In case you didn’t notice, running by the Unisphere 🌎 has become hot among New York runners! This year’s 12,094 finishers of the Queens 10K makes it the most popular edition ever. Today’s run was also literally the hottest🔥since 2015. But it takes more than a hot day to stop runners from outdoing themselves. And the 103 Flyers who ran the race today did outdo themselves: 5 of our teammates won individual age-group awards and 4 of our teams won awards. 🎉
The Flyers also had the privilege and honor to have Nancy Batterman on stage singing 🎶the national anthem 🇺🇸 before race start. Nancy went on to run her own race and finished in 1:00:34 (pace 9:45).
As always, we know of a handful of PRs among our teammates. They are noted below. Any more PR out there? Make us proud! Share your celebration! Please tell us know of your PR through Facebook!
🏆Zac Charlton led the team today in 39:41 (pace 6:24). Zac’s sub-40 was his fastest NYRR 10K on record. John Whitfield🥈 came second for the team with a superb time of 41:14 (pace 6:39, AGP 81.91%). John reached once again the podium, this time as a third age-group award winner. John’s strong result propelled the 60+ team to a podium win of its own. Paul Nap 🥉took third place with a 42:06 (pace 6:46, AGP 70.36%), also Paul’s fastest NYRR 10K, though not a PR. Michael Alexander finished fourth for the team in 43:00 (pace 6:56), and just 4 seconds behind him, Jared Blank took fifth place in 43:04 (6:56, AGP 71.03%). The Open Men Team came in 39th and is tied for 9th place in the Open Men B standings.
Just like John, Brad Goz (50:39, pace 8:10, 71:42%) also won a second-place award 🥈🌟 and scored points for the 70+ team, just two days after turning 70, leading the team to a group award win. What a lovely belated 🥳 present Brad got himself with today’s race! Delton Mace (1:00:12, pace 9:43) won third place 🥉🌟 in his age group.
The women’s top runner 🥇 of the day was Ley Alejaldre Biel. Ley gifted the team with a truly triumphant performance. Her time of 47:15 is a 20-second PR (7:37 pace). Since Ley arrived in New York from Spain and then joined the Flyers in 2022, she has set countless PRs. Laura Sackler took second place 🥈in 47:29 (pace 7:39, AGP 72.43%). Laura barely had the time to recover from her 48K ultra-trail (with a 9,000ft gain/loss!) at Lofoten Islands, Norway two weekends ago, and she was already back to road racing on more familiar grounds. Melida Barbosa came in third 🥉with a strong finish time of 48:09 (pace 7:45). Sungwon Hwang, fourth for the team, celebrated a 49:49 finish (pace 8:01) in the third 10K she ran this year after a long break from racing. Yumi Morishige was the fifth woman in the team, but with her strong 50:08 finish (pace 8:05, AGP 74.46%) she scored the highest AGP among the top 5 women Flyers. The Open Women Team came 31st and is tied for 12th in the Open A club standings.
Teresa Gancayco (1:03:16, pace 10:11, 70.17%) won a second-place 🥈🌟, and Mindi Adler Nealon (1:28:22, pace 14:14) won third place🥉🌟in her age group.
Today’s Flyer of the day is Jon Riecke, who finished his race in 49:08 (pace 7:55). Jon, a Flyer since 2013, has just turned 60 last month🥳. Jon celebrated the first race in his new age group by scoring for the Flyers 60+ team and winning his first team award within his new team. I asked Jon how he felt about that. “I feel great!” he replied. “I’m glad to have helped the 60+ team, even if it was providing more depth than speed,” he said with his trademark self-effacement. I asked Jon about his run today. “I had a good warmup and a good start,” Jon told me, “but the heat caught up to me at the mile 3 marker. I slowed down a little, dumped water on my head at the next two stops, and caught a second wind for the last mile.” As many of us know, Jon has been one of two co-leaders of the Flyers 6am group since before the pandemic. Runners in the group love the personal touches he puts to the email invites he sends out every week to the so-called “6at6” run (6 miles at 6am). “Francine [Alfandary] is the real leader of the 6am group,” he told me. “I write the email on Wednesday for the Thursday run. I try to find something each week to tie to running. That's not hard. Running is life!”
Let’s move to the teams’ results! This race was the fourth club point race of the season. 4 teams won an award:
The 70+ Men Team, including Brad, David Gaines (54:46, pace 8:49, 4th AG) and Delton Mace (1:00:12, pace 9:43, AGP 75.66%), won their age group, and moved up to third place in the club standings.
The 60+ Men Team, including John, Jérôme Bérard (43:49, pace 7:03, AGP 75.66%) and Jon won the second-place award (they missed the first place by one second!), and is still leading by 2 points in the club standings.
The 70+ Women Men Team, including Teresa, Maggie Schwartz (1:27:38, pace 14:07) and Mindi (1:28:22, pace 14:14), also won the second-place award and is second in the club standings, 6 points behind the leading team.
The 60+ Women Team, including Deb Saat (54:44, pace 8:49, 5th AG, AGP 76.64%), Mindy Statter (56:04, pace 9:02, 8th AG, AGP 74.82%) and Nina Zoe Parks-Taylor (56:57, pace 9:10, 9th AG place, AGP 72.66%), won the third-place award, and is still second in the club standings, 10 points behind the leading team.
Congrats to all four fabulous teams! New York running teams, you’d better watch out!
Kudos also to the following teams:
The 50+ Women Team, including Laura, Sungwon and Yumi, came in 8th and is fourth in the club standings, just 4 points behind the leading team. Here’s another promising rising team!
The 50+ Men Team, including John, Jared and Jérôme, placed 10th.
The 40+ Women Team, including Ley, Laura and Melida, placed 11th.
The 40+ Men Team, including John, Paul and Michael placed 24th.
The team’s full results can be found here:
https://results.nyrr.org/event/24QUEENS/teams/NYF
Finally, this race counts also for the 2024 Flyers awards. The current member standings are on the Flyers’ website at https://nyflyers.org/2023-flyers-age-group-results
Congratulations to all runners!
-Francesco P, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter, #NYRR staff