The First Ever Jrunners Half-Marathon Minyan/S.I. Half Marathon/Post-race Continental Breakfast

It was the largest gathering of Jrunners since the Jrunners Apprecation Event, which took place one week after the inaugural Jrunners Relay Race. Twenty-one strong (including our first honorary Jrunnerette!) turned out for the Staten Island Half Marathon. Some showed as a final long race before the NYC Marathon, some to break a PR, some because running is a constant in their lives, and some for the camaraderie of it all.

It began with what is believed to the be the first ever recorded Half-marathon Minyan anywhere on earth. With the rising sun, mizrach was rather easy to find! Fourteen Jrunners joined in and the davening became quite a curiosity for onlookers (overheard: a person waiting for a friend to meet them said into her phone, "I'm right next to the service at the bottom of the stairs"). We had enough pictures snapped to drown Facebook accounts across America. Fortunately, only us Jrunners could provide proper tagging.

The Jrunners caravan then hung around in the parking lot, giving each other how-do-you-dos, advising each other on hill management, snapping pictures for posterity, poking fun at some of our clothing choices and generally enjoying each other's company.

Then it was showtime, with brisk weather surrounding us, and great energy coursing throughout the Jrunners contingent, we were off, we survived and we returned to where we started in the following order:

Katz Matt M32 1:34:01 07:11
Holmbraker Steve M51 1:37:24 07:27
Pancer Joseph M40 1:37:49 07:28
Ovits Mordechai M33 1:39:35 07:37
Friedman Israel M41 1:39:42 07:37
Mittel Yitzchok M33 1:42:22 07:49
Maltz Martin M36 1:43:01 07:52
Kohane Ariel M39 1:43:02 07:52
Schachner Dovid M46 1:43:28 07:54
Piekarski Abe M38 1:44:14 07:58
Bodek Martin M35 1:47:20 08:12
Weisz Shmuel M29 1:47:27 08:13
Sommer Pesach M39 1:50:44 08:28
Pupko Yisroel M27 1:55:21 08:49
Pupko Adina F35 1:55:30 08:49
Silk Mitchell M48 1:58:08 09:02
Singer Simon M32 2:01:38 09:18
Rosenblum Saul M35 2:01:43 09:18
Shmueli Menachem M31 2:10:50 10:00
Rand Charles M33 2:15:00 10:19
Dornhelm Alex M32 2:18:07 10:33

As you can see, Mutty, Steve, Yossi and Yisroel won their respective age groups. Chesky, Maltz and Alex set their PRs.

Following the race, we got together for some official and unofficial photos and headed to Chesky's car for a continental breakfast sponsored by fellow Jrunner Mordechai Ovits. We chowed down, wished each other well, gave one another metaphorical pats on the back for a job well done and hoped that we could find an occasion to do this again. A great time was had by all.

And now, for the awards ceremony:

The Paula Radcliffe Fait Accompli Award: Mutty Katz. We though he would win, guessed he would win, discussed that he'd win, expected him to win, and he won. I mean, the dude was dressed for the part, with Cathlolic schoolgirl socks and shorts so short they .

The Satchell Paige Let Me Show You Punks How this is Done Award: Steve Holmbraker. Now about 98 years into his running career, and running what was probably his 875th half-marathon, he completely schooled anyone not named Matt Katz. Actually, taking age grading into consideration, Steve finished in 1:25:25. So all things considered, he absolutely smoked the rest of us.

The Michael Jordan We Should All Have Colds Like this Award: Mordechai Ovits. Mordechai complained all week about an annoying cold about which he worried would wreck his performance. Ahahahaha! Wreck, right. He broke his own Half-marathon PR by 15 minutes! Halevai we should all get sick like this.

The Milorad Cavic Missed it by THIS Much Award: Mordechi Bodek. Mordechi missed his 9-year-old half-marathon PR by 34 seconds, but when interviewed about his performance (by himself, naturally), he stated that he was thrilled with his performance, as he gave it everything he had and getting that close was extremely rewarding.

The Willis Reed Limp Shmimp Award: Pesach Sommer: Pesach is only a month removed from knee surgery, but did that stop him from training hard and running sub 8:30s for a half-marathon? Nope.

The Kathrine Switzer First Lady Award: Adina Pupko. 1) self-explanatory. 2) Welcome!

The Staples Superstore Easy Button Award: Chesky Rand. Chesky has an excruciating list of booboos and hills make him nauseous, but he focused so hard, he didn't notice THE HILL and powered right over it. He flagged a bit in the final miles, but sucked it all up and finished strong, just in time to open the car wherein our continental breakfast was.

And there you have it, folks! Congratulations to all of us for a great showing and a great show!