CPTC Intrasquad Mixed 1500M TT3

Meet: CPTC Intrasquad Mixed 1500M TT3
Location: Eastchester Track, Eastchester, NY
Date: September 2, 2020
Results List at Bottom

By: Meggie Sullivan

Our Personal Best, Together

As the world around us trudges through a reckoning of social justice and the COVID-19 pandemic, these past six months have felt overwhelming, uncertain, and unpredictable. We’ve all collectively and personally experienced its affects in one way or another. Yet thankfully, we have had running and our team at Central Park Track Club to lean on during this time.

Running empowers us, it gives us a semblance of control, and expresses our most basic freedom. While competition keeps us connected and motivated––a means to express the fruits of our labor.

Our team has found great solace in the opportunity to safely conduct time trials; three over the past two months.

“During a time when road races and track meets haven’t been a possibility, running a time trial fuels the competitor in us all and inspires us to keep reaching for our goals no matter the obstacles,” said teammate Offir Gonzalez.

And, Wednesday night in Eastchester was one final opportunity to do just that and what we love most: compete.

15 people, 15 performances, two 1500m races and one very selfless pacer, Alex Petrecca. Alex’s efforts were saintly. With only five minutes of intermission after the first 1500m, he came back to pace our second round.

The “gun” (also, known as two pieces of wood that Victor Palumbo clapped together) went off at twilight as our men and women took to the 3.75 laps in a co-ed race.

The pack was bravely led by Victoria Kingham who blasted off the line without a trace of doubt behind our rabbit Alex. Victoria never looked back and led the team with a fiery 4:29.99. Her second time going under 4:30 in the event.

Bounding behind her was Laurel Fischer, who seamlessly changed gears in an awe-inspiring final lap. She past me like a ghost, but one that I was very pleased to see, with 200m to go. Her positive messaging pushed her through to a strong second place finish and a 9-second personal best:

“With 600 meters left in the race I saw that the field was beginning to separate and I felt some of my teammates starting their kicks. I knew I felt good, but watching my teammates surge ahead of me was just the momentum I needed to push to the finish line! With just under a lap I just kept telling myself ‘last push’ and I tried my best to catch Victoria!”

Kate MacCary, our resident 5k superstar, came right behind with a 5-second personal best of 4:35.25.

Frances Loeb had good reason to celebrate as well with a 4:36.11 performance, just in striking distance of her personal best. “This was the best race of my little season,” she happily noted. “It was wonderful to see us all push together.”

Our recent newcomers, Amanda Asaro and Maria Marascia––who have been instant doses of sunshine and talent to our team––churned out blazing times. Amanda ran a 4:37.54 (a 3-second PB) in her debut time trial with CPTC. Maria, who left her comfort zone as an 800m runner, led Amanda in with an astonishing 8-second PB of 4:37.09.

Aileen Conlon Barry and Doyin Ogundiran also added to the lengthy list of personal bests in a 4:38 and 4:55, respectively.

Six personal bests in total.

The finish was a beautiful sight from my point of view in the back (it wasn’t my day, but seeing this was worth it). Our crew was lined up equidistantly on the rail, one after the other, arms pumping, toeing-off their spikes with forward-looking gazes in a synced orchestration of pure grit. Then they descended upon the final homestretch to Coach Devon’s wild cheering.

This time, the homestretch was not only a symbolic culmination of whatever we could muster in the next 20-15 seconds, but it was representative of what we’ve been able to muster over these past six historic, wild months.

And all simply for the love of it and for the love of team.

We’d like to say a special thanks for Tim Fulton, from @armorytrack for timing our race; Ian Ritchie [hey dude congrats on that club PB!] and Victor Palumbo for calling out our splits and making us laugh before we lined up to our fate. Johnny Zhang, as always, for the beautiful photos. And, of course, to our coach, Devon Martin, who has safely kept us together throughout this difficult time and created the opportunities for us simply to run and connect.