Report from Veronica Jackson of the Open:
The CPTC Open Women’s Team is happy to report that they opened the 2018 NYRR Club Points series with an exciting victory and numerous personal records at NYRR Washington Heights Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K, despite a difficult and hilly course and 22 MPH wind gusts. We couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the year.
The Open Women’s Team touted four runners under 18 minutes, lead by Aileen Barry and her impressive 3rd place overall finish. Despite a slow and cautious first mile from the lead women, Aileen ran a major negative split and a 15 second NYRR 5k PR in route to a 17:31. Veronica Jackson was next across the line in 4th place overall, in 17:33, and really enjoyed working with Aileen in their first race together.
Veronica Jackson and Aileen Barry
Photo: Nigel Francis
CPTC also snagged the 5th place spot, as Cecilia Davis-Hayes came across the line in 17:48. Cecilia is taking a brief break from her professional triathlon training, and has been really working on her running form the past year, so she was excited to put the new form to the test in a race. We’ll call it a success after this performance. Cecilia harnessed the power of her teammates by running side by side with workout buddy Jordan Snyder for the first mile, and then kept her sights on Veronica to pull herself to a 22 second PR. Jordan was also able to sneak under that 18:00 barrier, in 17:59.6 for a 31 second PR, despite that “holy (last) hill though!” We feel ya, Jordan.
Ken Tso and Jordan Snyder
Photo: John Tran
Alysia Dusseau came in strong as our 5th scorer, clocking a 18:21. Alysia enjoyed seeing all of her teammates out there despite the wind and challenging course. Kate Pfeffer was just behind Alysia in 18:22, which earned her a 4 second NYRR PR. Maria Gonzalez Esquivel also managed a PR despite the windy conditions, dropping 25 seconds to finish in 21:47. Just after Maria was Natalie Sopic, in 21:51, who had her fastest race in the past three years and gives credit to her speedy teammates and coach who keep her motivated and pushing to do her best.
Jacy Kruzel and Elleree Erdos
Photo: John Tran
The next Club Points race is the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K on April 29th, Followed by the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 19th. But first, we’d like to say good luck to everyone tackling the new New York City Half Marathon course next weekend. You’ll be in good company with your CPTC teammates running along side you and cheering from the side lines.
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Report from Colleen McGurk of the 40+:
Central Park Track Club’s Masters Blasters 40+ kicked off the 2018 scoring season with a solid team scoring effort and was runner up!
Our first scorer was newcomer Wakenda Tyler who recently moved to NY! YES! We are SO happy she’s joined our ranks and that she is representing CPTC – and wow, did she REPRESENT in her first NYC/CPTC/POINTS RACE!
Wakenda ran a 20:07 on a hilly, challenging course with little training as she was very busy moving and transitioning to life in NYC. She effortlessly climbed those Washington Heights hills and shared with me afterwards that she felt great, and that there was more left in the tank. It’s only going up from here, Wakenda!
Next up was Captain Ani who ran a solid 22:09!!! Ani is on a comeback and seems to get faster with each race! Even amidst some of the craziness that occurred while trying to get to the start in the wee hours of the morn, she got to the start, gave it her all and scored for us!. Here is what she had to say:
Cue the clown music for me, please! Epic disaster was my morning to the race. Clueless cab driver got lost and dumped me at the armory with 10 mins to check my bag and do the run of desperation to the corral. Just made it, and ran the race without any warm up. Even with the temperature about twice that of last year’s, the chill from the wind resulted in almost the same bitterly cold feel. Despite the car wreck before my race, it wasn’t my worst time, I did make it into the top 10 of my age group, and it’s always nice to score for the team. Looking forward to some redemption in my next race!
And the third scorer was Audrey Kingsley. Audrey ran a solid 22:29. Casually, she remarked that it was tough, but she’s still in the game. Yes, Audrey you definitely are!!!
Go Orange!!!
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Report from Ani Go of the 50+:
Welcome to the start of the 2018 racing season! As tradition dictates, we begin with a 5k in the hills of the heights—Washington Heights (forever Coogan’s to me). And yet again it was a cold one, with the addition of wind to buffer runners around.
The women’s 50+ team consisted of our lone 50+ Lady, the multi-talented Stacy Creamer, who placed 4th in her age group as did the 50+ team. Fleshing out the team was the incredible Barbara Byrne (1st in age, of course), and Captain Sylvie Kimche (also 1st in age, of course!).
And so it begins. Congrats to our women and men’s open and masters teams! Let’s hope we can make the podium at the Healthy Kidney 10k in April!
Go Orange!!!
Captain Ani ?
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Report from Sylvie Kimche of the 60+:
Sylvie Kimche and Barbara Byrne
Photo: Nigel Francis
It was cold and windy (14mph winds with gusts of 22mph) on Sunday morning for the 1st team race of 2018, but not as cold as last year.
Our W60+ took 2nd place. Unfortunately, for lack of a 3rd runner, the W70+ did not score….
The W60+ team was lead as usual by Barbara Byrne, coming all the way from Staten Island. She ran 23:50, a 7:40 pace and 83.97% AG. She was 1st in her W65-69 age group too.
This is what she had to say about her race:
Best part of the day was seeing the smiling faces of friends and teammates, a good antidote to the winter blahs! I’m generally of the opinion that I don’t care for 5ks, but it is a big plus to be finished relatively quickly.
I should be happy to have negative splits, but upon reflection, felt I could have squeezed out a bit more effort in the last mile. Something to work on!
Congratulations to Sylvie for far exceeding her stated expectations ( No surprise to me), and to Deb and Lynn for representing and completing our 60/70+ groups.
And congrats to all the team members who gave such a strong showing.
I, your team captain, Sylvie Kimche, was 2nd for the team and 1st in my W70-74 age group in 25:15, a 8:08 pace, good for 84.79% AG.
As Barbara mentions in her comments above, I was very surprised (and very happy) with my result, as I did not know what to expect, having run a paltry 26 miles since the beginning of 2018…. but I had cycled 1200 miles (in 90+ degree weather!)…. So i guess i was strong (and cold!) and ran “on memory” (seems that my muscle memory is better than my brain memory…?). In any case, it was great to see my teammates and get back in the running spirit.
Deborah Barchat was 3rd for the team in 30:55, a 9:57 pace. She was 7th in her W65-69 age group (can’t wait for her to get into the W70-74 age group in the fall…).
In her own words:
Cold & windy, no surprise there. The crowding was tough with the narrow course, but one advantage to out-and-back is getting to see the front finishers float by, so beautiful! My race was ok, some trouble breathing end of mile 2, but otherwise very glad to be racing again. It’s a start.
Lynn Blackstone was 3rd in her tough W75-79 age group in 34:58, a 11:15 pace. Way to go!
For good measure and for lack of W50+ runners, Barbara and I double -dipped and helped Stacy Creamer (22:57, 7:24 pace, 4th in W55-59 age group) to a 5th place W50+ team.
Thanks as always to Tony and CPTCers for their cheers and encouragements.
And congrats to all the CPTC teams for their great results, especially the Women’s Open 1st place… woohoo…
And kuddos to us, golden girls/ silver foxes! ?
On to the UAE 10k on April 29
See you there (in ORANGE hopefully!)
Sylvie
