SHORE AC AGAIN PLAYS MANY MAJOR ROLESAT THE TCS NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

By ELLIOTT DENMANNEW YORK – Last Sunday’s TCS NYC Marathon (Nov. 5, 2023) was the 51st edition of the now-classic and world renowned event.
  First staged Sept. 13, 1970 as a four-lap race confined to Central Park, that initial event grew and grew – becoming a five-borough trek on October 24, 1976, and continuing to grow and grow in all the years since.
    This actually was the race’s 53rd anniversary but the NYCs of 2012 (Hurricane Sandy) and 2020 (the Covid Pandemic) were erased due to conditions beyond anyone’s control.
   So this one made it Number 51  and – just as it happened in Number One (1970) -
Team Shore AC was well represented.  This should be something of immense pride to all of us.  Our distinguished club has been there from the very beginning. .
    With his brilliant 2:55.18 performance, placing him a superb 857th of all the 51,316 starters,
as USA champion in the men’s 60-64 age category, was Shore AC superstar Rick Lee.  Only Sergey Apenko of Kazakhstan, who crossed the line in 2:54.46 – just 32 seconds in front of him – bested Rick in the 60-64 bracket.  Lee’s 2:55:18 scored 87.8% on the age-graded tables, and equated to a 2:20:03 by a younger man.
   Terrific, too, was Shore AC’s Donna Grocki in the women’s 60-64 division.  She reached the Tavern On The Green finish line in 3:39:57, 18th of the 687 women in 60-64.
   Yet another high Shore AC age-group placer was James Button, clocking 3:39.57 for 18th of the 574 men who ran in the 65-69 division.
   SAC’s Diana Stavrou, running in women’s 40-44, ran the city in 4:11.43.  And behind Diane was Ken Wilson, on his 4:34.08 in 70-74 scoring.
  Thus, the Lee-Button-Wilson trio placed an excellent third of all M60 teams in the race.
 Teammate Harry Pino ran the five boroughs in 5:07:14 in M60 and anchoring the entire Shore AC delegation was veteran racewalking M60 star Marc Bagan in 6:48:41.
   Perhaps most noteworthy of all, though,  was Mrs. Connie Lyke Brown’s 6:21:33 finish in the women’s 80-up age bracket – and November 5 was her 80th birthday!    Not only did she move into a new age bracket but she finished NYC for the 44th consecutive year, an all-time record for women in the race.   Just one other individual has a longer streak of NYC completions, and he’s New Yorker Daniel Obelkevich, who took 9:24:08 to complete his men’s record 46th straight in this one.  Thus, we will now consider Mrs. Brown – wife of famed Shore AC Masters great Dr. Matt Brown –an honorary member of Shore AC.
    Following a gala party attended by family and friends at The Perry Club, the Browns flew back to their Sarasota, Florida home - where she’ll soon start training for NYC number 45.
  All this SAC success, of course, was reprising 51 editions of NYC Marathon history.
  Yes, Shore AC was there from the very beginning.  Check it, check it out.
  Back on Sept. 13, 1970, Bob Love (28th in 3:19:47) earned his spot in club history as our very first NYC finisher – all in Central Park, of course.
 Just one spot back of Bob Love that 1970 day was Shore AC teammate, the illustrious Dr. George Sheehan in 3:20:30.
 In 43rd was clubmate Ralph Garfield in 4:07:40.   Two spots back of Ralph, 45th in 4:12:09, was none other than Fred Lebow, the
man who, of course, would transform the strictly local event to a global mega-event and launch a worldwide frenzy of similar huge races.  (And on one memorable day years later, Lebow was the distinguished guest speaker t our annual Shore AC banquet.)
   Completing Shore AC finishers back in 1970 was Joe Frelinghuysen, 55th in 5:10:34.
   The very first women to run NYC officially made their appearance in 1971, and that initial winner (in 2:55:22) was Beth Bonner, then coached by yet another Shore AC Hall of Famer, 1968 Olympic 50K racewalker Dave Romansky.
  Nina Kuscik, second to Bonner in 1971, was to lead the five women’s finishers in the 1972 race in 3:08:41 and a valiant second place was yet another Shore AC Hall of Famer, St. Rose High School student Pat Barrett in 3:19:33.
   Hugh Sweeny then of Millrose AA and now a Shore AC member, ran fifth in 1971, then sixth in both the 1973 and 1974 NYC Marathons.  His clockings: 2:37:42, 2:29:14 and 2:37:27, still quite creditable performances by 2023 USA-runner standards.
   Also in 1974, Shore AC’s Dr. Colin Beer – a club Hall of Famer, as well – placed 10th in 2:45:10, still the highest placing by a runner then  representing the club.
   Long Branch-born Tom Fleming, of course, was the  1973 and 1975 winner in Central Park, before running sixth back of winner Bill Rodgers in the historic five-borough race of 1976.
  (The Tom Fleming Memorial 2K Race, now a major Thanksgiving Day morning feature in Glen Ridge, NJ, is  directed by Shore AC member Dan Murphy.)
   Rutgers great/Shore AC member Bill Sieben’s 2:19:11 placed 10th in 1978.
  Lakewood’s Dean Matthews clocked 2:14:00 for 10th  in the famed 1982 race won by Alberto Salazar  in 2:09:29.
The NYC Marathon welcomed racewalkers for the first time in 1979 and SAC lifetime trustee Elliott Denman would complete 33 straight walks from Staten Island to Central Park, every edition from 1979 to 2011.   Many other members of the club’s ultra-successful racewalk team would follow in his footsteps in succeeding years.
   For a long stretch of NYC marathon history, a very welcome sight, manning the official Shore AC digital display clock at the 10-mile mark at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was John Kuhi, a Shore AC Hall of Famer and lifetime trustee, too,
  From its very beginnings as a five-borough event, it’s been the generosity of The Rudin Family that has enabled the race to grow into the huge success story it is today.
   The Rudin Family, too, have been great friends and devotees to the Shore AC cause
for many years and the club has always been hugely grateful for this loyal support.
   And so it went in 2023 and so it’s gone all these brilliant years.
   Attention all Shore Acers and all NYC Marathon fans.   Stay tuned for another epic event, number 52 in the series. Circle the date now:  November 3, 2023.