When NYRR changes the course flags from green to yellow because of the warmer conditions, it can only mean one thing for runners: adjust your goals, forget about that PR of your dreams! In fact, the temperature this morning at the start of the first wave of the Brooklyn Half was 64 degrees with humidity at 93%. But the Flyers know better. The 151 Flyers on the course today kept calm, hung on, and finished magnificently. Two of us (Albert Pedemont and Joe Kelly) won their age group and, as this is the third club points race of 2025, our age-division teams brought home two golds and three silvers! Plus, believe it or not, some of us even set a PR (see below)! Congrats to all runners!
At the same time when we celebrate our accomplishment, our thoughts go to the young man who untimely lost his life this morning during the run. Our deepest condolences to his family.
And here are the team’s full results:
On the men's side, Albert Pedemont led the team with an astounding time of 1:15:08 (pace 5:44). Yes, you read well: 5:44. How many of us can keep that pace for a fraction of today’s distance? Albert, AKA “fast Albert”, won his age group of 1,393 runners, and scored an AGP of 86.2%. Last but not least, Albert broke his half marathon PR, on a day when many of us were running in strict survival mode. Today, Albert was also first in the Flyers 60+, 50+ and 40+ Men Teams. I hung out with Albert at Ruby’s, the Flyers traditional post-Brooklyn get-together by the boardwalk. He was nonchalantly drinking his beer, as if he had not just made history for the Flyers. And history he did make, as his result in Brooklyn crushed the Flyers Hall of Fame record of 1:18:25 for the half-marathon distance in his age group set by Damian Miller more than 10 years ago, on March 16, 2014, in the New York City Half Marathon. (For the record, and yet unreported, Albert’s PR of 2:37:32 in the Barcelona Marathon on March 16, crushed another Flyers Hall of Fame record: this time it was the record of 2:45:02 set by Michael Hirsch in the New York City Marathon on November 1, 2009.)
Abe Lee came second with an impressive time of 1:24:34 (pace 6:28, AGP 75.92%). Abe was also second in the Flyers 40+ Men Team. Joe Kelly finished third with 1:27:01 (pace 6:39). Joe won his age group of 223 runners, and his AGP was an unbelievable 87.22%! Joe was also first in the Flyers 60+ and 50+ Men Teams, and third in the 40+ Men Team. Edvard Major was fourth for the team (1:29:45, pace 6:51, AGP 70.34%) and Adam Pritchard was fifth (1:30:18, pace 6:54). Adam was also second in the Flyers 50+ Men Team. The Open Men Team came in 31th and is tied for 6th in the Open B club standings.
I had an inspiring post-race conversation with Edvard. I asked him how he had handled the warm weather in today’s race.
“I got lucky picking the right effort,” he said, “and happened to follow an excellent NYRR pacer, and tried to enjoy every little breeze I could get.” Edvard’s time is his best Flyers half marathon result since 2019, despite the heat. I asked him if he could describe it as a comeback. “Cautiously, yes,” he replied. “I’ve been chasing my pre-injury form ever since getting hurt in 2018. It’s taken time to realize that it wasn’t just the injury or age holding me back, but the absence of perfect training circumstances that I had been blessed with before. I accepted that, rebalanced my training, and I am hoping to meet my best self halfway.” At the end of our brief interview, Edvard and I took a trip down memory lane. “I joined the Flyers exactly 10 years ago,” Edvard said, “and the 2015 Brooklyn Half was my first race with the Flyers. In fact, that was when I met you at the start line, and we have been waiting for each other at the finish line ever since. The goal is to continue with that tradition for many years to come.”
The top 5 runners on the women's side all finished within 3 minutes of each other. Bethany Shaw led the team with an incredibly fast time of 1:35:32 (pace 7:18). She was followed by Flyer legend, Marcy Withington, who finished in 1:36:14 (pace 7:21), which earned her a 7th AG place and an AGP of 82.28%. Marcy was also first in the Flyers 50+ and 40+ Women Teams. Lisa Schwartz came in third with a time of 1:36:45 (pace 7.23, AGP 6th AG place, 80.82%). Lisa was also second in the Flyers 50+ and 40+ Women Teams. Katie Wilson-Milne was fourth in 1:37:39 (pace 7:27, AGP 70.52%). Katie was also third in the Flyers 40+ Women Team. New Flyer Deike Peters was fifth in 1:38:00 (pace 7:29, AGP 80.8%). Deike was also third in the Flyers 50+ Women Team. The Open Women Team came in 17th and is now 3rd in the Open B club standings.
