Race Reports from the Women: Bronx and Grete’s

From Lauren Carter of the Open:

Ken Tso and Alysia Dusseau

Grete’s Great Gallop:

On a gray and dreary day with temperatures that reminded us that winter is just around the bend, the Women’s Open team took to the road for the second week in a row. Their third place finish was once again led by Veronica Jackson’s 1:26:12 finish.

Jacy Kruzel (1:27:04)and Alysia Dusseau (1:27:38) followed closely behind, in lock step for nearly the entire race.

Nicole Green laid it out in the 2 laps of the park crossing the finish in 1:27:48. And making her quiet appearance, Annie Onishi(1:27:49) rounded out the scoring.

The CPTC Women’s Open also held it down in Upstate New York. The Wineglass Marathon saw double when twins Erin Conroy and Tara Ellis set big PRs. Erin was the 5th overall finisher with a 19s PR with her time of 3:09:20, and Tara ran for a 1:19 PR in a time of 3:12:20. And Crushing it the Fall Leaves 14K the week before, Cat Beck was the overall female winner with her impressive time of 52:54.

Congrats Ladies! On to Chicago and NY Marathons!

Bronx 10 Miler

It was a brisk fall morning for the Bronx 10M. The one so many of us had been hoping for for so long. And just like the morning itself, the Women’s Open team was also quite brisk running to a first place finish. Leading the way (and making the podium in the process) was Veronica Jackson with her 1:00:09 finish placing her 6th on the all time list.

Veronica Jackson

Photo: Nigel Francis

Jacy Kruzel set a new 10M PR on her 1:00:38 run through the Bronx that morning. Making her smashing debut, Ivette Ramirez stayed cool and collected as she cruised to a 1:00:38 finish.

Ivette Ramirez

Alexandra Bernardi (1:01:48) and Kir Selert (1:01:53) are looking in top shape for the Chicago Marathon as they paced through the finish and rounding out the scoring.

Also tuning up for Chicago, Lindsay Kos ran negative splits from the 2 mile mark on to complete the course in 1:04:55. And Alexis Lamb had her first successful race after over coming several injuries. Alexis proved to herself that she still is capable of that next level by setting an unintentional PR when she finished in a time of 1:06:35.

Jacy Kruzel, Alysia Dusseau, Veronica Jackson

Photo: Nigel Francis

From Lynn Blackstone of the 60+:

The CPTC-NB Women’s 60+ Team of Barbara Byrne, myself, Lynn Blackstone, and Caryl Baron, finished Grete’s Great Gallup in third place.

Barbara, Super Barbara, finished first for the team, followed an hour-or-so later by Lynn and Caryl. The latter two – myself and Caryl – heeded the exhortations of our leader Sylvie, who is biking in South Africa so obviously could not run Greta’s Great Gallup. Sylvie’s exhortation, “Run/walk to the finish line”; and so we did. Way to go Team! And we three were also the CPTC-NB Team for the Women’s 40 and 50 year-old groups, who were probably at Van Cortlandt Park, running The Harry Murphy Race.

From Sylvie Kimche of the 60+:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Golden Girls took first again at the Bronx 10 miler on Sunday. We had a (almost) full contingent of W60+ and W70+

5 of us toed the line. Unfortunately only 3 score for the team. But all deserve kudos, especially Lynn (W75-79 now, 3rd in her age group in 1:57:19) and Caryl (still W70-74, finishing in 2:09:20), who both did not score yesterday but will score on Sunday at Grete’s Half marathon as they have very generously and valiantly agreed to be the supporting cast for Barbara in the upcoming Grete’s race.
So not only kudos to Lynn and Caryl, but also to Barbara who will lead the team at Grete’s, and LOTS OF THANKS to THE 3 OF THEM from their team captain and the whole team!

The scoring team of Barbara, Judith and Sylvie smashed the competition (more than 30 minutes ahead of 2nd place Van Cortland TC)

Judith was 3rd for the team in 1:37:50

Sylvie, your team captain, was 2nd for the team in 1:20:33. She was first in her W65-69 age group and missed the 90% age grading performance by a fraction (89.84%….)
“I started conservatively and was able to pick it up at the end (in part thanks to Tony’s and Sue’s cheering). I guess i could have shaved a few seconds to reach the magic 90% if i had known the course better (it was my first time running the Bronx 10 miler) and if i had not been thrown off by a number of mile markers in the wrong place. In any case, after a crowded start, it was nice to be running on a wide avenue with plenty of space around me, not having to slalom past runners in front of me. Overall, a good experience!” ☺

Barbara, as usual, was 1st for the team in 1:18:44, first in her W60-64 age group as well, with a 85.16% AG performance.

Barbara:

My run went much better than I was expecting and that was encouraging. I hadn’t put my running shoes on for 9 days following the 5th Avenue mile because my foot was very painful, then when that started to feel better, having family in the house (*) deterred me from getting out for a run. This week, glad to say, I did a little better, but I’m on the fence about the marathon because I’m very short on long runs. I can decide last minute. So due to this lack of training, it seemed better not to try too hard today. First 4 miles were at 8.10 pace then slightly picked it up (though I think a couple of mile markers were wrongly placed giving misleading impression). Last two miles were the fastest. I enjoyed the rolling hills and the uphills actually seemed to help me. Coach Tony and Sue Pearsall at mile 8 spurred me to make an effort to the finish and I surprised myself by managing to keep the momentum to the end. Even better, I feel okay afterwards.

(* visit from daughter and 1yr-old grandson from England)

In the absence of a W50+ team our 3 W60+ scorers scored also for the W50+ (not a very brilliant result though…) and Barbara and Sylvie helped the W40+ team (led by Colleen McGurk 1:06:10, 2nd in her W40-44 age group) to a 6th place.

With this win, the W60+ team now lead the age group competition by a wide margin (120 pts to NY Flyers 103 and VCTC 82 – or when removing one race CPTC 120, NYF 93 & VCTC 82). It’s important to get a few points in the upcoming Grete’s Half to keep our lead comfortable as we don’t have a team for NYCM

Thanks to my W60+ teammates for their support, camaraderie and enthusiasm for the team. You are the best and most reliable!

Congrats to the “Golden Boys” and Open Women for their 1st place too. And congrats to all the other teams for their great results.

And I would be remiss if i did not thank Tony for his always appreciated support and cheering!

Go Orange

Sylvie