The Forest Park 40-Miler was held on Saturday, August 21. It was technically the 26^th edition of the event, but only 16 of them have been run at Forest Park. This year was one of them. There was a reason. Something about tradition.

 

The very first Broadway Ultra Society (BUS) was scheduled to be held at Forest Park in 1978. It was a 60-kilometer in March, but the event was relocated to Central Park due to two snowstorms in a 3-week period. That race became known as the Knickerbocker. But when spring arrived that year, Forest Park would be utilized as a venue and be the second ultra in BUS history. The distance was determined to be 40 miles.

 

The inaugural Forest Park event honored Nat Cirulnick. He was an obvious choice. Nat was a founding father of New York Road Runners (NYRR), eventually being elected as the 4^th President of the organization and very active in the sport. Nat also taught school for over 3 decades in the neighborhood of Glendale, just a shout from Forest Park.

 

Nat also was a heck of runner with a personal best of 2:36 in the marathon. He also competed in London-to-Brighton completing the grueling 52.5-mile course in under 7 hours. Nat also ran in that first 40-miler, finishing in 6:30:01. His wife Ann was one of the scoring officials. But last November, Nat sadly passed away due to a fall.

 

During the past decade, the 40-miler incorporated a change of event name and distance and was held at various locations in the Metropolitan area. But BUS wanted this edition to be held at its original site and distance as a memorial to Nat. The Forest Park 40-Miler was reinvented.

 

There were two starts in this years race; one at 6:45 AM and the official start at 8:30 AM. Overall, there were 50 participants. There was also a coinciding relay for other runners to join in the festivities. Ann Cirulnick and her children, Nancy and Robert, greeted the runners at the Start and offered words of encouragement, demonstrating that Cirulnick spirit was still living on.

 

The 40-miler was part of the New York Ultra Running (NYUR) Grand Prix Series, and another intense competition was expected. The Grand Prix challengers this year have been Rudy Afanador, Tim Henderson, Byron Lane and Phil McCarthy. They all were at Forest Park including former ultra champion, John Cantwell to add more fuel to the ultra fire.

 

Rudy was in top shape, but was recovering from his efforts this summer at the Badwater 135-Miler and his victory at the Around the Lake 24-Hour with a total of 133.6 miles. Byron has also been busy and very successful, winning at the Long Island Greenbelt 50K, the Joe Kleinerman 12-Hour and the Bridge Run 50K. Both would wage war once again at Forest Park.

 

 

 

 

 

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Rudy sprinted to an early lead, but his margin was less than minute. Byron then made a bold move at 16 miles and ran a blazing 28:21 for the next 4 miles. Rudy, still feeling the effects of the 24-hour run, would not answer. Byron continued to press with a 29:11 split for the next 4 miles. His lead over Rudy increased to 9 minutes. But at around 50 kilometers, Byron started to back off the pace. His race load this year may have paid a toll. Little by little, Rudy would chip away at the lead. With one loop to go, thunder and lightning rattled the area. It was also Rudys footsteps. Rudy made one last surge, but Byron held him off to prevail by 44 seconds. Byron has captured the previous two NYUR Grand Prix championships and is well on his way for a third. Young Steve Escaler at 27 surprised the field by finishing in 3^rd place with a 5:35:49 time.

 

The womans race was over at the opening whistle as Jodi Kartes-Heino breezed with another ultra title completing the 40 miles in 6:08:52 and 8^th overall. Jodi has emerged top of the hill in the Grand Prix standings. Helma Clavin and Lucimar Araujo finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively with a clocking just over 8 hours.

 

In the relay event, the Ethiopian/Italian Connection of Heidi Tadesse and Fabio Salvatori won the 2-person division and the Caribbean Eagles with Marvlyn Baptiste, Collin Lynch, Osmond McDonald, Fazal Muhammed and Indarjit Roopchand copped the 5-person category.