5 age-division teams were on the podium:
- The 70+ Men Team, led by Brad Goz (1:51:49, pace 8:32, 6th AG place, AGP 71.5%), and including David Gaines (1:59:33, pace 9:08, 9th AG place) and Stephen Moore (2:05:44, pace 9:36), won gold and is still third in the club standings.
- The 70+ Women Team, led by Teresa Gancayco (2:24:00, pace 10:59, 6th AG place), and including Christy Putnam (2:27:19, pace 11:15) and Barbara Paer (2:36:05, pace 11:55), also won gold and moved up to first place in the club standings.
- The 60+ Men Team, led by Joe, and including Francesco Presutti (1:37:08, pace 7:25, AGP 76.58%), and Clay Bracken (1:43:34, pace 7:54, AGP 71.12%), won silver and is still first in the club standings with a 13-point lead (up from 10).
- The 60+ Women Team, led by Denise Iannizzotto (1:50:49, pace 8:28, AGP 78.33%), and including Kim Hooper-Stanley (1:54:38, pace 8:45, AGP 75.73%) and Emily Altman (1:55:26, pace 8:49, AGP 75.02%), also won silver, and is still second in in the club standings.
- The 50+ Women Team, led by Marcy, and including Lisa and Deike, also won silver, and moved up to third place in the club standings.
All the other age-division teams did very well too: the 40+ Women Team, including Marcy, Lisa and Katie, finished 5th and tied for 4th place in the club standings; the 50+ Men Team, including Joe, Adam and Frédéric Véron (1:32:04, pace 7:02, AGP 76.26%) finished 8th and is tied for 4th place in the club standings; the 40+ Men Team, including Albert, Abe and Joe finished 10th and is tied for 11th place in the club standings.
Kudos also to the other Flyers, in addition to those mentioned above, who finished in the top 10 places of their age groups and/or scored an AGP of 70% or above. They are:
• Chris Brennan: 1:31:28, pace 6:59, AGP 71.42%
• James Dunham: 1:33:49, pace 7:10, AGP 72.79%
• Jeff Gerbert: 1:35:10, pace 7:16, AGP 75.18%
• Kristel McKanna: 1:40:13, pace 7:39, AGP 75.23%
• Melida Barbosa: 1:41:17, pace 7:44, AGP 71.87%
• Silke Eiserback: 1:42:50, pace 7:51, 77.97%
• Kelly Willis: 1:43:42, pace 7:55, AGP 78.32%
• Arlyn Apollo: 1:45:07, pace 8:02, AGP 73.48%
• Kevin Lanning: 1:48:04, pace 8:15, AGP 72.42%
• Neil Tipograph: 1:49:43, pace 8:23, 5th AG place, AGP 71.33%
• Janet Stack: 1:54:09, pace 8:43, AGP 72.08%
• Jennifer Coyne: 1:55:10, pace 8:48, AGP 71.44%
• Dee Vogt: 2:02:58, pace 9:23, 10th AG place, AGP 73.65%
• Deb Saat: 2:07:14, pace 9:43, AGP 73.29%
• David Dempsey: 2:08:01, pace 9:46, 4th AG place,
• Jeanne Weiler: 2:10:15, pace 9:57, AGP 73.77%
• Mindi Adler: 3:21:28, pace 15:23, 4th AG place
The team’s full results can be found at: https://results.nyrr.org/event/B2025/teams/NYF
Special thanks to the Flyers Cheering Station, notably Richard Brounstein for taking and posting oodles of fantastic photos!
Finally, this race counts for the 2025 Flyers awards. The points tracker with the members’ ranking is available on our website at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xMvczG_4s0j71AOMBrzJRXxv9mleYQX9/edit
Well done, Flyers!
-Francesco P, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter
#NYRRstaff
(photo credit: Brad Goz)