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Fifth Avenue Mile

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Summer unofficially ended last weekend, and the fall season 🍁🍂 kicked off with one of the most exciting races on the calendar: the Fifth Avenue Mile. This is an iconic race that takes runners on an incredibly intense push along 20 spectacular blocks of Fifth Avenue. It’s also a race where runners’ success is predicated on the extent to which they have focused their training on developing their anaerobic capacity – quite a challenge for many of us, long-distance runners by nature. 68 Flyers embraced this challenge, and it was a superb performance for our team: we won one individual award and three team awards and several of us set a PR. Congratulations to all runners! Also, huge thanks to the Flyers’ cheering squad strategically positioned 4 blocks ahead of the finish line.

Photo Credit: Marc Feldman

Road running supremo Joe Kelly🥇 led the team with an astounding time of 5:18. Despite his impressive time and his AGP of 89.47%, Joe missed the podium by 2 seconds and finished “only” 4th in his age group. Incidentally, Joe crossed the finish line only 8 seconds behind his age-group winner. Such was the competition this morning. Paul Nap 🥈 took second place in the team, with a time of 5:40 (AGP of 73.27%). Marc Bochner🥉 finished third for the team in 5:42 (AGP 79.53%). Alan Danzig was fourth with a time of 5:43 (AGP 72.56%). Axel Anderegg-Durwood came in fifth in 5:45. The Open Men Team came in 48th and moved up from 9th to 7th in the Open Men B standings.

I spoke to Paul about the race. Paul has been racing with the Flyers for a little over a year and half now, after joining the Flyers 6am group from his native Netherlands.

"I listened carefully to the tips I received from the Flyers," Paul told me. "I was at the front of my corral and I followed a very fast runner. During the first quarter I exceeded my target race pace. In the uphill part of the race, I slowed down somewhat but I was still at my target race pace, and then I gave it my all in the final part of the race." Paul's time of 5:40 equals his PR from last year. "I would have loved to run a new PR," he said, "but altogether I am really pleased with the result because I have not trained for this distance at all."

Paul also had a message for the Flyers' community:

"It is an amazing feeling to be part of the Flyers," he said. "The support during the race was outstanding and heartwarming. It really made a difference and made me go even faster. Thank you Flyers, it is a great feeling to be part of this community!"

Paul and so many other Flyers benefited from the wisdom of Flyer Pat Duffy whose 2013 Flyers Blog post continues to help Flyers flourish via his strategies for excelling in this race.

The women’s top runner was Bethany Shaw🥇, who finished in 6:21. Stephanie Tang  🥈 took second place with a time of 6:24. Katy Stanard🥉 came third for the team with a time of 6:26. Sarah Quady and Sandra Chung were the fourth and fifth runners on the women’s team. They both finished in 6:50. The ranking of the Open Women Team in the race and in the Open A club standings is yet to be finalized. Christy Putnam won her age group with a time of 8:12 (AGP 75.2%).

Photo Credit: John Whitfield

Today’s race was the seventh club points race of the season. Three teams won an award:

    • The 60+ Men Team, including Joe, Francesco Presutti (5:48, AGP 80.29%), and John Whitfield (5:52, AGP 80.02%), won the third-place award. The competition in this age group was incredibly tight, and our team finished only 2 seconds behind the winning team and 1 second behind the runners-up. Our team has now alas moved down from 1st to 2nd place in the club standings.
    • The 70+ Men Team, including Brad Goz (7:08, 7th AG, AGP 70.3%), David Gaines (7:32) and David Dempsey (7:40, 4th AG, AGP 70.25%), also won the third-place award and remains fourth in the club standings.
    • The 70+ Women Team, including Christy, Hindy Schachter (12:32, 9th AG) and Karen Kenney (16:25), won the third-place award and remains second in the club standings.

Congrats to all three teams!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Kudos also to the following teams:

    • The 60+ Women Team, including Nina Zoe Parks-Tayor (7:17, 5th AG, 77%), Lisa Konorty (7:21, AGP 72.64%) and Deb Saat (7:59, 8th AG, AGP 71.24%), won the fourth-place award, and is still second in the club standings.
    • The 50+ Men Team, including Joe, Marc and Francesco, finished 9th.
    • The 40+ Men Team, including Joe, Paul and Marc, finished 19th. 
    • The rankings of the 40+ Women Team, including Stephanie, Katy and Sandra, and of the 50+ Women Team, including Nina, Lisa and Audrey Watters (7:27), are alas yet to be determined.

Kudos also to the other 5 Flyers, in addition to those mentioned above, who finished in the top 10 of their age group and/or scored an AGP of 70% or above.🌟🌟 They are:

    • Marc Feldman: 6:14, AGP 71.02% (Marc also took home a 23-second PR!)
    • Kent Blocher: 6:17, 8th place, AGP 77.33%
    • Colm Banfield: 6:23, AGP 73.42%
    • Clay Bracken: 6:28, AGP 71.27%
    • Neil Tipograph: 6:31, AGP 74.65%

The team’s full results can be found here: https://results.nyrr.org/event/24FAM/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 P, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter, #NYRR staff