! ???
And the W70+ will kick butt too with the addition of Sherrel, turning 70 early next spring!…???
Here is what we all had to say about our races:
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Barbara:
Club Championships was a fun race. The team aspect of it was very apparent, and it was great to see so many team members and hopefully match a few more names to faces.
Thanks to all those who came out to cheer. It was also fun to cheer for the men, and to see their competitive spirit at work coming into the finish.
I was happy with my race because I managed to complete it without walking (!!) and it felt more well managed than my last few efforts.
It was a little disappointing that we placed 4th but Sylvie will be quick to put that in perspective in view of our age average. We will look forward to having new member Jeannine competing for us, as well as Stacey aging up.
Proud to belong to this team.
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(NB: please don’t be mad at Barbara for admitting that she usually takes “walking breaks” and still runs faster than all of us ladies over 60…?)
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Sherrel:
It was so good for me to see everyone again. The Camaraderie and support of CPTC members is fantastic!
I am a morning person so the 7am race start was perfect for me.
I achieved my goal of coming in under 50min. That made my day. Having CPTC teammates encouraging me all along the course and Coaches Devon and Tony cheer me on made me put the pedal to the metal for the last 800m or so.
I am also happy that ONCE AGAIN I was able to contribute as the caboose for the 60+ Team Awards.
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Deborah:
This is the race I especially want to do well, so it’s extra disappointing to fall short. But I was so happy to be out there! I felt strong early on but then faded & it was all I could do to finish with dignity, but as always Tony, Sid, and teammates helped so much. Awesome crew, awesome team! Lots of work to do, but looking to doing it & grateful I can.
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(Special mention about Deb’s performance: it was Deb’s 1st race in 4 months due to more knee issues in the spring. Without much training, she managed to run just 18″ slower than last year, which gave her a slightly higher Age Grading %. So nothing really to be disheartened about (IMHO…)
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My comments:
Quite happy with my race. I love this course (starts in front of my apt so I can just roll out of bed…?… Poor Barbara had to get up at 4am, coming all the way from Staten Island…) and I love the energy of the Team Championships with all the other teams around and particularly my CPTC teammates.
This was my (almost) best pace this year (not even 1″ above my 5k pace at the Washington Heights race in early March). And definitely my highest AG% in quite a while. Seems that my right knee is not hurting anymore after a cortisone injection a few weeks ago. Let’s hope it lasts…
Thanks to Tony, Sid, Devon, Greg, Sue Pearsall, Ivy Bell, new member Jeannine Antus and plenty of other teammates for the cheers!
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Next team race is the Bronx 10miler. But hope to see a lot of you before, at the Fifth Avenue mile, one of CPTC favorite races and strongest showing!
GO ORANGE!