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Brooklyn Duathlon Race Report

Yesterday was the 28th Annual Brooklyn Duathlon. Actually, it's the first time that the NY Tri Club actually called it a duathlon instead of a biathlon, and it's only the seventh time on this course, but I digress.  Over the years this race has been our traditional season opener, and it has treated us well. Back in the day, it was Chris Bergland's first multisport victory, and a few years ago our ladies (Amy May, Jeannine Bardo, Yvonne Kingon) swept the podium with a 1,2,3 finish. Yesterday was no exception.

It was Nicole Sin Quee's first multisport race in 18 months. She had only been outdoors on a bike three times since then, and since she's been busy taking care of our 5-month old son, her training has been quite different than in the past. It has consisted mostly of Computrainer rides and running to and from work with a bag on her back 3-4x/week, coupled with a weekly team workout and long run. Nicole started strong, finishing the first 2.06 mile run in 12:57 (6:17/mile). That brought her into transition a few seconds behind the leader. She quickly gained the lead on the bike, putting up the fastest split of the day. She finished with a 12:46 second run (also fastest split for the day), and a convincing 2.5 minute gap over the second place finisher. In addition, Nicole was well over a minute faster than her last time at the Brooklyn Bi/Du, and posted the third fastest time in the seven year history of the course. Not a bad comeback.

In the men's race, we had Fabian Gallardo and Jon Miles, both in training for Ironman but looking for a fun, early season event. Fabian finished 7th overall and won his age group, while Miles bested his previous PR by two minutes, finishing 10th overall and also winning his age group.

Here's Nicole's race report.

Congratulations and happy holiday.

 

March Madness Du Results

Though I could wax nostalgic about the time the March Madness race was held in April (true story) or the fact that NYTC insisted on calling it a Biathlon until this year, let's live in the present and congratulate yesterday's City Coach representatives at the March Madness Du.

• Fabian Gallardo - 22nd overall (in a field of 373)
• Eli Yedid - followed up last week's PR at the NYC Half with an 8-minute improvement over last year's race.

Congratulations gentlemen. 

13.1 Race Results

Congratulations to Lauri Young, who finished 2nd out of 67 women in the 50-54 AG at today's 13.1 New York race. (Sorry, I simply refuse to refer to it by the official name, 13.1 Marathon.) Lauri finished in 1:53:34, and narrowly missed the AG victory.

 

Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon Race Results

Nice work by the City Coach crew at today's Sleepy Hollow Half. 

• Stephen England 1:19:52 (4th overall, 1st in AG)
• Francis Laros 1:22:41 (9th overall, 2nd in AG)
• Kevin Starkes 1:25:38
• Keila Merino 1:31:08 (4th overall, 2nd in AG)
• Jon Miles 1:32:16
• Alisa Stern 1:43:54

Friends of City Coach, Steven Beck and Chris Solarz were also out there partaking in the festivities. Congratulations all. 

NYC Half Marathon Race Results

There were PR's, an impressive debut, a strong comeback, and lots of other encouraging results from today's NYC Half. 

Rui Guimaraes 1:20:09 (PR)

Sheila Monaghan 1:25:14

Lete Berhe 1:26:18 

Keila Merino 1:26:17 (PR)

Jeff Dweck 1:28:05 (PR)

Fabian Gallardo 1:29:49 (PR)

Alisa Stern 1:30:50 

Jess Purcell 1:31:38

Steven Zebrak 1:34:50 (PR)

Adele Laboz 1:37:29 (PR)

Owen Smith 1:44:23 (PR in his debut at age 14!)

Eli Yedid 1:46:51 (PR)

Michele Levy 2:03:29 (PR)

Iris Shalam 2:05:47

As always, I couldn't be more excited or proud of our squad. Congratulations. 

 

Coogan's 5k Race Results

When your coach makes you run a hard tempo run on Thursday, followed by 16 miles on Friday, he doesn't really expect you to go out and PR on Sunday. Apparently Jeffrey Dweck didn't know that, because he ran an impressive 18:57 (6:07 per mile) this morning despite his coach's cruelty. 

Jeff was joined by the Z team of Jessica Purcell-Zebrak and Steven Zebrak. Fresh off their long runs yesterday, they ran 22:10 and 22:14 respectively. 

