It was a great day for racing both near and far (more on the far later) as the 40+ men grabbed 3rd place at the Staten Island Half.
Our scorers:
- Eduardo Ribeiro Ferreira
- Mohammed Lahseni (was also the 1st scorer for the 50+ men)
- Stephen Curtis
Eduardo our 1st scorer; 1:18:57, 5th in age (40-44), 78.45 AG%; who had quite the race and whom our co-captain David saw while on his way back at around mile 8 (which would have been mile 4 for Eduardo) had this to say of his incredible race:
Unfortunately, I arrived late to the race and missed my start time. I saw some late runners able to join the last group of the first wave, but I thought it would be better to just stay behind and start off up front with the second wave. I thought by doing that , I would start with open road, and by the time I hit major traffic, runners would be more spread out, making it less difficult for me to navigate through, as opposed to have joined 1st wave at the very back and risk of losing lots of time not having enough space to pass. After the second wave started, I was pretty much running all by myself until I got to mile 4, if I recall. That is when I saw David , Vincent, and John on the opposite side, probably at already mile 7, and that is also when a little far ahead, I started to hit major traffic. From that point on, focus was entirely on finding open spots and that were less crowded. This pretty much lasted until the end of the race. Overall, despite all this, the race went ok for me. Definitely, I will try to avoid from racing like this again. Very happy we were able to snatch up a 3rd place and continue adding points to our lead. Looking forward to our next big race, the NYC Marathon (will definitely not be late for this one 🙂 )
Our 3rd scorer, Stephen; 1:21:36, 12th in age (40-44), 74.67 AG%; bested his Brooklyn Half time by over a minute and ran his fastest Staten Island Half since 2012.
Brenn Jones; 1:25:03, 24th in age (45-49), 73.43 AG%; had a strong race as well:
The Staten Island Half is just a stone’s skip in time and place from the double-your-pleasure event in early November. And like the NYC Marathon, the undulating terrain requires zoning in rather than zoning out in the latter stages of the race. When it flattens out for a spell in miles 11 and 12, I get into track mode. A highlight was seeing David Alm in the distance and trying to catch him, then sharing a ride with him and Daniel Gercke back to Brooklyn and Queens after I hadn’t.
John Gendall; 1:33:42, 87th in age (40-44), 64.53 AG%; his first race with the team since 2015 and first as a master runner. When asked about this race:
You’re right: it had been a while. After a four-year hiatus from the club (and from running, generally), I had no sense of where I stood with times/pace, much less whether I could even finish 13 miles without walking. Toward the end of summer, I started running again and then went to a few Thursday team runs in the fall. Once I had my bearings, I decided to use Staten Island as a way to gauge where I am in terms of fitness and to use those results to chart out goals for the coming months/year. Looking forward to the next steps!
The rest of our racers:
David Alm, 1:24:19, 18th in age (40-44), 73.46 AG%
Duncan Mcverry, 1:26:19, 27th in age (45-49), 74.20 AG%
Franz Hinojosa, 1:30:16, 60th in age (40-44), 66.98 AG%
Ralphie Cortez, 1:36:58, 105th in age (45-49), 66.62 AG% – In his first year with the club and ran his fastest half ever according to the NYRR database!
Standings after Staten Island:
CPTC – 109 pts
Dashing Whippets – 75 pts
West Side Runners – 71 pts
Standings after Staten Island (after 2 races dropped):
CPTC – 87 pts
West Side Runners – 67 pts
Dashing Whippets – 64 pts
With 2 races to go we are securely in first place. The two teams chasing us can still knock us out mathematically but a good showing at the marathon should seal the deal.
Osvaldo Martinez Participation Cup Standings:
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A tie at the top. Who will take it with two races to go?
And for the far…..
We had some fast times at the Chicago marathon. Here are a couple recaps from our guys.
Jeff Dengate, who shows us as master runners that we are not slowing down but getting faster everyday!
Fast times in the Windy City! Hot dog! I, too, benefited from favorable weather and a decent training build-up, and managed to run 2:49:37—a new PR by 4:56. I had hoped to run 10-10-10, but wasn’t smart enough to hold back in the early miles. I still managed to get into a rhythm and keep my splits pretty steady (except for a quick toilet stop). That was a lot of fun today.
Mark Senter, newly turned 40 and a solid addition to our team:
The weather was largely cooperative although pretty gusty once out of the tall buildings area. My start was too fast – as always – going out in 5:50 for the first mile or two only to take corrective action and bring overall pace inline. I had planned to shoot for half in 1:20 and then try and negative split at 1:19 for 2:39 overall. Felt okish at half, not as great as I had hoped but still crossed in 1:19:53 but perhaps the fear of blowing up and the wind gusts in the second half prevented my really stepping up the pace. My watch with Stryd showed me under 2:40:00 pretty much the whole way but the usual course being longer than the watch and the fact that I was cutting it very fine to get under 2:40, meant I crossed in 2:40:21. Pleased with effort and consistency of pace throughout. Overall race is amazingly organized (no super early mornings down to Staten Island !) city and pizza fantastic. The crowds were cheering ‘World Record’ near the end as Kosgei had just finished so it nice to be running in that same race, albeit 25 mins behind !!
Congrats to all who raced!
Now it’s back to Staten Island once more. Good luck to all those racing on Sunday!