Alumni racing update: Philadelphia Marathon

Marist Running alums had some stellar performances at the Philadelphia Marathon. Leading the way was Liza Grudzinski, who had a great debut performance with a negative-split effort of 2:55:58. Liza ran the first 13.1 miles in 1:28:47, meaning she came back in the second 13.1 in 1:27:11 if my math is correct. That’s some pretty good stuff! Liza was 44 th overall in the women’s field and 14 th in her age group.

On the men’s side, Matt “CT” Syzmaszek also had a tremendous personal best (Side note: it was originally listed here as a debut, but that was an error on my part, CT ran 2:45:53 in 2008 at Philly; thanks to Walsh for pointing out my mistake ... see this post for details on that race 4 years ago), completing the race in 2:40:00. CT went through the first 13.1 in 1:17:16, and said in a text that he “now knows what the wall feels like.” We should all consider “the wall” around 6:30 pace per mile, which is what he averaged from 30km to the finish.

Other Marist Running alums in the race: David Raucci (2:41:11), Mike Schab (3:06:22).

A few quick shout-outs to non-Marist Running alums who had great races as well: Corey Crowe (brother of Marist Running alum Briana Crowe), who ran a neg split 2:51:08, and David Osterhoudt, who ran an even-paced 3:13:08; Davey O is one of my predawn running partners. This was his second marathon and was about a 20-minute PR.