Daniel Ifcher and Kate Pallardy
CPTC-New Balance went “Old School” this past weekend at the NYC Runs Central Park Marathon, winning both the men’s and women’s overall titles. NYC Runs held its 2nd annual Marathon this past Sunday, emulating the spirit of the original NYC marathon, with a modest size of entrants and a course entirely inside Central Park – 5 loops of the park (excluding Harlem Hill) plus a little to round out the 26.2.
This winter’s weather has been tough, but it did not slow down the team, which went 4 for 4 in overall and divisional winning placements in the race. The weather cooperated, giving the competitors near perfect conditions on one of the few nice days of this tough winter.
Leading the pack was Jake Cooper, 39, who won the men’s race by more than 6 minutes. He completed the Central Park course in 2:47:37. The men’s 40-49 team is stalking Jake’s birthday this year, after which he can score for the masters team.
On the women’s side, recent addition to the CPTC-New Balance line up, Kate Pallardy, won the women’s race in a very impressive 2:58:17. She led from the start and was always in control of the women’s race.
Completing the race alongside Kate was Daniel Ifcher who placed 4th overall and won the men’s 40-49 division in 2:58:16 – 12 seconds quicker than his 2013 NYC marathon finish. Not bad considering he’d only planned to run 20 miles.
And rounding out CPTC-New Balance participation in the event was Yasuhiro Makoshi, who won the men’s 60-69 division in 3:21:57 after missing out on the 2013 NYC marathon because of injury.
A strong show by the men and women in orange and an encouraging start to the spring marathon season.
-By Daniel Ifcher