It’s Brooklyn! And with a record participation of 28,415 finishers, it’s larger than ever! It was 61 degrees 🥵 at the start when 148 Flyers embarked on a 13.1-mile tour that took them from Prospect Park 🏞️to the Coney Island 🎡 boardwalk, greeted by the Flyers’ cheering station📣 at mile 12 and by Richard Brounstein's camera. Many of them were spotted at Ruby’s on the boardwalk for well-deserved post-run celebration 🍻with their teammates. We won three team awards 🙌🏼and several of us set a PR.💥
Superfast 💨Albert Pedemonte 🏆 led the team with an astounding time of 1:17:27 (pace 5:55). Albert was only 11 seconds off his PR, which he set in the NYC Half only two months ago. He is among the multitude of Flyers who ran the two half-marathons back-to-back. Albert finished 5th in his age group and scored an AGP of 82.34%. Abe Lee took the second place 🥈in the team, with a fast time of 1:23:22 (pace 6:22). This is a 24-second PR for Abe, who also scored an AGP of 75.85%. Zac Charlton finished third 🥉 for the team in 1:24:46 (pace 6:28). John Whitfield was fourth 🌟with a time of 1:29:09 (pace 6:49, 4th AG place, AGP 82.79%). John had recently set his half-marathon PR last January. He broke it in Brooklyn by 1:45, and in the process he also broke 1:30 in a half marathon for the first time! John is doing all this at the age of 63. Francesco Presutti came in fifth 🌟in 1:29:14 (pace 6:49, 5th AGP place, AGP 81.91%).
The Open Men Team came in 34th and is 9th in the Open Men B standings.
The women’s top runner was once again super champion🥇 Marcy Withington. Marcy’s time of 1:34:30 (pace 7:13, 7th AG place, AGP 81.95%) was also just a few seconds off her PR, which like Albert she set in the NYC Half two months ago. Silke Eiserbeck 🥈took second place. Silke finished in 1:35:57 (pace 7:20, 8th AG place, AGP 81.73%). Stephanie Tang 🥉came third for the team with a time of 1:37:26 (pace 7:26). Stephanie has just returned from her Marathon de Sable 🔥adventure. Her new passion for ultra-marathons is not stopping her from finishing at the top in classic long-distance racing. Emiko Fukagawa was the fourth🌟 runner on the women’s team. She finished in 1:38:21 (pace 7:31, AGP 71.81%). Emiko has just joined the Flyers. Melida Barbosa took the fifth🌟 place with a time of 1:39:34 (pace 7:36, AGP 71.65%).
The Open Women Team came 23rd and is 11th in the Open A club standings.
Welcome to all the new Flyers! I spoke to a couple of them in Brooklyn.
- Emiko, one of the team’s top runners in Brooklyn, recently joined the Flyers at the invitation of her friend Yumi Morishige. “I started running in the summer of 2021 with my son,” Emiko told me. “In the beginning we could only run a half mile, then we were able to run up to 2-3 miles. I started marathon training in March 2023 after I got a spot at the NYCM. It was the first marathon of my life.” Emiko is very happy about her Brooklyn race. “It was tough,” she said, “because the weather was a little too warm for me. In the last 6 miles, my legs started getting heavier, so I tried to focus myself and did a PR!”
- Joe Kelly is another new Flyer. He is not yet listed as a Flyer in the NYRR results system while he’s transitioning from his old club. Joe won the 60+ men age group with a time of 1:23:58 (pace 6:25, AGP 88.78%). His result broke the Hall of Fame record for the half-marathon distance for the 60+ age group that yours truly set in Brooklyn last year. Joe will undoubtedly help the 60+ men team towards their NYRR team award this year. I asked Joe what made him join the Flyers. “I kept seeing these cool runners in Central Park,” he told me. “I’m happy I’ve finally joined them.”
- Shevon Mahon was very happy to run her half-marathon PR in Brooklyn. Shevon's result of 1:56:51 (pace 8:55) was her first sub-2 in a half marathon!
This week-end’s race was the third club point race of the season. Three teams won an award:
- The 60+ Men Team, including John, Francesco and Jérôme Bérard (1:41:28, pace 7:45, AGP 71.33%), won the first-place🥇 award, and is leading in the club standings.
- The 60+ Women Team, including Lisa Konorty (1:51:45, pace 8:32, AGP 75.87%), Emily Altman (1:55:00, pace 8:47, AGP 73.72%) and Deb Saat (1:59:00, pace 9:05, 7th AG place, AGP 76:41%), won the second-place🥈 award, and is second in the club standings.
- The 70+ Men Team, including David Gaines (1:54:58, pace 8:47, 6th AG place), Sidney Stein (2:23:09, pace 10:56) and William Nealon (2:39:58, pace 12:13), won the third-place🥉 award and is sixth in the club standings.
Congrats to all three teams!
Kudos also to the following teams:
- The 50+ Women Team, including Marcy, Silke and Kristel McKanna (1:40:05, pace 7:39, AGP 73.74%), came in fourth and is tied for second place🥈 in the club standings with CPTC.
- The 40+ Women Team, including Marcy, Silke and Stephanie, finished 8th.
- The 50+ Men Team, including John, Francesco and Frédéric Veron (1:29:29, pace 6:50, AGP 77.16%), finished 9th. Frédéric is among the runners who set a PR in Brooklyn: he broke 1:30 for the first time, but he also broke his left foot as he went onto the boardwalk. Get better soon, Frédéric!
- The 40+ Men Team, including Albert, Abe and John, finished 14th.
- The 70+ Women Team, including Teresa Gancayco (2:25:51, pace 11:08, 7th AG place) and Mindi Adler (3:28:06, pace 15:53, 4th AG place), did not have enough runner to score points.
Kudos👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 also to the other 7 Flyers, in addition to those mentioned above, who finished in the top 10 of their age group or scored an AGP of 70% or above. They are:
- James Dunham: 1:31:03, pace 6:57, AGP 73.8%
- Laura Sackler: 1:44:27, pace 7:59, AGP 70.66%
- Hiromi Nobata: 1:45:06, pace 8:01, AGP 78:54%
- Jennifer Coyne: 1:50:20, pace 8:25, AGP 72.9%
- Jeanne Weiler: 2:02:12, pace 9:20, AGP 76.63%
- Nina Zoe Parks-Taylor: 2:02:44, pace 9:22, AGP 73.02%
- Felix Alicea: 2:49:55, pace 12:58, 9th AG
We have mentioned 5 PRs in this report (Abe, John, Emiko, Shevon, Frédéric). Please let us know if you set a PR too!🎉
The team’s full results can be found here:
https://results.nyrr.org/event/24BKH/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
Well done, runners!
-Francesco Presutti, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter, #NYRR staff