The stars aligned for this morning’s Run as One 4 Mile in Central Park. Runners were not only greeted by a race-perfect temperature of 49F, but also by the exceptionally smooth and springy surface of the park’s drives in the sections that have just been repaved by the City and the Central Park Conservancy, including the glorious fast and downhill mile 4 of the course. With a road like that under the feet, what’s even the point of wearing carbon plate running shoes?
112 Flyers were among the 7,716 finishers. Our team was stronger than ever. 4 Flyers were on the podium (Joe Kelly, Fran Breslauer, Brad Goz and Denise Iannizzotto). Furthermore, this was the second race of the club points series, and four age-divisions teams (the Men and Women’s 60+ and 70+ Teams) also won an award. More on that later. Congrats to all finishers!
Below are the details of the team’s top runners’ results.
Not surprisingly, the team was once again led by Joe Kelly, who finished in 24:20 (pace 6:05). Joe won his age group’s award, and scored a world-class level AGP of 89.66%, which earned him an astounding 3rd age-graded place overall. Joe was also first in the Flyers 40+, 50+ and 60+ Men Teams. Francesco Presutti took the second place with a finish of 25:46 (pace 6:27, 6th AG place, AGP 82.36%). Francesco was also second in the Flyers 40+, 50+ and 60+ Men Teams. Jeff Gurwin finished a mere 2 seconds behind Francesco and scored a result of 25:48 (again, a 6:27 pace). Jeff was also third in the 40+ Men Team. Nico Aubin finished fourth in the team in 26:31 (pace 6:38). Paul Nap was the team’s fifth fastest runner and crossed the finish one second behind Nico, with a time of 25:49 (6:38) and an AGP of 71.59%. Our open men team was 25th and currently ranks 5th (up from 7th) among the Open Men B teams.
In addition to Joe for his gold medal, honors go also to Brad Goz, who brought home his age group’s second place with a time of 30:55 (pace 7:44, AGP 74.1%). Brad was first in the Flyers 70+ Men’s Team.
Lisa Schwartz was the fastest finisher in the women’s team. She crossed the finish line with an extraordinary time of 26:57 (pace 6:45, 5th AG place, AGP 83.57%). She was also first in the 40+ and 50+ Women Teams. This is only the 4th NYRR race Lisa is running under the Flyers’ flag. Lisa introduced herself in the Heylo “new members” chat, where she wrote that she joined the Flyers thanks to her friend from high school Arlyn Apollo and that she has also done a lot of fun trails with Silke Eiserbeck. Lisa is enjoying doing more racing with NYRR lately and wanted to be on a team with more masters runners, especially masters women runners. We are delighted to have Lisa among us! The evermore powerful
Amanda Schachter came in second for the women’s team with an impressive time of 27:45 (pace 6:57, 6th AG place, AGP 80.26%). She was also second in the Flyers 40+ and 50+ Women Teams. Denise Iannizzotto was third for the women’s team with a time of 30:16 (pace 7:34). Denise won her age group’s third place and scored an AGP of 81.99%. She was also first in the Flyers 60+ Women Team, and third in the Flyers 40+ and 50+ Women Teams. Siobhan Stack came in fourth with a result of 30:51.
Lisa Konorty was fifth with a 31:31 finish (pace 7:53, 8th AG place, AGP 78.75%). She was also second in the Flyers 60+ Women Team. Our open women team was 16th and currently ranks 3rd (down from 2nd) among the Open Women B teams.
In addition to Denise for her bronze medal, honors go also to our legendary Fran Breslauer, who won her age group in 43:35 (pace 10:54, AGP 81.9%). Fran was third in the Flyers 70+ Women’s Team.
As mentioned above, four age-division teams were on the podium:
- The 60+ Men Team, led by Joe and including Francesco and John Whitfield (27:47, pace 6:57, AGP 77.8%), won the age division and is still leading the club standings.
- The 70+ Men Team, led by Brad and including David Gaines (34:15, pace 8:34, 9th AG place) and William Nealon (40:57, pace 10:15), finished second and is still third in the club standings.
- The 60+ Women Team, led by Denise and including Lisa and Deb Saat (35:26, pace 8:52, 9th AG place), finished second and is still second in the club standings.
- The 70+ Women Team, led by Christy Putnam (39:22 pace 9:51, 7th AG place, AGP 72.18%), and including Barbara Paer (41:41 pace 10:26, 9th AG place) and Fran, finished third and is tied in second in the club standings.
For the record, the 50+ Women Teams finished fourth, the 40+ Women and 50th Men Teams finished sixth, and the 40+ Men Team finished 10th.
After the race, I spoke to Christy, the leader of the 70+ Women Team in today’s race. If you read these reports on a regular basis, you may have noticed that Christy has been on the podium 10 times (including 6 wins) since she joined the Flyers last summer. For those who do not know Christy, let’s say that her record is especially impressive as she only started running at age 65 (using a run/walk method) and ran her first NYRR race in 2019.
“When I received an age-group Runner of the Year nomination for 2023,” she told me, “I discovered the world of running clubs and team points and felt I wanted to contribute. I chose the Flyers because of their strong 60+ and 70+ runners, but especially because of the club's exceptionally warm and welcoming nature.” I asked Christy to comment about her race today. “It was a milestone for me,” she replied, “because I ran without pain for the first time since sustaining a knee injury at the Ted Corbitt 15K last fall. So I'm pretty happy with today's result --- though it will take much more work to get back in shape after so many months off!”
Honors go also to the other Flyers, in addition to those mentioned above, who finished in the top 3 of the Flyers age-division teams, and/or in the top 10 places of their age groups and/or scored an AGP of 70% or above. They are:
• Michael Kim: 27:10, pace 6:48, AGP 70.5% third in Flyers 50+ Men Team
• Clément Bernard: 28:08, pace 7:02, AGP 76.85%
• Jérôme Bérard: 28:10, pace 7:03, AGP 75.34%
• John Ellis: 28:12, pace 7:03, 7th AG place, AGP 79.6%
• Clay Bracken: 29:00, pace 7:15, AGP 72.55%
• James Tinko: 31:31, pace 7:53, AGP 70.54%
• Jennifer Coyne: 32:01, pace 8:01, AGP 73.75%
• Janet Stack: 33:29, pace 8:23, AGP 70.51%
• Mindy Statter: 35:35, pace 8:54, 10th AG place, AGP 74.44%
The team’s full results can be found at:
https://results.nyrr.org/event/25RAO4M/teams/NYF
Finally, this race counts also for the 2025 Flyers awards. The current ranking is available online at 2025 Club Points - April Update
Well done, Flyers!
-Francesco P, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter
#NYRRstaff
(NB: edited on April 7 and 8, 2025 to reflect multiple corrections made by NYRR to the initial results, which improved the ranking of several of our runners and teams)