More Than One Winner at the 5th Avenue Mile

On Saturday, 29 September more than 4,500 runners competed in the 27th Annual 5th Avenue Mile in Manhattan. While the men's winner was the fastest miler in the world this year, Alan Webb (who also happens to be the American record holder at this distance) fast times were recorded by people of all ages and abilities.

The oldest runner, Abraham Weintraub of Greater New York, finished the mile in 18:49 at a mere 98 years old. He beat out a younger man, David Gerli, 96, of Manhattan, by almost two and a half minutes!

Joan Rowland, 81 finished in ten minutes and change...faster than many women half her age. Was she happy? Well, according to the New York Times, Rowland said, "''I feel O.K.'

She added: 'I’ve run this almost every year except when they didn’t give out awards to people my age. Next year, if I’m alive, I’ll run it again.'

Rowland said running had been a tonic.

'I’ve had heart disease, cancer of the arm and several ministrokes,' she said. 'I started running when I was 71 to help me recover from cancer. Running is my medicine.'"

After the age-group races finished, the championship and invitational events were run with great fanfare and superb talent.

Coach Mike Barnow's Westchester Track Club fielded some of the best local talent, if you consider local to be Ethiopia and Kenya by way of the Bronx, where man of the club's African runners live and train.

In the women's New York Road Runners Championship, WTC runner Atalelech Ketema (Ethiopia) finished second in 4:42.8 after leading for the first part of the race. This was a great run for Ketema, having spent the better part of the year coming back from having her first child, Nathaniel, in 2006.

In the men's race, WTC teammates Stephen Chemlany (Kenya) and Demesse Tefera (Ethiopia) lead the final kick to finish first in 4:05.6 and third, respectively. They were separated by Plattsburgh, NY resident Matt Deshane (US).

In the men's invitational, Webb, 24, beat the defending champion, Kevin Sullivan, in a time of 3:52.7.

The women's race was exciting all the way from the start at 80th Street to the finish at 60th, with the lead changing hands multiple times in the four-plus minutes it took to run the mile. Meskerem Legesse (Ethiopia) and Molly Huddle (Providence, RI) battled it out from the start, with New Zealander Kim Smith taking over at the half-way mark. In the final stretch, the 2005 winner, Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar, 30, won in 4:22.8 - the fastest time on the course since 1998. After the Canadian broke the tape yet another dramatic change of hands in the final yards resulted in defending champion Sara Hall (Big Bear Lake, CA) and Amy Mortimer (Providence, RI) placing second and third, respectively.