4,740 runners were blessed with nearly perfect weather (50 degrees and 83 humidity) at the 15K, a race that honors the life and legacy of Ted Corbitt. Corbitt was a legendary figure in long-distance running, as well the founding president of NYRR, and is also celebrated in a landmark exhibition at the New York Historical Society.
67 Flyers were among the race finishers, and they gave us plenty of reasons to celebrate! 🎉 Four of them won individual awards 🏆(Fran Breslauer won her age group, and John Whitfield, Deb Saat and Delton Mace all finished third in their age groups). We also won three team awards 🏆(the 60+ Men Team won first place and the 50+ and 60+ Women Teams both came in second). This was the final race in the club series, and the 60+ Men and Women Teams finished second in the season’s final rankings. Finally, countless of us set PRs - please tell us about your PR in a comment! Congrats to all runners who set a PR, to the award winners and to the entire team!
A big thank you goes to Rachel Duncan, for delighting us once again with her beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, before joining the race with the rest of the team, and to Richard Brounstein for catching us on camera at multiple locations on the course!
Here are the details of the team’s individual results:
Marcy Withington🥇was the fastest finisher in the women’s team. She crossed the finish line with an incredible time of 1:06:22 (pace 7:08, 4th AG place, AGP 82.18%). After setting a PR in the New York City Marathon 4 weeks ago, Marcy, a veteran runner aged 54, set a 19-second PR in the 15K! Silke Eiserbeck came in second🥈in the women’s team with an equally astonishing time of 1:08:19 (pace 7:20, 5th AG place, AGP 80.81%). August Rice was third for the team 🥉with a time of 1:10:47 (pace 7:36). Arlyn Apollo came in fourth with 1:12:00 (pace 7:44, AGP 73.08%). Jeahnie Hahn was fifth with 1:13:31 (pace 7:54, 6th AG place, AGP 75.05%). The open women team was 11th and finished the season in 12th place among the Open Women A teams.
Honors go also to Fran Breslauer, 🏆 who won her age group in 1:48:48 (pace 11:41, AGP 80.45%), and Deb Saat, 🏆 who brought home her age group’s third place with a time of 1:23:37 (pace 8:59, AGP 75.23%).
The men’s team (and the Flyers team as a whole) was led by a trio of sexagenarians. John Whitfield 🥇brought home the most impressive performance of the day: he finished in 1:02:56 (pace 6:46, AGP 81.41%) and placed third in his age group. John, a seasoned runner, broke his 2009 PR in the 15K by 1:28. John is 62, and in 2009 he was 48! John was followed by Francesco Presutti,🥈who finished in 1:03:50 (pace 6:51, 7th place, AGP 79.51%). Jérôme Bérard took the third’s team place, 🥉 with a finish time of 1:05:38 (pace 7:03, 10th AG place, AGP 77.32%). Jérôme broke his PR too! Jared Blank finished fourth in the team in 1:06:04 (pace 7:03, AGP 70.55%). Greg Flood took the fifth place with a time of 1:07:27 (pace 7:06). Our open men team was 21st today and finished the season in 6th place among the Open Men B teams.
Kudos also to Delton Mace, 🏆 who won his age group’s third place with a time of 1:29:47 (pace 9:38).
As for the details of the teams’ results:
The 60+ Men Team, including John, Francesco and Jérôme, won the 15K team award. Following their win, our team scored the most points in the 2023 season. However, according to the NYRR rules, the lowest two scores have been dropped to determine the clubs’ overall ranking. As a result, our team finished the season in second place. Please note that there were only 10 races in the series in 2023 after the Fifth Avenue Mile was excluded from the series due to the lightning. If NYRR had counted 9 races instead of 8, as is also provided in the NYRR rules, the Flyers team would have won the 2023 team award. In other words, we have never been closer to a win! 🥳 Regardless, congratulations to all the team’s runners who scored points in the series and contributed to this important result for the team.
Incidentally, John, Francesco and Jérôme doubled up as the 40+ Men Team (the team took 13th place in the race, and finished 15th in the season’s final ranking), and as the 50+ Men Team (the team took 5th place in the race, and finished 7th in the season’s final ranking).
I spoke to John and Jérôme after the end of the race. I asked them what their secret was for doing a PR at age 62 and 61, respectively. John’s answer was pretty straightforward: “My secret is believing it's possible - I'm getting younger every day!” And Jérôme’s secret? “Not abusing too much the body the weeks prior to the races and a lot of easy pace long runs. No specific goals for each race. Just running each of them as well and hard on the day.”
I also asked them how they felt about getting so tantalizingly close to winning the 2023 team award. “I loved it”, John replied. “Excited to pursue a victory next year!”. Jérôme's reply: “I will have to train more and show up at more of the team races to make Francesco proud. 2024 will be the year!”
The 60+ Women Team, including Lisa Konorty (1:18:58, pace 8:29, 9th AG place, AGP 74.46%), Deb Saat and Mindy Statter (1:24:11, pace 9:02, 4th AG place, AGP 75.79%), won the second-place award. Like their male counterparts, the team finished second in the season’s final ranking. Congratulations to all the team’s runners (many of them portrayed below after their Bronx 10 Miler)!
The 50+ Women Team, including Marcy, Silke and Arlyn, also won the second-place award. They finished 4th in the final ranking.
Marcy, Silke and Arlyn also doubled up as the 40+ Women Team. The team took 5th place in the race, and finished 10th in the season’s final ranking.
The 70+ Teams, represented by Delton (for the Men) and Fran (for the Women), did not have a minimum of three runners and did not score points. The Men’s Team finished 5th and the Women’s Team finished 4th in the season’s final ranking.
Honors go also to the other 3 Flyers who finished in the top 10 places of their age groups and/or scored an AGP of 70% or above:
- Neil Tipograph: 1:14:40, pace 8:01, 5th AG place, AGP 71.35%
- Hirmi Nobata: 1:15:28, pace 8:06, 8th AG place, AGP 75.93%
- Nina Zoe Parks-Taylor: 1:24:46, pace 9:06, AGP 73.19%
The team’s full results can be found at: https://results.nyrr.org/event/23TC15K/teams/NYF
Finally, this race counts also for the 2023 Flyers awards. David Gaines’s final ranking (with the winners of each age group) is soon going to be available online: https://nyflyers.org/2023-flyers-age-group-results/
Well done, Flyers!
-Francesco P, NY Flyers Blog Race Reporter, #NYRRstaff