North Brooklyn Runners: A Community Running Group Serving Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and Beyond!

With 179 runners yesterday, more than any other team, NBR set an all time attendance record and properly represented our borough in the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Under an NYRR heat advisory and what have been described to me as near perfect conditions there were also many personal records set ranging from a few seconds to a whopping 16 minutes! These are the people who reported PRs, although I am certain that there are many more out there.

Angela Ortiz
Jacyln LoRaso
Reggie Staco
Glen De Kler
Kelsey Savage Hays
James Chu
Alex Walsh
Tim Cote
Xander Woolverton
Katie Murphy
Max Frumes
Evan Schnittman
Eric Rose
Daeha Ko
Emma Raub
Kaet McAnneny
Aviva Gat
Tony Thomas
Greg Takoudes
David Ader
Steve Mura
Samuel-Christophe Tedjasukmana
Mia Chen
Fernando Feria

Tim Cote        5th in 35-39
Alex Walsh      7th in 35-39
Derrie Davis    8th in 40-44
Eduardo Aponte  3rd in 15-19 (he told me on Tuesday that this was a training run for him)
Angela Ortiz    5th in 30-34
Iman Wilkerson  6th in 30-34
Anna McCusker   8th in 30-34
Gwen Bevis     10th in 50-54

Drawn by the lure of an awesome beach party, NBR sped down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island en masse. I feel certain that this is why our men and women ran so well. They were 5th and 4th place respectively and made huge gains over last year. Our top five men took over 10 minutes off of last year’s time and our top 5 women improved even more, taking off an astounding 18 and a half minutes!!!!

5 North Brooklyn Runners      06:22:15
    James Chu                    1:15:09
    Timothy Cote                 1:15:51
    Alexander Walsh              1:16:22
    Alexander Woolverton         1:17:10
    Derrie Davis                 1:17:43

4 North Brooklyn Runners      07:18:30
    Angela Ortiz                 1:26:03
    Iman Wilkerson               1:26:40
    Anna McCusker                1:28:07
    Lindsay Harkema              1:28:34
    Mishka S Vertin              1:29:06

12 North Brooklyn Runners      04:19:02
    Derrie Davis                 1:17:43
    Anthony Thomas               1:30:06
    Michael Hill                 1:31:13

18 North Brooklyn Runners      05:33:53
    Gwendolyn Bevis              1:42:47
    Cindy G Sterling             1:50:48
    Pamela Pratt-Galik           2:00:18

5 North Brooklyn Runners      05:33:53
    Gwendolyn Bevis              1:42:47
    Cindy G Sterling             1:50:48
    Pamela Pratt-Galik           2:00:18

Hello from the Great White North!  How’s Brooklyn, eh?

Got the itch to run right away after enduring the 10.5 hour bus ride cramped in awkward positions from NYC to Toronto on Friday, also my b-day.  Fortunately, I keep my running addiction in check and save it for Saturday afternoon, going from my buddy Jimmy’s apartment in the center of the city (yes!) to the Direct Energy Centre convention hall for a nice 2 mile jog to pick up my race bib.  As it happens, the lines to pick up marathon bibs was very short compared to the lines for the half/5k/relay runs, given there were only 2106 registered marathon participants and 9,947 for all others. Fine by me, this will seem like a nice intimate run.  I later find out 97 percent of those registered are Canadians with only a handful of Yanks and other nationalities.  Guess I’ll show those Canucks what NBR is made of!

After picking up my race number, went for a walk in the Harbourfront Park, adjacent to the convention hall.  Turns out the park trail makes up part of the marathon route, flat and scenic, overlooking Lake Ontario.  “Not bad,” I think to myself.  “Should be easy to run.” -or so it seems.  The evening is spent fueling up at a local Chinese restaurant over Shanghai noodles (yeah, yeah, fueling up the Asian way) and Dim Sum with  Jimmy and his brother Dippy whom I’m also friends with.  Went to bed at the ridiculously early time of 11pm for six hours of rest, dreaming about Sunday’s run.

