Walkway Marathon: Preliminary thoughts

The official results have yet to be posted, but here are some preliminary thoughts on this morning’s inaugural Walkway Marathon – marathon, half marathon and 5K. The marathon and half marathon started and finished at the Marist riverfront – a la the Red Fox Trot. The Treetops to Rooftops 5K started on the Highland side of the Walkway Over the Hudson and finished at the riverfront. The race had a Red Fox Trot feel to it – in some ways smaller and in most ways larger. Smaller: Marist Running (former, current, etc.) was well represented here, but not in the voluminous numbers we get for the Fox Trot. Larger: Well. Geez! This was the largest road race in Dutchess County history, with close to 2,500 runners in the three races; that's about 10 times the size of the biggest Fox Trot.

The general consensus for this first-time event was a rousing thumb’s up. The logistics of this race are complicated, but the Walkway staff and their army of volunteers (I saw a pre-race memo from the race director that detailed volunteer assignments … the document was close to 30 pages!) worked with professional precision. I did not race (obviously) and I did not stay for the whole event (Little League, etc.), but from my narrow perspective it was well run. Any first-time race glitches will probably be ferreted out in the coming days and weeks, and I am certain they will be improved upon by the Walkway folks; they are extremely professional, as I said. Right now, my early thought is to promote this event heavily among our alumni base and make this the new go-to (or come-back-to) road race on the calendar for Marist Running. There is another reason for that, which I will detail at a later date. Suffice it to say: The Walkway race is here to stay, and I think we in the Marist Running world should embrace it with all of our collective feet.

As I said already: Our small band of Marist Running repped us tremendously this morning. Marist Running Royalty Will Griffin came home to win the half marathon in 1:11:40; it was so great to see Will and see him running strong as usual. Current rising sophomore Steven Rizzo won the 5K in 15:38ish. Mr. Bucket (“David Swift”) was third in the marathon, running audaciously without a shirt, in 3:00:41.

It was a great day for the First Family of Marist Running, the Goulds; Chris Gould celebrated his 54^th birthday with a half marathon. Dude’s my hero; he just keeps on keepin’ on and does not visibly age despite the numbers increasing on his calendar. His daughters Annie and Kelley ran great – Annie, an XC captain this fall, is in the early stages of her XC season prep; Kell ran surprisingly strong considering how busy her life is. Kathy (mom) ran her own 5K in the morning (not on the Walkway) and was the rock solid support system for us all, as usual.  

Former and current men tore it up in the half marathon: Billy Posch was third in 1:15 and change (sorry, I will update with official times at some point). Recent grad Ken Walshak was fifth, current senior/team captain Omar Perez punched in with a strong 1:18ish. Luke Shane will forever wear Marist Alumni Racing Team singlets from now on (right, Luke?); he did great, as did Hild, Chomps and Lurch – great to have them all back on campus and running and racing strong.

Marist Running Alum Dayna McLaughlin was among the top women in the half marathon, and current team member/captain Lizzy Peper had a strong long run (her dad came and ran as well). Colleen Ryan (she’s getting married, at Marist, in four weeks!) and Lindsay Moreau came back home to run the half marathon. Rising senior Catherine Ferreri had a strong run in the 5K; her dad, Fast Tony, ran a strong half marathon as well.

And lest we leave out rising senior Ricky Willi, who decided (against this old man’s wishes!) to run the marathon. He finished in 3:10:40ish, said he had a great experience, and hopes to round up alums for next year. Good idea, Ricky; let’s hope you recover sufficiently from this!

I sincerely hope I did not forget anyone; it’s entirely possible that I did. If so! I will make up for it coming posts, along with official results. Once more, as I said: I want this to be the de facto Alumni Weekend for Marist Running in the future. It’s a great time of year, a great event and there are several choices of distances. More later ...