From Jacy Kruzel and Victoria Jackson of the Open:

Great job again to everyone who took on the streets of New York City for the United NYC Half Marathon this past weekend! CPTC pushed through another chilly race and came out fighting. The story of the day was PR-central, as everyone battled the hills of Central Park and took advantage of a slight tailwind down the West Side Highway to push the pace for some tremendous PRs. What a way to kick off our first distance race of the year!

Our Women’s Open Team came in a solid second place, led by three sub-1:20 performances from Veronica Jackson (19:04), Jacy Kruzel (19:17), and Ivette Ramirez (19:54).  This was Ivette’s half-marathon debut, and she says she’s hungry for more!

Ivette

Ivette Ramirez

Cecilia Davis-Hayes made an immediate impact in her CPTC-debut, coming in as the fourth scorer in 1:21:37. Rounding out the top five was Lauren Carter in 1:23:57, who was followed closely behind by Alysia Dusseau in 1:24:00.

lauren

Lauren Carter

Katherine Carrington beat her nine year-old PR to finish in 1:26:06 and raved about how fun it was to run alongside so many CTPC teammates. Sari, who set an impressive PR just 5 weeks ago, dropped another 90 seconds to finish in 1:27:14. Following close on Sari’s heels was Lidia Garcia (1:27:17), who credits her 87 second PR to the teamwork she felt with Colleen McGurk, as they worked together on the West Side Highway to leave it all out there. Erin Conroy (1:27:49) and Tara Ellis (1:28:08) had some great sister-sister teamwork as well, as Tara, who acknowledged how much easier it would have been if Erin wasn’t there to back off when she wasn’t feeling great , ran her second fastest half ever.

Jena Tiernan (1:33:21) wins the prize of biggest PR of the day, by cutting 4 minutes and 34 seconds off her previous best, and Melodie Fratt (1:33:59) was a close second, knocking her PR from 2014 down by 2:45. Let’s keep this momentum going at the Scotland 10k on April 2!

Congratulations again to all, and thanks to all the great teammates who woke up extra early to cheer us on!