Sunday, 6 May, 5am.  Up and about.  Throw on my finest running gear, strap on my fuel belt, out the door I go!  Walk three blocks to a Hilton Hotel where shuttle buses wait to take us to the start line, in northern Toronto.  Everyone is silent, not much chatter about running or anything else for that matter.  Or maybe it just Canadian politeness, not wanting to stress out each other with running anxiety stories (not to mention the word “sorry” repeated many times with everyone trying to disembark the bus at the same time).  We just hope to arrive in time for the 7:30am start.

7am, we arrive at Mel Lastman Square in the Toronto neighbourhood of North York, the starting point. Though people are already getting into corrals, it’s freezing at 48 degrees, so a few of us take to running in adjacent parking lot to keep warm.   Overhear on the PA, the legendary Bill Rodgers, a multiple Boston and New York City Marathon champion wishing everyone well.  After circling the parking lot 5 times, I get back into the corral and wait for the start, having set a goal of 4 hours to complete the marathon.  Soon it’s 7:30am and off we go!

First half felt like a breeze, racing through tree-lined suburban Toronto neighbourhoods.  My friend Dippy snapped some pics near the 2K point.  Distance was marked in kilometers throughout, making it seem easier.  This part of the race a few hills to conquer, but otherwise flat.  Set new PR’s at the 10K mark with 46min 11secs and 21K, the halfway point at 1hr 40min 56sec, the latter being a 5min 22sec improvement.  The half-marathon distant point was where we entered the downtown area, with skyscrapers providing shade from the sun, the temperature rising to 66 degrees at this point.  Ran through the main streets of Toronto until we entered the Harbourfront Park at 26K, running along the waterfront.  Everything went smooth until the 31K mark, with a time of 2hrs 30min 11sec.  Didn’t hit the wall but my left knee started to ache and decided to take it easy, rather than risk injury.  “Fuck it,” I told myself, “No sense in rushing at this point. Just stick to your 4 hour goal.”  Slowed down to a 8:30/mile pace to keep comfortable, last thing I want is an injury!

Discovered over the course of the marathon I’m very much an electrolyte tablet and gel junkie, probably not helped by my hypoglycemic condition and high metabolism, exacerbated by love of running, haha.  Felt very sugared out at the end and couldn’t wait to indulge in something savory!  Anyways, back at the race just past the 33K mark, a young guy points at my NBR jersey yelling “Williamsburg!”  Near the 35K mark, an older gentleman yells “Go Brooklyn!”  Nice to have recognition, right?  At the 35K line, I register at 2hrs 59min and 39sec.  Good God, did I really take almost half an hour to go 4K? It didn’t seem THAT long in between the two points.  Maybe I’m running on Canadian time, where the hour has 22 minutes or, in my case the half hour has 11 minutes, which is what it felt like.

Past the 35K out onto Lake Shore Blvd, which follows the rim of the park.  The road was a slow incline until 39K, feeling like it was taking forever.  I was starting to really tire out at this point but decided to put on a happy face and keep an upright posture, imaging Bob and Doug McKenzie handing out free Elsinore Beer at the finish.  Maybe Fernand Lachance would come back from the dead, serving up poutine.  Not a bad though, eh?

Once past the 39K mark, it’s all flat from there.  The crowds lining the street, clapping everyone on led me to race my heart out to be done.  Continue to race along Lake Shore Blvd, turning into the Ontario Place fairgrounds for the finish.  Before I know it, I’m crossing the finish line at 3hrs 45min 5sec, ahead of my 4 hour expectation!  Random Canadian runners came up and asked me how I did, told them I thought I did great and asked them how their race went.  They really are nice and polite.  I return it with the North Brooklyn friendliness.  Felt like running a marathon was the best way to celebrate my birthday this year.  Met up with Dippy, who gave me a congrats hug and relaxed on the sidelines, watching other runners come in from all the combined races from the marathon, half, 5K, and relay races.

Not too shabby for a first marathon, eh?

Daeha

PS- Link to the race map since I make specific place references in the report for those not familiar with Toronto’s marathon route.

North Brooklyn Runners!

