suns along the Mohawk

update (Nov. 11, 2014): We’ve added a Gallery at the foot of this posting that contains the 75 photos in our main Slideshow below.  Click on a Gallery thumbnail for a webpage “carousel” with a larger version and a link below it to the full-sized photo file.

– above: Josh McDougal (in yellow jersey) and Lou Serafini (red cap) are leading the pack behind the Pace Car, as they turn into the Stockade neighborhood at Washington Avenue, about a half mile into the race, 8:37 AM  –

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 PART I : Quickie Posting: [2:30 PM, Sunday] I’m putting up the first part of our 2014 Stockade-athon-in-the-Stockade coverage early, to focus quickly on the winners of this morning’s Race.  (Part II, below, contains 70 photos.)

As both the Schenectady Gazette and the Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club have announced, Josh McDougal, of Peru, NY, won the 2014 Stockade-athon 15K today in a time of 46:34, while Megan Hogan won the women’s division with a record-shattering time of 51.:09.  McDougal is on the comeback trail after suffering with injuries the past few years.  Hogan is a native of Saratoga Springs, currently living in NYC, and a former student athlete at George Washington University.

– the cluster of leaders, on Washington Ave., approaching Cucumber Alley & Front St.  (snapshot from video); runner in black jersey and red cap is Lou Serafini (placed 5th); yellow jersey is winner Josh McDougal; then, Christian Thompson (black jersey, placed 7th); Kieran O’Connor (blue jersey, placed 3rd); Eric MacKnight (green jersey, placed 8th) – shot taken from stationary video camera at Cucumber Alley and Washington Avenue.

 update (6 PM, Sunday): You can now get the full results of the Race (all 1671 finishers), with their Bib numbers, at the Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club.  You can search the page digitally by name or BIB number. Thank you, HMRRC!

If you have an online subscription to the Gazette, take a look at Mike MacAdams’ article giving details about the race, and the top finishers.  And click here for the 30-photo Gazette Photo Gallery.

• Men’s Division, Top Five: Josh McDougal, Sam Morse; Kieran O’Connor; Patrick Geoghegan; Lou Serafini.
• Women’s Division, Top Five: Megan Hogan; Hannah Davidson (last year’s winner); Maegan Krifchin (2012 winner); Katie O’Regan; Sara Dunham.

   . .  Women’s champ Megan Hogan is seen here running past 43 Washington Avenue, the Robert Sanders House, alongside Nick Webster.  She was the first woman to enter the Stockade

 Photographic Disclaimer (Only slightly whiny, I hope) :  This year, for the first time, the first of the field of runners reached the Stockade only 3 minutes into the Race, due to the redesigned course.  As I had feared, the experience of viewing and photographing the Stockade-athon was very different today, and not for the better. See the late-night posting “Stockade-athon 2014 abandons Lawrence and trivializes the Stockade” (Nov. 8, 2014) for my concerns over the new course configuration.  In prior years, the Stockade leg of the race was between Miles 4 and 5, and Lawrence Circle was the symbolic halfway point of the race.  Of course, the elite runners got to Lawrence first and the rest of the field was spread out and  took another 45 minutes or so to exit the Stockade.

Today, the entire field flooded the Stockade and was gone in about twelve minutes. The lead escort car entered the Stockade at 8:37, and the final runners turned from Washington Ave. into Riverside Park, just ahead of the rear escort car, at 8:45.  If I had stayed in one spot, the entire Stockade-athon 2014 field would have passed me in just over 7 minutes.

Runners arrived mostly in a great mass, with individuals not having yet set their own pace (and without visiting Lawrence the Indian).  This compressed field came by in such a rush that things like focusing and framing aesthetically pleasing shots had to be instantly abandoned; as was looking for particular runners.  So, I apologize in advance for blurry shots and uninspiring perspectives taken from only a couple of vantage points.  Since I could not outrun most of the participants (with or without my camera and monopod), I never got to the new Riverside Park portion of the Stockade segment of the race, along the Mohawk River.  Check out this photo collage to see what Riverside Park, and its 10-foot-wide path for the runners, looked like earlier this week on two sunny days.  update (Monday, Nov. 10, 2014): Race entrant Herb Terns’ gives an assessment of the course at his Times Union Outdoors Blog, “The ‘new’ Stockade-athon’ by letters” (Nov. 10, 2014).

Last year’s champ and runner-up in the men’s division did not return this year.  But the 2012 women’s winner, Maegan Krifchin, and the 2013 women’s champ, Hannah Davidson, were in the field, and were the next two women after Ms. Hogan entering the Stockade this morning. (The three finished: Hogan, Davidson, Krifchin):

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– Maegan Krifchin (running alongside Chuck Terry) [L] and Hannah Davidson [R] passing the historic marker of the Robert Sanders House –

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PART II

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– [L] lead escort bike racing to Riverside Park, 8:34 AM; [R] final runners and the rear escort car about to enter Riverside Park at the Mohawk River, at 8:45 AM  –

. below: runners passing the Robert Sanders House

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 The following Slideshow has about 70 images, almost all taken rather randomly, in a rush, as the field streamed past me. Naturally, I did not catch all the runners during the photo-shoot, but a lot of people are pictured in the Slideshow and you may find your face or that of a loved one.   You can see the same photos in the Gallery at the foot of this posting; click the Gallery thumbnails to see larger versions of the photos.

 Using Photos: As always, runners and non-profit organizations may use any photo; if put online or into a publication, please attribute the photos to David Giacalone and suns along the Mohawk (giacalonephotos.com).

Thanks  for  visiting suns along the Mohawk and making Stockade-athon Sunday and Monday day our two biggest Viewer days each year.

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– Riverside Park, Nov. 5, 2014 (with sunshine) –

PART III (10 PM, Sunday)

I hope it’s sunny next year, so we can show off the Stockade and Riverside Park more fully.  If the Stockade-athon has this same configuration in 2015, I will probably start at the River end of Washington Avenue and duck into Riverside Park to take advantage of the scenery.  Or, maybe I should just stay at my home corner, Cucumber Alley and Washington Ave., across from Front Street.  While I was running around today, my pocket camera calmly shot a video from my front porch.  It did a better job than I, of course, of capturing everyone flowing by.  Here are some samples in a short Slideshow:

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 – above Slideshow shot with stationary, pocket-size point-and-shoot camera –

If you need more Stockade-athon pictures right now, you can see our prior coverage of the Stockade-athon in the Stockade by using the links found here.

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– above: [L] Tim Haley in foreground; and [R] Anny Stockman –

Part IV

Below is a Gallery featuring the 70 photos in our primary Slideshow in Part II above.  Click on a thumbnail for access to a for a webpage that has a larger version and a link to the full-sized photo file .  As noted in Part I, many of the photo are “under-focused”, but hopefully still enjoyable. Photos may be freely used for personal, noncommercial purposes; if posted online or used in a publication, please attribute the photo to David Giacalone and “suns along the Mohawk.”  The HMRRC Race Results list can be searched to help identify runners by Bib number.

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