Judy Stobbe, Colleen McGurk, Amy Kvilhaug and Sue Pearsall

Photo: Runners World

From Cat Beck of the Open XC: 

In the spirit of the season, I have a festive recap poem from the CPTC open women’s outing to USATF XC Club Nationals at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.

‘Twas the night before Club Nats

            by Cat Beck

‘Twas the night before Club Nats, and all across the Mid-Atlantic

Distance runners were stirring and getting a bit frantic

“Tomorrow is the biggest race of the year.

We cannot believe it is finally here!”

The day dawned, a crisp winter morn’

And to the race in a caravan the runners were born.

When the gun went off there arose quite a clatter

As through the mud 343 runners did splatter.

More rapid than cheetahs, Devon’s coursers they came,

And she whistled, and shouted, and called the team by name,

“Now Ivette, now Lauren, now Christina, now Erin

On Steph, on Aileen, on Andrea, round the course you are tearin’!”

Sidelined by injury, Cat felt rather glum,

She cheered with vigor but still felt like a bum.

The team was led in by the stellar Erin Koch (it’s pronounced Cook!),

Who executed a race that was right to the book.

An 18 second course PR to Christina the race did yield,

And fortunately she survived the never-ending cornfield.

Steph came away from the day with an 8 second 6k PR,

It’s track season now so she’ll never again go so far!

The race marked the XC return of Aileen Colon Barry,

She moved up all race while looking oh so merry.

Despite an off day, Ivette hung on tough,

She rounded out CPTC’s top five sure enough.

A strong showing was had by Ms Andrea Bradshaw,

She tackled those back hills and turned them to slaw.

After a conservative first mile from Lauren Carter,

She dug in really deep and pushed even harder.

Triumphant, the team took home 12th place,

Thought next year a return to top 10 we shall chase!

A 1 minute, 20 second spread sealed the deal

A fact for which immense pride we all feel!

And I heard the USATF exclaim, ere we drove out of sight,

“Those CPTC women always put up a good fight!”

62            Erin Koch                        21:13.70

100            Christina Argueta            21:52.84

123            Steph Herrick                        22:16.19

136            Aileen Colon Barry            22:28.60

141            Ivette Ramirez                        22:32.27

146            Andrea Bradshaw            22:38.08

192            Lauren Carter                        23:11.62

From Lauren Carter of the Road Open:

Madeleine Cummings

Photo: Mikal Scott

The ladies of CPTC Women’s Open took to the roads one last time in 2014 and showed NYC that no matter who toes the line, we will be a force to be reckoned with.  Our first two women placed in the Top 5, and the first 4 women were under an hour!

Our masters 40+ women heeded the call of the wild and headed for the woods of Pennsylvania the day where others on our team were running Ted Corbitt in Central Park. Our stellar team of Amy K, Colleen M, Judy S, and Veep Sue P gave it their all in a very competitive race, placing 11th out of 32 teams.

Colleen loves cross country! “Running the XC club championship race was an experience I will never forget. This was my first season of cross country and my FIRST race of pretty much all grass. It was definitely challenging and I felt those rolling hills at the 4k!!! I just tried to keep my effort level high and have fun – which I did! Great day with even greater teammates!!”

Judy had a fantastic race. She says: “For me, truly has to be one of the top 5 most competitive fields I have ever raced. A fantastic experience on a classic rolling, grassy (little muddy) cross country course! Very well organized and the team camaraderie was at its highest! Big thank you to Coach Devon and Sue for handling all the details and properly preparing our team! I finished the last 1k in 4:05, so I was digging as deep as I could and got to the near ‘throw up’ level!! Looking forward to San Fran in ’15!!!”

Amy K has a love/hate relationship with xc…”I ran a solid race – first two miles were steady, the third mile which included a longer climb than I expected was tough, and then I finished with a really strong last mile. Had teammate Judy Stobbe’s words in my head that nobody passes you. I passed one runner in the last mile and another with about 1k left and nobody passed me. So I considered that a moral victory. It was a great event and an amazing experience to run with all those unbelievably talented masters runners. I had a great time cheering on the Men’s Masters, Women’s Open and Men’s Open after our race was complete.”

Congrats to our amazing ladies team!

Last weekend was our inaugural CPTC Holiday Classic 10k. Conditions were pretty dismal in the bitter cold but the ladies transformed into Norse goddesses and embraced the arctic air. Colleen M placed 2nd in her age group in 41:11 with Amy K right behind her in 3rd place crossing the finish at 42:07. Roberta leaves the track for the road and places in the top 10 as well in 49:21. Judy S podiums for 2nd in her age group running a PR! Her gun time was 42:03. Judy’s on fire, and her triumphant report is as follows: “…Master’s and Central Park Course 10k PR By 25’….started out nice and relaxed….wow, so happy … and this is NOT my race!! My goal was to go out at 6:55ish and get faster….I did except a little slow down on cat hill….but probably the fastest I’ve run Cat Hill ever in a race.”. Congrats to all our CPTC teammates–we had jacket winners in masters and open!

This year draws to a close. Wishing everyone happy, healthy, and safe holidays. Lets look forward to racing next year!

GO ORANGE!

From Sylvie Kimche of the 50+ and 60+:

Here is my recap for the Ted Corbitt 15k on Saturday December 13, the last NYRR team race of 2015

On a cold and blustery but finally sunny morning, the W60+ team finished the year with a bang capturing 1st place, 30 minutes ahead of Van Cortland TC.

We had a whole contingent of hardy W60+ runners:

Barbara as usual finished first for the team in 1:11:37, as usual 1st in her W60-64 age group, and she was also 1st in the age grading competition with an 87.07%. Congrats are in order!

Sylvie, your team captain, as usual was 2nd for the team in 1:17:20, and as usual too 1st for the W65-69 age group. But this time, she was 2nd to Barbara in the age grading competition with 87.01% (Barbara got the best of her by a mere 0.06%!!!).

Judith finished 3rd for the team in 1:27:02, as usual (when Sylvie is running) 2nd in the W65-69 age group. Her AG% was 77.33%, very close to last year (77.40%). Kudos to Judith for not slowing down!

Lynn and Caryl rounded out the team, Lynn running 1:47:40, good for 4th in the W70-74 age group and Caryl running 1:58:32 for 7th place in the same age group.

Thanks to you both for being there and showing the CPTC colors!

In the absence of a W40+ and a W50+ team, Barbara, Sylvie & Judith triple-dipped, scoring for all 3 teams…

The final tally for the year: The CPTC W60+ team finishes 2nd (114 pts) to Van Cortland TC (138pts). Congrats to them!….

Let’s try to regain our first place team though in 2015 … 🙂

I’d like to personally thank all my W60+ teammates for their presence at races and brilliant efforts in 2014!

Thanks also to Tony for always being out there and cheering us on!

Hope to see you all at the Holiday 10K next Saturday to close the racing year in a festive way!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Go Orange!

Sylvie