I think it’s safe to say that 2012 is our year. We had a total of 114 runner out there running our favorite loop of Central Park, setting a new record. This also was the second most of any team (Frontrunners had 158). Brian Calavan brought up the fact that since we had so many runner out there, we were really able to pull off of each other. Chances are you could usually see a fellow NBR jersey at any given point in the race, and that’s huge.

There were many inspiring and important experiences out there on Saturday. The morning of the race was a gorgeous, sunny, and crisp 42 degrees. Those who got together for the team meetup at the Bedford subway platform got there with about an hour before the gun, so we had plenty of time to warm up, prep, throw some jokes around to keep from over thinking the race. Personally I loved the people-and-costume watching, and immediately regretted not fashioning a kilt of some kind. There were some very.. shall I say, creative Scottish get ups around the park. Did anyone else catch the Van Cortlandt track club’s men’s team in matching purple kilts?!

The race was run clockwise, with the big Harlem hill coming directly at the beginning of mile 4. The last mile also contained some surprising hills, along with a nice little steep grade in the final .2 that I personally was conquered by a bit. It was a challenging course but NBR is strong.

Sex eh Bass thad!

Huge THANKS to those who came out to cheer- surely a lot of those fast times wouldn’t have been attained without the support of our fellow teammates! Special shout out to Rob for pacing some of the NBR men through parts of the tough last mile. Steve Mura would like to thank Fernando for pushing him through the last mile, and Mishka Vertin was paced by Taeya, who apparently suffered through a spontaneous “coughing fit” at the very end allowing Mishka to power ahead to the finish, PRing and improving her bib pace by a huge 15 seconds per mile Katie Murphy PR’d by a truly unbelievable margin – 5 and a half minutes! Xander set a 5k PR, 4mi PR, AND 5mi PR enroute to a 34 second PR overall, despite having to come to a stop for 30 seconds at the end due to an unfortunate side stitch.

Brian Calavan would like to add that it is never a good idea to eat oranges the morning of a race. Thinking they would be a source of some quick and easy sugar/glucose, which they are, but he didn’t properly take into account the acid they contain and the effect that would have during a hard physical effort. (I can vouch for this! The exact same thing happened to me last week at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler). It’s not fun, folks. However, Brian was able to keep it all down (and probably used it as incentive to run faster at the end!) until he was finished, and proceeded to see those oranges again, all over the ground, three times. His words: “Sorry to anyone behind me, but the volunteer crew covered the hazard spots really quickly with some salt looking stuff. I also had a mini-clean-up on aisle 2. To me this is all funny, though. Lesson learned: don’t eat oranges morning before a race.” Noted!

Detailed team results:

First of all, the Men’s team had a fantastic showing with sixth place (Xander Woolverton 34:54, Brian Calavan 34:32, James Chu 34:20, Tim Cote 34:06, and Chris Wong leading the men’s team with a blazing 33:00). They were only a mere 2:15 out of the Harriers’ 5th place. Our Master’s Men’s team speeded to a 7th place finish (Rodrigo Toscano 39:44, Alun Williams 39:12 in a kilt!, and Derrie Davis with a 36:19).

NBR Ladies really brought it on Saturday as well, running to a 3rd (!!!) place finish behind only NYAC and CPTC. Helping run the collective 3:24 were Mishka Vertin 41:32, Angela Kaon 41:26, Anna McCusker (first woman in a kilt!) 41:13, Angela Ortiz 40:09, and Kate Maxwell 39:40.

-Kate M.

Meg Duffy’s Finish Line Photos:

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PR’s:

Reginald Staco
Marla Caplan (4 minutes!)
Bomina Yu
Lauren Park Thoma
Jose LaSalle
Cory Zwerlin
Katie Murphy (5 and a half minute PR!!)
Tony Thomas
Daeha Ko
Steve Mura
Evan Schnittman
Michelle Okeon
Xander Woolverton
Mishka Vertin
Charles Atherton (2 minutes!)
Lori Braunstein
Robert O'LEary
Rodrigo Toscano
Kate Maxwell
Fernando Feria
James Bennett (5 minutes!)
Lars Roe (2 minutes!)

