New York Harriers Mile & Donut Relay Recap
The second annual New York Harriers Mile & Donut Relay took place over the weekend of June 27–28, 2020, with one notable difference from last year: very few of the participants saw each other in person.
COVID-19 has caused race cancellations everywhere – from major marathons to local 5Ks. While the Harriers have suspended in-person workouts, we wanted our Mile & Donut Relay to go on this year, no matter what. So, as many other race organizations are doing at the moment, we made it virtual.
Whereas last year’s race was held at our beloved East River Park track (we miss you, track!), this year, anyone in the world could participate in our mile race and donut relay from anywhere. From Hawaii to San Francisco to New York to London, runners ran miles, ate donuts, and helped raise over $2000 in prize money for winners to donate to or spend at Black-owned organizations and businesses.
THE MILE
The one-mile race course was up to each runner, depending on their location: downhill, uphill, flat as a pancake, a track, city streets, or country roads. The only rules stated that it had to be run over the weekend of June 27–28 as one continuous mile and recorded with a GPS device. Other than that, it could be run anywhere. Race timing company elitefeats collected and organized all race results via Strava (or directly from runners).
Despite the lack of formal group training at the moment, many Harriers are still keeping up with training on their own. This was made apparent by women’s mile champ Michelle H. in a super speedy 5:37 and men’s champ Matt Coneybeare in a blistering 4:51. Second fastest mile went to Laura Kelly (5:43) and John Lynch (5:07), while Christina Noonan (6:09) and Scott Bartucca (5:09) rounded out the top three.
Bartucca, the Harriers’ head coach, confessed, “No race distance makes me more nervous than the mile (seriously, not even a marathon). But it was nice to lace up my racing flats and zip around the Astoria Park track four times, even if it was my slowest mile in a decade.”
Cherie Roberts and Myles Fennon smoked most of the field as the top women’s and men’s Masters runners in 6:10 and 5:08, respectively.
The Harriers got creative this year and encouraged runners to make each race their own: special prizes would go to steepest hill, best costume, or any other category inspired by whatever participants chose to do with their race.
“Spelling Bee Champ” award winner Andy Schwehm honored the New York Harriers by having his route spell out “NYH” on the Great Lawn of Central Park. “I knew I wasn’t going to win anything time-related so I figured I’d get creative with it,” Andy said, admitting that he didn’t really have a plan and “winged it.” Andy, you winged it well.
THE DONUT RELAY
The rules were simple: a team of four runners, on their own or in a socially-distanced group, had to each consume one donut and then run 400 meters. Prizes would be awarded for donut eating times, 400m split times, total team times, and special categories inspired by runners being as creative as possible.
Even before any racing took place, a few were inspired to make videos to get people excited for the weekend. In the days before the race, Tristan “Donut Lord” Williams received the “Overtraining” award by eating not just one, but twelve donuts – plus a donut hole – throughout a 5K run around the track. Check out his awe-inspiring feat in this video.
Additionally, the men of Team Glazed and Confused (Zack Pollack, Joe Arencibia, Scott Bartucca, Aaron Gaskins) took the award for “Best Cinematography” by creating a short, socially-distanced video in which they blissfully rehearsed their donut eating. Don’t miss their 90-second cinematic masterpiece, wigs and all.
Some of the teams ran together, although not too together. Team Still Not Sure (Geoffrey Goldstein, Patrick Bonawandt, Gavin Goldstein, Will Griffith) were sure about one thing: how to socially distance in a group photo.
Members of Team Bourbon Bosses (Trish Piekarski, Ray Marquette, Margaret Aycock, Matthew Lynch and Kathleen Dorman) ready to race and eat donuts responsibly. Safety first, but make it cool.
Team Donut Mess With Us (Erik Shewan, Jenny Murphy, Emily Glenn, Scott Bartucca) gathered at the Astoria Park track for their socially-distanced donut relay. Their team photo might have had some photoshopping. Experts are looking into it.
Masking up in Central Park was team The Mighty Donuts (Francisco Magisano, Sarah Hirsch, Rick Rosenbluth, Zoe Costanzo) with what appears to be an entire box of donuts.
Mighty nice.
And taking socially-distanced running to new heights was Team Last Minute (Kiran Rosenklide, Ralph Rodriguez-Torres, Sarah Rodriguez, Kevin Hickman) with some teammates staying indoors and running their donut relays on their respective treadmills.
Operating this year on an honor system, each runner was required to provide photographic evidence of the donut consumed. The Harriers suggested that a glazed, yeast donut would work best, but the type of donut was up to each runner, as long as it was regular-sized. No holes allowed!
While many of the runners were home in NYC, a few others were in completely different time zones. “Most Socially Distanced” team 5,295 Miles Apart (Christina Wong, Laura Keeley, Jen Muse, Jen Gong) made it clear in their name exactly how much distance separated them, with members in Hawaii, San Francisco, and New York. Harrier Liza Tarbell ran her relay leg in Boston, where she is currently enrolled as a Masters student at Harvard. And Chris Stevens ran his leg in England, where he is also a student.
Team Donut B*tches (Ashley Chase, Jen Gong, Anna Miller, Kat Wang) won the “Most Legs in a Relay” award with little competition: each woman ran with her dog, for a total of 24 legs on one team – some hairier than others.
While most of the 400m splits were run as fast as possible, the donut eating times – like donuts themselves – had a bit more variety. On the speedy end, Matt Billings continued his tradition of wolfing his donut, this year in just 15 seconds, taking top honors for the men. Harriers’ President Margaret Aycock showed why she’s in charge when she consumed her donut in just 20 seconds, the fastest time of all the women.
