Devon’s email of11/06/19 with the CPTC NYC Marathon results says it all:
Masters Women 60+ — 1st time in CPTC’s (47 years) history that our 60+ women scored as a team and they took 2nd!
|
2nd Place |
12:50:24 |
|
Barbara Byrne |
03:54:36 |
|
Stacy Creamer |
03:57:31 |
|
Jeannine Antus |
04:58:17 |
Over the last 13 years when we started having W60+ runners, we’ve had lonesome runners on a number of years: Deborah Barchat in 2007, 2008 & 2010, Judith Tripp in 2016, Barbara Byrne in 2014 & 2015.
We also had “duos” twice: Judith & Deb in 2009 & 2011.
All very commendable efforts!
But we never had before a “trio” of runners….
And it happened this year thanks to the true grit of our new member Jeannine who struggled from halfway to the finish with a stress fracture as she did not want to let her teammates down! Way to go Jeannine!
And with all of Jeannine’s travails, our team was only 13 minutes behind first place team Van Cortland TC. Just imagine the results with a healthy Jeannine!…
Way to go team! Big congrats to you all!
Barbara led the team in 3:54:36 a 8:57 pace. She was 3rd in her W65-69 age group and achieved an amazing 83.34% AG% (the highest of all men & women CPTC racers!).
Stacy was 2nd for the team in 3:57:31, a 9:03 pace & a very respectable 74.08% AG%.
Jeannine limped to the finish line in 4:58:17
Let’s hope that with our expanded W60+ team (previous members Sandra Olivo and Christine Mouterde just re-joined CPTC), we’ll manage to field W60+ marathon (& half marathon) teams for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, let’s just rejoice in this year’s BIG SURPRISE !!!
Thanks to all of you cheering at the Wall of Orange” or elsewhere…
Please read below our champion’s own words:
Jeannine
As you know I ran with a stress fracture and it caught up with me at mile 14 forcing me to run/walk the remainder of the race. This was my worst Marathon performance by far however; I was happy to finish and run the last mile.
Wish I had a better report; time to heal for the next race!
Barbara
I’m very happy with my finish time. Didn’t run quite the I way planned, i.e. out a little too fast then struggled toward the end. Had to walk/ run during the last 4 miles but at least I wasn’t in a funk, it was a rational decision that I needed to do this. I probably should have had more grit!
I’m a little stiff today but that’s the only complaint.
Sorry Jeannine that your injury impacted you so early in the marathon; congratulations on persevering to the end.
The icing on the cake is that we completed a team. Thanks Stacy and Jeannine!
[FYI, Stacy’s story below is a little long but very interesting and entertaining. So I recommend that you take the time to read it. For those of you short on time here is the short version:
Stacy was thrilled with her race, her 8th NYCM and her most enjoyable!….]
Stacy
First, let me be clear: I am THRILLED with my 2019 NYC Marathon. The marathon has never been my distance—although I’ve run about a dozen, including four prior New York’s—but even back in the day my best time was 3:21. I hadn’t run one in fifteen years, having long since turned my attention to shorter distances. But eight months ago with the prospect of turning 60 in October looming, I decided what better way of entering my new and somewhat dread decade by running the marathon? Mistake. I was also competing in triathlon seriously and had Triathlon Nationals in mid-August and then the Triathlon World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland on September 1. I tried to lay groundwork for the marathon—managing to put in two 15-mile runs—but I came back from World overtrained and spent. I’m working with former Navy SEAL David Goggins (author of CAN’T HURT ME) and he put me on a heart rate monitor and advised not to go above 80% of my max until I felt better. I got two half marathons in: the Philly Rock n Roll in September and the Lake Muggelsee Half in Berlin in October. Both were disasters. I attempted one twenty miler about a month before the marathon and wound up with only another fifteen. So I toed up to the marathon start with zero confidence and not a single twenty miler behind me.
The day, as you know, was perfect. Even at the start I was kicking myself for not training better. To have this kind of weather day for a marathon and squander it. Ugh! But I kept my composure and tried to stay positive. I also had a big change for this marathon thanks to my new beau Stephen Orr, who is an avid marathoner with a 2:58 PR. He’s had me on porridge all week and three hours before the start I had a full cup of it and a bagel. And I wore a race belt with five GU’s. I had one about every four miles.
The canon sounded and my Garmin immediately went screwy. It said I was running 11:00 pace. I didn’t think that could be right since not everyone was passing me. Surely being on the lower bridge was throwing off the satellite. Shortly before the two-mile mark Alan Ruben passed me. In his quintessential solemn British tone he said, “You’ve gone out too fast.” Two miles in and I might already have tanked my race!
But I felt good and kept cruising around 8:45. I settled into 8th Avenue and actually enjoyed it. Stephen had given me another bit of excellent advice at the start: don’t think about the miles ahead; think about the miles that you’ve done. So I never thought anything like, “Sixteen to go.”
Our own Dennis O’Donnell also gave me good counsel by phone as we were both heading to the start on separate buses. I was planning to walk part of the course but he said to just keep moving. I took that to heart, too.
The 59th Street Bridge had my slowest miles but I regrouped a bit on Fifth Avenue where I had several friends to look forward to. Of course two of those turned out not to be there but I had happy surprises from others: Ivy Bell at one point and a teammate from my triathlon team farther along.
All I wanted to do was hit twenty miles. Then I figured that I could trudge at a slow pace—12:00 if I had to—and I’d get the job done. By then I knew I would finish. But I hit the twenty mark at slightly under three hours. It occurred to me that if I kept under 10:00 pace I could break four.
Thanks to my solid nutrition, I felt pretty good. Pretty great, actually. I started to pick up my pace. First a low 9:00 and then back into the 8:00s! All I wanted to do was hit that Wall of Orange in Central Park! Sylvie, I was never so happy to see you—and Tony. I was still feeling pretty strong so I kept on at about 8:30: through to the twenty-four-mile mark and then down Cat Hill. At mile twenty-five I ran into my good friend Will Gillies, who runs for Urban Athletics. He’d passed me on the 59th Street Bridge. He was hoping to break four but when I came upon him he was just trudging along. I said one word, “Will,” and he snapped to and followed me. Together we weaved through the slow runner traffic on Central Park West. He’d started behind me so he would have broken four anyway but I knew I was going to be close. I was worried about that last point two miles. Back in the day I’d run four consecutive 10Ks thinking that I would break 40:00 and I didn’t. 40:17. 40:12. 40:09. 40:08. (I finally ran 39:30 at the old Bagel Run). My watch was clicking off miles sooner than I was hitting the official ones. All this is to say I kept pushing and wasn’t truly confident of breaking four until I turned into the Central Park for the second and final time. I finished in 3:57:31! It was my happiest marathon finish—made extra happy by learning that I was on the first scoring 60+ CPTC women’s marathon squad in memory.
I qualified for Boston by twenty-two minutes. So who knows? Maybe I’ll be in Hopkinton come 2021!