Team Results:

 MEN 6th               2:50:53
   Christopher Wong      33:01
   Timothy Cote          34:06
   James Chu             34:20
   Brian Calavan         34:32
   Alexander Woolverton  34:54

 WOMEN 3rd             3:24:00
   Kate E Maxwell        39:40
   Angela Ortiz          40:09
   Anna McCusker         41:13
   Angela Kaon           41:26
   Mishka S Vertin       41:32

 40+ MEN 7TH           1:55:15
   Derrie Davis          36:19
   Alun Williams         39:12
   Rodrigo Toscano       39:44

 40+ WOMEN 16TH        2:36:28
   Gwendolyn Bevis       48:28
   Pamela Pratt-Galik    52:39
   Diana Ellinghaus      55:21

 50+ MEN 23RD          2:37:31
   Alun Williams         39:12
   Peter Menderson       49:29
   James Lu            1:08:50

Individual Honors and (** Award Winners):

 9th MEN   30-34 James Chu            34:20
 2nd MEN   35-39 Timothy Cote         34:06 **
 7th MEN   35-39 Alexander Walsh      35:01
10th MEN   35-39 Daniel Mazzuchin     35:56
 9th MEN   50-54 Alun Williams        39:12
 6th WOMEN 30-34 Angela Ortiz         40:09

Full Individual Team Results:

114 Total Runners.

March 18^th 2012 saw 46 North Brooklyn Runners toe-ing the start line (or an arbitrary point in the corral) of the NYC Half. There were a small handful of faithful NBR devotees that weren’t able to sign up under the team, but we won’t hold that against them. On the contrary, if you have the guts to meet us by the Cop-in-a-box at 5:45am on a Saturday, or just don some of our rocking Team Gear as you pound through 13.1 miles of city streets, then you are more than welcome to join us to do what North Brooklyn Runners do best: Drink (with a capital D) after an awesome race.

The day itself was a little colder than anyone had anticipated, but that was absolutely perfect for me (sorry for forcing the weather to do my bidding (as well as my completely gratuitous use of parentheses)). After a nice little “warm-up” through the rolling hills of Central Park that most of us know so well, and after a wave to Mary Harvey (fresh off a full marathon less than 24 hours before), I blasted out on to 7^th Ave to greet the scattered throngs of cheering spectators and tourists that were just confused about what was going on. I must say, having Times Square shut down just for us was a pretty great feeling, but the pleasure soon gave way to business. After a quick hairpin turn to begin our decent in to the bowels of lower Manhattan, and after mental and physical refreshment provided by The Best F&%king Water Station On The Planet, we raced down the West Side Highway like there was free Jameson at the finish line.

The chaotic scene at the finish made it pretty difficult to do anything except get out of Dodge, which proved to not be so easy either. Alun Williams had the right idea and after briefly looking around for a subway, happened to spy the East River Ferry right by the finish ready to zip over to W’burg. He was home enjoying a luxurious shower in record time. Bev Walley and Todd Zino added on a few extra miles searching for supposed pancakes that appear to have eluded their best efforts. As for myself, I headed straight to our North Brooklyn Base, and after a Peter Pan Cruller and a power nap, I could not have been more relieved to start drinking at Berry Park with the best running club around!

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that all the runners would like to give a giant, sweaty, group hug to all our dedicated, organized, and powerfully energetic volunteers on the West Side Highway.  We also want to shout out the folks that were out on long runs, in preparation for a certain New England Marathon, and still set aside some time to cheer for their North Brooklyn Brethren.

I’m not running all the borough Halfs this year, so I’ll see you next year with cups of water in my hand! Great work everyone, and I’ll see you on the road!

Yours Truly,
Glenn

Notable PRs:

Ken Allen
Charles Atherton
Lori Braunstein
Glenn De Kler
Liam Harrison
Kate Maxwell
Charlie Monsanto
Mark Mueller
Michelle Okeon
Rob O’Leary
Lauren Park Thoma
Ben Starr
Tony (Anthony) Thomas
Beverly Walley

Michael E Times Square Photos:

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Full Results:

46 NBRunners Total.