The Staten Island Runner

Staten Island Athletic Club's
3 Mile Fun Run

July 21, 2001

A veritable invasion of runners took to Clove Lake Park, as seventy-five strong competed in Race #3 of the Fun Run Hall of Fame Series. Dan Treglia, the reigning Staten Island High School Cross Country Champion from MSIT, got back to the three-mile distance after a long indoor/outdoor season, to capture first place in 16:04. This race honored the period of 1986 to 1990, and by my calculations, in 1986 Treglia was just about getting the walking on two legs thing down. I’d say he has it just about perfected now. While youth prevailed in the men’s race, uh….hmmm, oh yeah, experience (that’s the word) was the ticket for the women, as forty-nine year old Barbara Byrne lead a parade of seasoned (that’s a good word too) females with a 20:02 victory. With only one of the twenty female finishers under 33 years of age, suffice it to say, the top women were all alive and kicking, walking and running in 1986, though some may not want to admit it.

In the most aggressive start of the series a strong and large lead pack formed immediately. Thirteen runners went through the mile in under 6:00 with the lead pack around 5:30. Treglia established himself with an 8:05 first 1.5 miles, and only Al Garcia, who won the first two races of the series, had a shot, trailing Treglia by 20 seconds. Meanwhile Anthony Pitaressi slowly moved up on Garcia. In the end Treglia pulled away for the comfortable victory. Garcia (16:50), who gets no bonus points for being twice Treglia’a age, held off Pitaressi (17:00) for third. Pitaressi almost ran through the wall of the bridge in his mad dash to break 17:00, but also gets no points for style (no, not even that needed one second) and remains at the door of that impressive barrier. In a bit of revenge for us old folks, 41 year-old Luis Oyola (17:28) edged fourteen year-old Vincent Staci (17:29) for fourth place. Dave Michels (17:45) put on a mad dash of his own (Okay, we’ll give him 2 bonus points, which when added to the fun run bonus point total, means absolutely nothing), to edge A-Born Etchison (17:46) for sixth. Scott LaMorte gets three style points (again, a useless commodity, even in this recession) for writing his eighth place time as “18:flat” and Mark Vogt (18:03) looses two bonus points for just missing 18:00 and not running through the bridge wall in the attempt. Let’s see some serious injuries next time, Okay!

The women showed some style of their own, with the deepest field of the year and a good finish. Barbara Byrne ran a strong second half for the win. I hope she is investing in some heavy duty shelving to hold all of the trophies she will win when she turns 50 next year. Gail Marino followed Byrne closely in second with a 20:19 and Alma Ramos who ran a 34:08 five-miler yesterday took third in 20:31. Alma should get bonus points for the weekend double, but we ran out with all those stylish men. Barbara North was fourth (I give myself a style point for the rhyme) with a 21:31, edging ever lower from her 21:35 and 21:32 from the first two races. At this rate she’ll break 18:00 in 272 more races, trust me, I know this statistics stuff. Sara Gardner (22:20), Karen McNamara (22:30), Fran Messina (23:46), Maggie Maglione (23:49) Lisa Fagnani (24:50) and Kathy Truscelli (25:20) made the top ten a sweep for the over 30 crowd. Mucho style points for that.

This week we inducted John Wowk and Alma Ramos into the Fun Run Hall of fame. Both won numerous fun runs during the 1986 – 1990 period and are still impressing in their age categories today, with Alma still able to take the overall title in certain races. I hope some of the younger runners saw John’s clippings from the 1980s. Those times were impressive and are rarely seen today. No, the clocks weren’t slower back then, the runners were just very special, as evidenced by Alma and Johh’s performances then, now and in the future. Special thanks to Fred Rigolini for putting on the show for race #3. Another fine job, and a record 75 runner turnout. Next up is Dave Panza’a 1981 – 1985 race on August 11, 2001. Hope to see you all there.