Bude Tesfaye of Ethiopia, 28, now residing in Manhattan, captured the third annual Brooklyn Half Marathon on Saturday, which started in Prospect Park in 1:06.09.
Francis Corrigan recorded a 1:08.24 and Jon Henwood posted a third place showing in 1:08.33. Clifton, New Jersey’s Hector Rivera, who ran a 1:12.18, slipped to 17th place after taking the Brooklyn Half last year.
On the women’s side, Caroline LeFrank was clocked a 1:18.38 for 27th place overall to become the female winner in the age group race. Reilly Kiernan ran a 1:16.40 for 49th overall, and Betsy Burke, covered the course in 1:19.19 for 66th place.
Overall, the race proved to be very successful. In fact members of the New York Road Runners Club turned in a tremendous job as they came to the starting and finishing lines at 3:00 a.m.
Jamaican Anthony Watson who placed 483rd in a field of some 6000 athletes expects to be competing in the Fifth Avenue Mile during the fall in Manhattan. Watson completed the course in 1:33.27. Last week marked his second half marathon in the past 10 years.
The course was two loops within the park and then took the runners along Ocean Parkway to its end and finished on the crowded Coney Island Boardwalk.
The 57-year-old Watson prepped well for the race working out in Prospect Park and indoors in the Park Slope based Armory.
Watson is also the coach of the Prospect Park Track Club that entered about 70 members into the race.
Watson, whose best time for the mile is 4:17 when he attended Miami Dade Community College, resided with his family in Jamaica for his first 16 years before landing in the United States. He now resides in Brooklyn.
Now he is concentrating on the mile and for getting about half and full marathons.
Meanwhile, Danval Taylor, originally from Montego Bay in Jamaica, now residing in Canarsie, Brooklyn, finished in 1:28.27 and Arthur Veneryas of the Renegrades Running Club, wound up in 1:39.26, which was very satisfying for them.
The latter is pointing for the Queens Half Marathon, also conducted by the New York Road Runners Club, the organization that puts on a half marathon series of five such race in each of the boroughs of New York City during a course of a calender year.
Originally from Jamaica, Veneryas desires to run a 1:30 or even to go down to 1:25, in the Reggae Half Marathon in the West Indies. Veneryas expects to be running in this grueling race.
Taylor, who started competing in this sport at age 35, was not an athlete while attending St. James in Montego Bay, because as he said, “I need some experience.”
Forty-year-old Chris Stewart of the Bronx ran a 1:15.30 for 26th place in the age group event. Chris’s mother Opal Stewart is from Jamaica, West Indies.
Many spectators of all ages and even along Ocean Parkway came out to cheer on the race.
“To see people make it this far is great,” said Fort Greene resident Curtis Smith. The people put in all their energy and commitment, in staging the 13.1 mile event.
“We try to work with most of the community and we know the race schedule,” said a spokesperson from the New York Road Runners Club. We work very closely with our city partners. The date worked for everyone. It’s s great way to start the (summer season) in Coney Island.
Photo by Ted Levin
