More Fun, More Talk, More Competition
Women over 40 join together in the More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon in Central Park to compete, bond, and inspire
Mix 4,800 women in Central Park, add cheering husbands and children, sprinkle in some prize money, a timing clock, and a starting horn and the result is a very competitive running race—and a lot of conversation. The fourth annual More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon was the biggest yet, with nearly 4,500 finishers, 1,000 more than last year.
More Contact
This annual event fosters teamwork and camaraderie in many ways. It's not just that half-marathon runners must enter and compete as part of a two-person team. This year's course design put the competitors in closer contact, with a mass start at 8:00 a.m., a combined course for 13.1 miles (the half-marathon distance), and continued overlap of marathoners and the slower half-marathoners. The loop design ensured that not even the front-running marathoners, separated by gaps of minutes, ever ran alone.
"It was inspiring for me," says Susan Loken, 43, of Phoenix, AZ, who won her third consecutive More Magazine Marathon title with a time of 2:47:52. "I got cheered for 26 miles out there." The cheers and chatter are a More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon trademark. "It was one big conversation," said New Yorker Gordon Bakoulis, 46, who ran 26.2 miles in 3:11:24, for a second-place finish. "Everyone was talking."
The laps required mental as physical strength from the marathoners, who were stretched out and had to keep their pace while being passed by some half-marathoners and striding by slower walkers. Loken made the course work for her. "I liked the laps," said Loken. "I mentally broke the race into five parts."
More Partners
The half-marathoners had something other than distance to think about: the whereabouts and pace of their partners. Only by combining their times would they arrive at the 26.2-mile time that would serve as their team's finish time and determine their ranking. "I was thinking of Kathleen the whole time," said Dawne Hausman, 42, of Summit, NJ, about her partner, Kathleen Castles, 35, of New Providence, NJ. "I told my husband to cheer for everyone, but cheer for her hardest." The cheering was effective: The pair won third place with a combined time of 2:51:30.
"Having a partner makes a difference,'" said Trina Painter, 40, of Flagstaff, AZ, who partnered with Lyubov Danisov, 35, of Russia and Gainesville, FL. "You know she's out there suffering and so are you." The Danisov/Painter duo was rewarded for their discomfort: they earned first place and a prize of $2,500 for their combined time of 2:35:59, an event record. Connecticut training partners and half-marathon team Erica Merrill, 43, from Rowayton, and Sharon Vos, 52, of Riverside, agreed. "Having a partner makes you dig deeper," Merrill said.
More Authentic
The competitive nature of this race is like the pinch of salt that gives chocolate its sweetness: It accents the camaraderie and group spirit so evident in the high fives, hugs, and smiles that runners exchange at the start. "Women over 40 need an obviously authentic event where they shine. This is awesome; it's not just something silly and frilly," said Lynn Jennings, 46, an Olympic bronze medalist (10,000 meters, 1992) and three time World Cross Country champion who attended the race as a spokesperson and watched the stream of women run by, the faster half-marathoners finishing next to the stream of slower runners and walkers, most in bright colors vivid against the early spring grays and browns of Central Park.
Competitors started entering the park around 7:15 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. race start. Skies were cloudy and the ground still damp; rain threatened and temperatures were in the high 30s; cold enough that athletes breathed steam clouds as they warmed up. "I may never get down to my bottom layer," said one runner before the start, indicating her ensemble: jacket, hat, tights, and gloves. The sun dashed in and out of the clouds, but the temperature never got out of the 40s—just right for a distance run. "Perfect weather!" said Peggy Nelson-Panzer, 45, of Aurora, CO, after her 3:16:55 marathon finish, which earned her third place and $500.
More Friends, More Fun
Even with such talented front runners, this is a race for mothers and daughters and sisters and, of course, women over age 40. Sarah Bradley, 58, came from Glasgow, Scotland, "to run with my daughter," she said, after crossing the half-marathon finish line arm and arm with daughter Lynn in 2:13:46. "Last year I ran with my friend and her nine sisters," said Carmen Niehus, 46, of Concord, CA. This year, she brought her own two sisters; a third was scheduled to come but couldn't make it. "This inspires me to get out and be healthy," she said. The youngest sisters in the event were 14 and 15, Marleana and Theresa Lemaitre. Theresa ran with their mother as a half-marathon partner, Marleana with a family friend.
Before the race, friends and training partners in matching shirts grouped in clusters all over the park, making last-minute adjustments and race plans. "If we stay together, great, if not, no worries," said one runner, helping her partner pin on a race number. "Pace is unimportant," said Cynthia Templeton, who was running with friends in matching "Do It for Darren" shirts to raise money for Push to Walk, a rehab center in New Jersey; Templeton's son suffered a spinal injury two years ago.
This race inspires people to run. One member of Loken's team, her 40-year-old sister, Charlotte Bain, just started running in August; she finished in 2:13:00. Betty Shonts from Morristown, NJ, on the other hand, had a full running career behind her—including 1984 Olympic marathon trials—and now, at age 58, continues to train and test herself. "I've run in all women's races before and there's nothing like it," she said. "She's so inspiring," said her friend and training partner, Susan Olesky, 50, also from Morristown.
"There are the best years of our lives," said More Magazine editor-in-chief Peggy Northrop before the race start, looking out over the crowd. "There's nothing about this that's over the hill." No way, not this crowd, who headed off to conquer the hills in a very friendly, very chatty, but decidedly not silly-frilly road race.
A race in Central Park attracts many celebrities. Here, marathoner Kathrine Switzer, a California raisin, and author and actress Mariel Hemingway.
