Marist alum Girma Segni was 25th overall in Sunday's NYC Marathon, in his marathon debut. Girm ran 2:26:39. His first half was run in 1:10, so he struggled quite a bit over the last 13.1 miles.
Girm called me a few hours after his finish and he sounded great! He said the last 10 miles really trashed his legs. He said the biggest issue was that he was by himself -- no runners near him in front or in back. As a result, he was exposed to the strong crosswinds that are so common in NYC. Girm especially struggled on the bridges with the wind, he said.
Girma was running for West Side Runners, but (bless his heart) he was wearing his Marist Alumni Racing Team jersey. His high placement in such a high profile race does wonders for the Marist Alumni Racing Team in terms of exposure, and his loyalty to us is appreciated and never forgotten.
But it must be noted that this caps quite an excellent fall for men's Marist Alumni marathoners -- remember Mike Rolek's 2:23 at Steamtown and David Raucci's 2:24 at Atlantic City? GREAT STUFF!!! Rolek and I were surmising that maybe his great friend Girma would once again snatch away a Marist record from him, as Girma did in the spring of 2008 when Rolek owned the SR in the 10,000 (30:36) for a scant few weeks before Girma bettered it with a 30:22 (Girm eventually lowered that to 30:08 before graduating). Anyway, Mike, you've got the alumni marathon record for a little while now!
Marist Running and Rowing alum Lisa D'Aniello ran a strong negative-split effort in her first marathon. Lisa ran 3:39:03 (1:50:03/1:49:00). This was a Boston qualifier for Lisa. Lisa's race once again proves her amazing versatility as an athlete. She was a national-caliber rower, and then when she switched to track she ran SR times in the mile and was competitive at every distance she ran. And now, she can count herself among the ranks of marathon finishers.
Lisa wrote in a text afterwards: "Hardest thing I've ever done but it was incredible."
Great way to sum up the day.
I think the hardest thing I've ever done happened yesterday: I passed a kidney stone. A marathon now sounds easy to me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I did see Girma in the marathon around mile 20-21 in the Bronx. He was alone indeed, and the slight hill before the bridge back into Manhattan was taking a toll on him (and a lot of other people).
ReplyDeleteDid Girma get to meet Geb?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a huge testament to the program you have at Marist with all the alums with huge performances on the national scene this Fall.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work Pete and we will hopefully do our best to keep the tradition of excellence in distance running you have established for your teams, team, and teams to come!