From Kristan Dietz of the women’s road squad:

We had some amazing performances on the roads this weekend in both the Chicago Marathon and the Staten Island Half that I wanted to share with the team.

Katie Casto Hynes and Alex Brown both ran amazingly speedy marathons out in Chicago. Katie ran a 2:52:48, which is a 6 minute PR! She said the weather was perfect and she ran comfortably the entire time. Alex ran a 2:58:41, which is an almost 5 minute personal best. Alex‘s race plan was to start out at 3 hour pace and pick it up if she felt good, which worked perfectly for her.

Though not members of the Women’s Open Team, I wanted to give a shout out to Ken Tso and Kieran Garvey, who ran a 2:56:32 and a 3:06:58 respectively in Chicago. They, along with Katie and Alex, are still awaiting results of the Mixed Team Competition. Hopefully they will win!

Back in New York, Annie Onishi ran a course PR of 1:24:17 in the Staten Island Half. Lidia Fluhme also completed the race in 1:37:30. And, of course, congrats to Alysia and Ambreleah Dusseau for completing the 2nd Annual Chipotle Challenge.

As always, please email me if you have any road racing news and race results that you’d like to share with the team. Good luck to everyone racing cross country or Grete’s this coming weekend! If you are around, come out to cheer for our Grete’s racers on Sunday!

Kristan

 

From Matt Lacey of the men’s XC squad:

This weekend the Men’s XC team took aim at the Get The Gorilla challenge against the rival Garden State Track Club. This years race was on an improved 5 mile course (45 meters longer than your standard 8k for those scoring at home), and while we were not able to retain our title, everyone ran faster than they did last year. Carlos Jamison led the way in 25:32, third overall, followed by strong races from Stan Berkow and Jonevan Hornsby in 26:14 and 26:15 respectively. The scoring 5 was rounded out by Chris Spooner and John Pollina. Additionally, masters runners John Milone and David Greenberg chased the Gorilla in the 5k competition, finishing in impressive times of 17:21 and 17:29.

Next weekend will be another busy one, as many XCers will dust off the road flats for the Grete’s Half (club scoring race), and others will take to trails in Van Cortland Park for the Harry Murphy Cross Country Classic (registration still available).

Happy training, see you out there.

Matt Lacey

 

From Nicole Falcaro of the women’s XC Squad:

Gorilla 5K: Sunday, October 7th, 9:00am, Buccleuch Park, New Brunswick, NJ Recap

It’s far from Ape-ril but our ladies went stomping in Buccleuch Park at the “Get the Gorilla” 5K anyway. You may have already heard through the (gr)ape vine but all of the ladies went bananas and ran times much faster than last year, with Jane, Rolanda, Denise, Christina, and Steph making the Top 10 XC 5K Best Times! Everyone stayed out of a hairy situation and just barely avoided the rain, which was a (ba)boon to their success. Jane ran a course record of 17:14 and Sue won the open race! Full results are online here.

The course was “fast if you run it right,” says Sue Pearsall, the first female finisher of the open race with a stellar time of 20:43. “The gorilla was funny and kind of cute. On the start line I told him I was going to take him down. The gun when off and he was GONE. But I caught him by 1/4 mile and never saw him again.” Christina Argueta spent most of her chimply marvelous race wondering how the gorilla went to the bathroom in that suit, while Denise had some pre-race nightmares about the gorilla. Besides taking home a course record, Jane also took home a picture with the LMFAO costume winner as well as fond memories of the costume contest.

Sparknotes:

XC PRs

Jane – beats her track, road & xc PR

Rolanda — her first xc race for CPTC-NB

Denise – dropping over a minute from last year

Christina – dropping 26 seconds from last year

Stephanie – dropping 30 seconds from last year

Lidia – dropping almost 1:30

New Top Ten XC List

#1 Jane

#2 Rolanda

#3 Denise

#8 Christina

#11 Steph

Your CPTC Cross Country Subordinate Assistant to the Captain Co-captain,

Nicole Falcaro