It sort of felt like normal. There was a group of runners, Marist students, wearing red and white, lugging backpacks, getting ready to try to run fast. It wasn’t a championship cross country meet, as it should be this time of year. It was a road race, a rare, in-person, on-ground road race put on by the fine folks at Albany Running Exchange, called the Upstate Classic. It featured a 5km, half marathon and full marathon. Start and finish at the fairgrounds in Altamont, a cool little village in the foothills west of Albany. The course was scenic and rolling and mostly through Guilderland – it even passed Guilderland High School, home of several top Running Red Foxes past and present. Coach Chuck was driving his car around, cheering the top ladies in the race. He told me afterwards how good it felt to be coaching again, doing what he loves while encouraging athletes who were finally able to do what they love as well. The race was staged with Covid protocols, including staggered start times. ARE knows how to put on quality running events, and this one was no different. Perhaps, it was their most important race to date. They were able to provide runners – even a small segment of our team – with a sense of normalcy and a sense of joy, even for a few moments during these troubling times. Thank you to ARE for doing just that. We sure as heck needed it. Here are results from our Running Red Foxes on Sunday.
Half marathon: Gianna Tedeschi, 1:19:15 (first overall); Ali Bartolotta, 1:21:05 (second overall); Talia Cutrone, 1:27:57 (seventh overall); Jenna Robinson (Marist alum), 1:34:01 (14th overall); 5km: Brendan Dearie, 15:34 (second overall), Aidan Pech, 16:01 (third overall), Jon Kittredge, 16:18 (fourth overall), James Moehringer, 16:35 (eighth overall), Ian Wiesinger, 16:37 (ninth overall), Chris Courts, 17:41 (15th overall); Boushra Belkhir, 19:01 (third overall); Marathon: Some Old Guy, 4:19:11
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