Steve Monte reports on the strong team and individual efforts at last weekend’s Philadelphia Distance Run:
“The Philadelphia Distance Run is known as a fast and fun course, and Central Park runners have had success in the past when traveling down to the City of Brotherly Love for this half-marathon. This year’s performance by the team may have set a new bar for success. CPTC sent down four full teams of five runners—two women’s open teams, a men’s open team, and a men’s masters team—and all four teams placed or won their divisions. The women’s A team (“Team of the Big Smile”), captained by Felice Kelly, took first place. The women’s B team (“Team of the Reine Margot”), presided over by Margot Sheehan, took third. On the men’s side, Neil Brenner, taking a break in his busy triathlon schedule, captained the men’s open team (“The Dudesters”) to a second-place team finish in both the men’s open category and overall team category. Rounding off the list, yours truly captained the men’s masters (“The Old Dudes”) to first place in the masters division and fourth place overall.
But the team results tell only part of the story. As Ryan Hall and Catherine Ndereba were winning their tactical races, CPTC runners were going for it all. Over half of the CPTC runners set personal-best times, including some eye-popping results. New team member Tommy DiChiara ran a blazing time of 1 hour 11 minutes (“one-eleven flat,” according to Tommy, officially 1:11:01). Steve Kinney improved his previous best by over five minutes, finishing in a stunning 1:14:13. Jim McQuade, recently minted Masters runner, surprised himself (but not anyone who has followed his 5:30 a.m. workouts on the therunninglog.com) with a personal best of 1:15:19. Scott Stamp went under the 1:16 barrier and later elaborated (in his usual talkative way), “It wasn’t easy.” John De Csepel, still improving as a master, put almost three minutes on his personal-best time, finishing in 1:24:21; Wolfram Schlenker similarly brought his best time down a couple of minutes to 1:23.44. Felice Kelly moved a step closer to the 1:20 barrier, setting a new best time of 1:21:34, and captured third place in her age group. (And this in spite of the fact that she sorely missed the bagpipes on the bridge near mile ten—they were replaced this year by a jazz band.) Felice’s partner in crime, Sarah Alaei, finished in 1:23:11, an incredible debut at the half-marathon distance. Alma Liebrecht ran one of her fastest times without tapering for the race and running it “only as a workout,” finishing in 1:41:03. Maria Pavokitch put over a minute on her previous best, finishing in 1:24:44, and Tanya Lüthi improved to 1:34:15. Other strong performances include those by Rick Shaver, Kimihiko Oishi, Katie Casto, Elizabeth Kaicher Lopes, Jessie Lyn Zall, and Sharon Ekstrom. There were also other Central Park runners who registered invididually for the race, one of whom, Gabriel Corchado, ran a spectacular 1:16:57.
After the race Felice and Sarah led the charge to South Street in search of cheesesteaks. They were reportedly successful in this search, but no details are forthcoming. Scott Stamp calmly drove the team minivan back to New York, navigating the turnpike, traffic, and Jets fans. Everyone dispersed back to their New York-area homes, already thinking about returning to the Distance Run next year. For full results, go to http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventLinkageID=456&year=2009. The website also allows you to view the finish of any runner on video — go to http://philadelphia.competitor.com/features/finishlinereplay/.”