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NEW YORK CITY – Thousands of runners celebrated the first minutes of 2013 with a chilly run through Central Park in the 2012 Emerald Nuts Midnight Run, produced by the New York Road Runners. But it was Delillah DiCrescenzo and Christian Thompson of the NJ-NY Track Club who started the year off right with victories in the midnight race.
An NYRR annual event since 1979, the four-mile event draws thousands of health-minded people of all ages, fitness levels, and nationalities. The run began at the stroke of midnight with the traditional countdown taking place less than a mile north of the festivities of Times Square, which draw upwards of a million revelers. But the thousands who chose a running start to the new year managed to turn Central Park into their own party. As runners crossed the starting line on the 72nd Street Transverse, a 20-minute fireworks display began in the skies above.
“It was awesome,” DiCrescenzo (right, courtesy NYRR), 29, of Manhattan, told Race Results Weekly shortly after she broke the tape in 21 minutes, 7 seconds, one of the fastest times in event history. “It’s a really fun atmosphere. I was just having a blast out there. It was a ton of fun.”
DiCrescenzo, won the Ted Corbitt 15K Classic on Saturday, December 15 in commanding fashion, and her victory Monday night was decisive as well. She crossed the line 17 seconds in front of the runner-up, Frances Koons of Bryn Mawr, Penn. Ashley Higginson of New Brunswick, NJ, also a member of the NJ-NY Track Club, was third in 21:41.
DiCrescenzo is a steeplechaser with limited road-racing experience, but she seems to be a fast learner: She also won the renowned Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving Day, and she’s hoping to qualify to represent the USA at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
The men’s race winner was Christian Thompson, 24, of Elkins Park, Penn., also a member of the NJ-NY Track Club. Thompson pulled away from Timothy Ritchie of the Boston Athletic Association in the final few hundred meters to secure the victory in a time of 18:49. Ritchie was the runner-up in 18:54, and Mulugeta Wendimu of Ethiopia and the West Side Runners, a two-time Olympian, was third in 19:00.
Both DiCrescenzo and Thompson were presented with trophies and special gift bags by race sponsor Emerald Nuts.
34th Emerald Nuts Midnight Run 4 Mile
New York, NY, Monday, December 31, 2012
MEN
1) Christian Thompson, NJ-NY Track Club, 18:49, $600
2) Timothy Ritchie, Boston Athletic Association, 18:54, $400
3) Mulugeta Wendimu, West Side Runners (ETH), 19:00, $200
4) Dereje Tadesse Girma, West Side Runners (ETH), 19:06
5) Liam Boylan-Pett, NJ-NY Track Club, 19:19
WOMEN
1) Delilah DiCrescenzo, NJ-NY Track Club/Puma, 21:07, $600
2) Frances Koons, New Balance, 21:24 PB, $400
3) Ashley Higginson, NJ-NY Track Club/Saucony, 21:41, $300
4) Renee Tomlin, NJ-NY Track Club, 21:44
5) Nicol Traynor, NJ-NY Track Club, 21:54
For deeper results, go to: NYRR.org
