Central Park was a burst of colors this morning: they were the bright colors of the thousands of runners who gathered on the East Drive to run the Team Champs 5 Miler, the fifth club point race of the season, and possibly the most competitive race on New York’s running calendar. Our beautiful red, white and black singlets could be spotted everywhere: we had 91 Flyers among the 4,732 finishers. Many Flyers were also out in the park to cheer 🎉their teammates, to capture their images in action 📸(amongst other Richard Brounstein or Francine Alfandary, who is the author of these exciting videos via clickable links: Heat 1 Heat 2and Heat 3)or to set up the post-run festivities (under member-at-large Lis Shlansky’s flawless leadership). We won 4 individual awards and 3 team awards and several of us set a PR.
🏆Abe Lee led the team with an astounding time of 30:46 (pace 6:09), which was a PR for Abe. This is a 3:03 PR for Abe, who also scored an AGP of 75.96%. Right behind him, Joe Kelly took the second place 🥈 for the team on his third race as a Flyer (and his first race wearing our beautiful shirt). Joe’s time of 30:54 (6:11) was an age-group podium finish. His time is identical to the group winner’s, but the NYRR results site assigned him a second age-group award. Joe scored an incredible AGP of 88.16%. Francesco Presutti finished third 🥉 for the team in 32:13 (pace 6:27), he was third in his age group and scored an AGP of 83%. Adam Pitchard was fourth 🌟for the team with a time of 32:35 (pace 6:29, AGP 76.16%). This was Adam’s first race with the team: he joined the Flyers only a week ago, and he did not even have the time to order a Flyers singlet. Adam told me after the run that he took a year since John Whitfield and yours truly first brought up the idea of joining the team. He said, “I decided to finally join thanks to my admiration for both and the pride they spoke of the Flyers whenever they come up!” Deniz Saat came in fifth🌟in 32:53 (pace 6:35).
The following 5 Flyers also scored points for the open team: Marc Bochner (33:02, pace 6:37, AGP 78.09%), Chris Brennan (33:54, pace 6:47), Mike Alexander (34:16, pace 6:52), Clément Bernard (34:39, pace 6:56, 10th AG place, AGP 77.88%) and Jérôme Bérard (34:56, pace 7:00, AGP 75.56%). The Open Men Team came in 26th and is 9th in the Open Men B standings.
There was a third award winner among the men in addition to Joe and yours truly: David Dempsey, who won his age group’s second-place award with a time of 43:41 (pace 8:45, AGP 70.67%).
The women’s top runner was Silke Eiserbeck 🥇, who finished with a time of 34:27 (pace 6:54, 6th AG place, AGP 84%). Amanda Schachter 🥈finished second in 36:03 (pace 7:13, 10th AG place, AGP 77.51%). Katy Stanard came third 🥉for the team with a time of 36:35 (pace 7:19). Laura Sackler was the fourth 🌟runner on the women’s team. She finished in 37:01 (pace 7:25, AGP 73.81%). Melida Barbosa took the fifth place 🌟with a time of 38:15 (pace 7:39, AGP 71.65%).
The following 5 Flyers also scored points for the open team: Nancy Rodriguez (38:46, pace 7:46), Sungwon Hwang (39:28, pace 7:54, AGP 72.45%), Hiromi Nobata (39:40, pace 7:56, AGP 76.58%), Sandra Chung (40:26, pace 8:06) and Gloria Wong (40:52, pace 8:11). The Open Women Team came 20th and is 12th in the Open A club standings.
There was one award winner in the women’s team: Christy Putnam (48:44, pace 9:45, AGP 73:18%).
After the race, I spoke at length with Silke, the fastest woman Flyer of today’s race. She shared very inspiring thoughts about the race.
“Whenever I felt my energy fading during the race,” she said, “I drew strength from memories of our regular morning runs and the laughter shared with Francine’s 6am group.” Indeed, she spotted some of them cheering along the course. Her thoughts also went back to her recent weekend trail runs in Minnewaska and New Hampshire with former Flyers and now lifelong friends Kate and Lindi, who have moved to Scotland and New Hampshire. “Those trail runs should have prepared me well for the hills,” she said. “Still, Cat Hill felt like the 9th repeat of the 8 we normally do on Cat Hill on Tuesdays. Thinking of how we always encourage each other during the Cat Hill repeats, brought a smile to my face and helped me charge up!”
There were so many new Flyers today! I spoke to a couple of them during the post-run celebrations. This was Kent Blocher’s third race as a Flyer. He finished in 37:56 (pace 7:36, AGP 73.19%). Kent could not get hold of a Flyers’ singlet in time for the race. So, until then he decided to take a red shirt and make his own Flyers shirt, complete with the team’s name (on the front) and logo (on the back). A true masterpiece of creativity, in case you missed him today!
Congrats to the three teams that won an award:
The 60+ Men Team, including Joe, Francesco and Clément, won the first-place award, and is consolidating its lead in the club standings.
The 70+ Women Team, including Christy, Barbara Paer (56:09, pace 11:14) and Jeanine Hartnett (1:00:33, pace 12:07), won the third-place award, and is second in the club standings.
The 70+ Men Team, including David Dempsey, David Gaines (44:38, pace 8:56, 8th AG place), and Delton Mace (46:35, pace 9:19), won the third-place award and is now fourth in the club standings.
Kudos also to the following teams:
The 60+ Women Team, including Emily Altman (41:44, pace 8:33, AGP 72.97%), Lisa Konorty (43:14, pace 8:39, AGP 72.04%) and Deb Saat (44:01, pace 8:49, 9th AG place, AGP 75.53%), came in fifth and is still second in the club standings.
The 50+ Women Team, including Silke, Amanda and Laura, came in fifth and is now fourth place in the club standings.
The 40+ Women Team, including Silke, Amanda, Katy, Laura and Melida, finished 7th.
The 50+ Men Team, including Joe, Francesco and Adam, also finished 7th.
The 40+ Men Team, including Abe, Joe, Francesco, Adam and Marc, finished 16th.
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:
Clay Bracken: 37:28, pace 7:30, AGP 70.7%
Neil Tipograph: 38:32, pace 7:43, AGP 72.75%
Andreas Werder: 39:02, pace 7:49, AGP 73.21%
James Tinko: 39:29, pace 7:54, AGP 70.32%
Mindy Statter, 44:12, pace 8:51, 10th AG place, AGP 75.23%
Nina Zoe Parks-Taylor: 44:43, pace 8:57, AGP 73.37%
Mindi Adler, 1:12:04, pace 14:24, 10th AG place
As always, please let us know if you set a PR!
The team’s full results can be found here:
https://results.nyrr.org/event/24CHAMPS5M/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