NYRR News Service

Tables Turned on Young Japanese Superstars

March 14, 2013 at 05:30pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

As part of a new relationship with New York Road Runners, the top two finishers in November’s Ageo City Half-Marathon earned invitations to compete in Sunday’s NYC Half. So on Thursday, Japanese collegians Kenta Murayama and Kento Otsu found themselves just one table away from Bernard Lagat at a press conference.

Murayama, 20, and Otsu, 21, are already distance superstars in their country. A few months after his Ageo win in 1:02:46 last November, Murayama set Read More

Categories: NYC Half, Pro Athletes

Lagat “One Tough Cookie” for Half-Marathon Rookie

March 14, 2013 at 04:15pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

The NYC Half on Sunday will be Bernard Lagat’s debut at the distance, but it’s not as if his rivals don’t know what to expect.

“If Bernard's there the last 400 meters, it’s bad news for whoever [else] is there,” Dathan Ritzenhein, the 2009 IAAF Half-Marathon bronze medalist, whose personal best of 1:00:00 in that race makes him the second-fastest American in history, said at a press conference this morning. “Whether it's a half-marathon or two Read More

Categories: NYC Half, Pro Athletes

Bawcom Comes to NYC Half On Heels of Another U.S. Road Win

March 14, 2013 at 09:00am EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

More than six months went by between Janet Bawcom’s last two road races.

“I had not even thought about [the gap between races] until it was getting closer,” said Bawcom in a telephone interview earlier this week. “Then I panicked. I guess I had quite a bit of rest, for sure.”

Bawcom needn’t have worried. The 34-year-old who trains in Flagstaff, AZ, won both of those bookend races—the U.S. 10-Mile Championships on October 7, 2012, and the Read More

Categories: NYC Half, Pro Athletes

NYRR’s Miles for Books Exercises Bodies, Brains

March 13, 2013 at 09:00pm EST | by Barbara Huebner

NYRR member Jackie Einstein Astrof isn’t the only member of her family who cares about running. Or about books.

Back in 2011, Astrof read about Miles for Books, a special promotion NYRR offered to schools in their Mighty Milers program. Normally, youngsters in Mighty Milers run to have their miles count toward rewards like medals. But during the month of March that year, miles also counted toward books for their school or classroom libraries. Read More

Categories: Human Interest

Twice Dead After Cycle Crash, CT Triathlete Set for NYC Half

March 12, 2013 at 04:30pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

The colostomy bag didn’t stop her. Neither did the pair of wound VACs or the drainage tubes. Or the fact that she died twice.

“I said to my husband, ‘I need to get back out there,’” said Colleen Kelly Alexander. “It’s the only way I knew how to be.”

On March 17, 2012, Alexander—leaning on a walker decorated for St. Patrick’s Day—finished the Leprechan 2-Mile Walk in Madison, CT, in 2 ½ hours. It was a milestone Read More

Categories: NYC Half, Human Interest

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