From Lauren Carter of the Open:

On Sunday, the Women’s Open team kicked off their road racing season with a big bang in the Washington Heights 5K!

 

 Andrea Bradshaw

Photo: NYRR

Led by Andrea Bradshaw’s 5th overall finish in a time of 17:43, Lady Orange finished 2nd behind NYAC by 20seconds.  Hot on her heels was Aileen Barry who made a big come back to the road with her 17:46 5K.  Cat Beck ran for a fierce 5K finish just behind Aileen with a time of 17:49.

 Aileen Barry

Photo: NYRR

Finishing just over 18 minutes, Christina Argueta (18:03) and Lauren Carter (18:16) rounded out the scoring that gave the women the strong start they needed after tough winter training.

A special honorable mention to Kate Pfeffer who also made a comeback on the day.  Kate’s consistent training through some quite snowy conditions gave her a strong finish of 18:27 and finished 6th for the Women’s Open Team.

Further west, Shawnessy Dusseau, in preparation for the Boston Marathon, headed out of town to what she hoped would be warmer temps. Instead snow pretty much shut down the Dallas/Fort Worth area (it may be safe to say she brought it with her from the NorthEast?). Fortunately for Shawnessy her race went on as scheduled. In cold, slushy, and drizzly conditions, she was able to run a 1:34:14 on a slightly hilly course to set a PR by  1:37 .

 

 From Ani Go of the 40+:

 

Once again the start of a new racing season came to us in the form of another chilly and gritty winter day. The taste of snow was in the air and our ladies were ready to pound the urban grey brick road.

And our ladies were triumphant placing 2nd! What a bunch of great performances–comeback queen Colleen McGurk fired it up leading us with 19:52–her second sub-20 minute performance! She was just shy of the podium this time, but we will see her with that gold again soon!

Our very own VP Sue P who is a lady of action as well as words, took 2nd in her age group, putting down a 21:35. BOOM. The VP speaks for us when she says conditions have been tough to train in, but you wouldn’t know it with her time!

Rounding out our scoring team is tri-tacular Stacy Creamer–her first initial–S–and last name–Creamer–spells “Screamer”. That’s what the asphalt did when she was on the course, turning it out with a 21:47, also taking 2nd in her age group. This great athlete from the 50+ team scored for the 40+ team as well! Your captain was back to represent, but not to score. 22:25 was how I do.

Congrats to our open women’s, men’s, and masters teams! Everyone had terrific solid performances for the season opener!

Next up–Scotland 10k! Get those kilts dry cleaned! Aye!

GO ORANGE!

Ani

 

 

From Sylvie Kimche of the 50+ and 60+:

Here is the recap for the Washington Heights 5k this past Sunday March 1, 2015, the first NYRR team race of 2015

On a cold, grey and blustery morning, the W60+ team started the year with a bang capturing 1st place, by just 1′ 48″ ahead of NY Flyers. And the W50+ got 2nd place, just 14″ behind Greater NY.

We had a small contingent of hardy W50+ (2) & W60+ (3) runners, but they ran strong & determined (with two of them – Stacy Creamer & Barbara Byrne double dipping)

Barbara as usual finished first for the W60+ team in 23:14, a respectable 85.99% AG%, but good for “only” 3rd in her W60-64 age group as she’s recuperating from a hamstring injury and was very cautious yesterday. Besides, the result for 1st runner in that age group is very dubious and I’m still waiting for the NYRR to make some correction. So Barbara should end up 2nd to new comer in the W60-64 age group, Mary Wickham from Athena, who ran 23:07.

Barbara also helped the W50+ team to their 2nd place by double dipping and scoring 2nd in for the W50+ team. So congrats and thanks are in order!

Sylvie, your team captain, as usual was 2nd for the team in 24:24, (a much slower result than her stellar 23 flat last year…), and but still good for 1st for the W65-69 age group, with a 88.37% AG% (2nd AG% in the W50+ competition once the suspicious result for the W60-64 age group will have been corrected).

But all the thanks and congrats (for the W60+ team) go to Caryl who, at age 72, was thrilled to score for the team in 36:32. Without her as our 3rd runner, there would have been no W60+ team and no scoring…

Which proves my point that a slow time for the 3rd runner is almost irrelevant in our age group and that having a 3rd runner, no matter how slow or fast she is, is the most important thing in order to score!

The W50+ team came in 2nd place, just a few seconds behind Greater NY.

Stacy led the charge in her return to competing for the team after a long absence due to injuries. She was 1st for the team in 21:47, good for 2nd in her age group (W55-59) in a solid 82.04 AG% . Stacy also double dipped and scored 3rd for the W40+ team! Way to go, Stacy! We’re really happy to see you back!

The always reliable Wanda rounded out the W50+ team in a respectable 23:36 considering that she’s has not been able to train much since the start of the year (being back in school and bad weather are not conducive to running & training a lot…). She was 6th in the W50-54 age group in a 71.93 AG%.

Thanks to Wanda too for showing up and scoring for the W50+ team!!!

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

Next team race is the Scotland Run 10k on April 4.

See you all there whether racing or cheering. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Go Orange! (and Navy…) – unfortunately, i guess i have to accept the fact that our team is not just Orange anymore but Navy as well… 🙁