Congratulations all around. 

Paris Semi-Marathon Race Results

Great work this morning by Bonnie Averbuch at the Paris Half Marathon. Bonnie ran a PR of 1:26:59, showing that her marathon training is right on course. That was good for 12th place among the women.

And, as as become her habit, she ran negative splits. 

Split at 5 KM:00:21:08

Split at 10 KM:00:42:06

Split at 15 KM:01:02:44

Congratulations Bonnie. 

 

Disney Princess Half Marathon Race Results

Congratulations to Cipriana Cuevas, who set a 23-minute PR with her 1:39:04 at this weekend's Disney Princess Half Marathon. Also, major kudos to Team SBH, who went down to Florida with 278 runners (and a total of 458 people) to raise money for a great cause. I was lucky enough to work with Team SBH last season, and it's great to see that they're even bigger and better this year. (Presumably the growth is
not entirely because of my absence.)

Martha's Vineyard 20-miler Race Results

Several City Coachers headed to Massachusets this weekend, and represented us well at the Martha's Vineyard 20-miler. 

• Stephen England 2:11:48 (6:38/mile)
• Rui Guimaraes 2:13:47 (6:42)
• Keila Merino 2:30:59 (7:33)
• Sheila Monaghan 2:30:59 (7:33)
• Alisa Stern 2:39:06 (7:58)

Congratulations all around 

Cherry Tree Race Results

 

The party was back in Brooklyn today, as City Coach was out in force at PPTC's Cherry Tree 10-miler. Aside from having the cutest cheering squad (including Simon, Seb, Henry and a bunch of grown ups), the team performed admirably. Nicole made her return to racing after the baby, and Lete made her return to racing after a four year hiatus due to injury. Here's the scoop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Bridget McKenna 1:03:33 (PR) 4th Place, 1st in AG
• Lete Berhe 1:06:16 6th Place 1st in AG
• Jessica Purcell 1:12:02
• Nicole Sin Quee 1:12:30 1st in AG
• Jennifer Heister 1:15:52
• Lauri Young 1:23:47
• Jeanne Campanelli 1:40:18

• Chris Solarz 58:03
• Steven Zebrak 1:13:22
• Jeffrey Dweck 1:08:31
• Bobby Dweck 1:20:03
• Danforth Houle 1:21:13

Also congratulations to our friends Laura Coogan (3rd overall), Troy Squire, MaryBeth Smith, Bridget McMahon, and all the JRab relayers. 

And for the record, let me commend PPTC and NYC Runs for their race organization. While I wish they'd do away with the relay, I understand that economics dictate that they include it. (In case anyone cares, my objection is because I feel that it detracts from the winners and others in the main race. The lead men and women in the full race came across the line practically unnoticed. On what is already a multiple lap course with slow runners getting lapped on their first lap, adding relay runners just adds to the confusion and makes it hard to follow who's who.) The race was well organized, started promptly, results were posted to the web and pushed to racers' inboxes quickly. Three different packet pickup options were offered, fresh bagels and hot chocolate were provided after the race at the indoor awards ceremony, as were free massages. And though the souvenir hats looked like they belong on a cross of Barry Bonds and Elmer Fudd, at least it wasn't another lame race shirt. 

Inexplicably, I've seen complaints from some runners who seem to object to anything aside from another carbon copy NYRR race. One malcontent complained about horses that wandered off the bridle path and onto the race course, as well as walkers and baby carriages, and said that NYRR never has such problems. I've seen NYRR half marathons that were 13.3 miles. I've seen women walking and holding hands four across at the More Half Marathon. I've seen dogs and pedicabs on NYRR courses. I've seen misplaced mile markers at NYRR races. I've also seen NYRR runners allowed to disrupt ther park-goers by selfishly monopolizing the entire road rather than sharing the public space. Let's not pretend that NYRR races are perfect. There were complaints about the increased fee on race day, yet there were countless emails, website and facebook posts warning that the race was near capacity, and imploring folks to enter early to avoid the increased cost and the risk of getting closed out. 

Speaking for my happy group of racers, I can say that I'm always happy to see Cherry Tree on the calendar. 

Congrats all around.