Special mention goes to Shaun Mills, who supposedly downed his donut in just 4 seconds flat. After doing a bit of research and discovering that the world record for donut eating is 11 seconds, we deemed this feat physically impossible, but still awarded Shaun the “We Donut Believe You” award.
Harriers’ VP Mirjam Lablans thought she had done an “ok’ish job on eating my donut in 0:54” until she watched her boyfriend, Dan Goldstein, “gulp his down in 0:23.” She added, “I had a really great time doing this ridiculous race and I was super inspired by everyone’s running, donut-ing, and team spirit-ing.”
On the even more laid-back end, Ben Schwehm took his sweet time eating his donut in 2:04, winning the “Chew On This!” award for the men. Here he is enthusiastically preparing to participate in a race against the clock.
Hawaii-based Christina Wong won the women’s “Chew On This!” award, taking a full three minutes and 23 seconds to finish her pastry – the longest of any participant. Ironically, this was for a team called Glazing Fast. “One friend told me that my donut eating was so improbably slow that she thinks I might have a problem with my esophagus,” Christina said, adding that she redeemed herself by “bombing down a hill and running one of the fastest 400s! This was an incredibly fun relay, and as a bonus, provided some entertainment for the friends who I forced to record me on video and probably some bystanders too!.”
Christina did run an incredibly brisk 400m split in 1:11, the fastest of all the women. Second place was a five-way tie between Ashley Chase, Emily Glenn, Michelle H., Tara Jarvis, and Liza Tarbell, each in 1:14. In third place was, believe it or not… Christina Wong in 1:17 for her other donut relay team. Looks like those huge donuts are not slowing Christina down!
The men’s 400m split competition was chock full of close races and ties, with first place shared by Shane Kunselman and Ethan Seltzer in 1:02, second place going to Patrick Bonawandt and Ian Rosoff in 1:03, and four men taking third in 1:04: Matt Billings, Gavin Goldstein, Steve Lamont, and Kendrick McDonald.
Although we all miss training and running together in person, the runners who participated in this year’s Mile & Donut Relay proved that nothing can stop the Harriers – not even a pandemic. Longtime team member Gavin Goldstein admitted he “would have loved to have seen the team, raced in person, and defended our title, but it was great to be able to run this race as it was. We socially distanced and had a great time eating donuts and running our hearts out.”
Harriers’ coach Kat Wang had a positive takeaway as well: “It felt good to put some speed back into my legs. It was even better with a donut beforehand. The coaches should maybe discuss eating more donuts in future training plans.” We hope so, Kat!
Briana Guiney learned some valuable lessons over the weekend: “While my speed is severely lacking, I came home with a lot of learnings; most importantly that I cannot speed-eat.” She added sarcastically, “I am an extremely photogenic eater and runner.”
Gavin Goldstein summed up the weekend well: “Nothing can stop the New York Harriers!”
FULL LIST OF AWARDS
MILE
Open Women
1st Place: Michelle H. | 5:37
2nd Place: Laura Kelly | 5:43
3rd Place: Christina Noonan | 6:09
Open Men
1st Place: Matt Coneybeare | 4:51
2nd Place: John Lunch | 5:07
3rd Place: Scott Bartucca | 5:09
Masters Women
Cherie Roberts | 6:10
Masters Men
Myles Fennon | 5:08
Spelling Bee Champ
Andy Schwehm
Mountain Miler
Neal Boswell
DONUT RELAY
1st Place Women’s Team
Donut Babes (Mirjam Lablans, Tara Jarvis, Michelle H., Kat Wang) | 8:35
1st Place Men’s Team
Glazed and Confused (Zack Pollack, Joe Arencibia, Scott Bartucca, Aaron Gaskins) | 5:53
1st Place Mixed Team
Donut Mess With Us (Erik Shewan, Jenny Murphy, Emily Glenn, Scott Bartucca) | 6:56
1st Place Co-Ed Team
Dough Guts, Dough Glory (Tristan Williams, Ian Rosoff, Fina Gloeckner, Shane Kunselman) | 6:29
Fastest 400m - WomenChristina Wong | 1:11
Ashley Chase | 1:14
Emily Glenn | 1:14
Michelle H. | 1:14
Tara Jarvis | 1:14
Liza Tarbell | 1:14
Fastest 400m - Men
Ethan Seltzer | 1:02Shane Kunselman | 1:02
Best Team Name
Boston (Cream) Marathon (Amrita Ramamurthy, Luci Cooke, Laura Kirsch, Liza Tarbell)
Most Socially Distanced Team
5,295 Miles Apart (Christina Wong, Laura Keeley, Jen Muse, Jen Gong)
Most Legs in a Relay (24 of them...because of the dogs)
Donut B*itches (Ashley Chase, Jen Gong, Anna Miller, Kat Wang)
Rage Against the Machine (for running on treadmills)
Team Last Minute (Kiran Rosenkilde, Ralph Rodriguez-Torres, Sarah Rodriguez, Kevin Hickman)
Best Cinematography
Glazed and Confused (Zack Pollack, Joe Arencibia, Scott Bartucca, Aaron Gaskins)
Fastest Donut Eating - Women
Margaret Aycock | 0:20
Fastest Donut Eating - Men
Matt Billings | 0:15
"Chew On This!" Award (Slowest Donut Eating - Women)
Christina Wong | 3:23
"Chew On This!" Award (Slowest Donut Eating - Men)
Ben Schwehm | 2:04
Overtraining Award (for eating a dozen donuts and a donut hole during a 5K)
Tristan "Donut Lord" Williams
Specificity of Training Award (for eating a Cruller for his Cru(e)ller Cats team)
Eric Shewan
Most Outlandish Run (for running in another country)
Chris Stevens
"We Donut Believe You" Award (most unbelievably short time it took to eat a donut)
Shawn Mills | :04 🤨