10 NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 16, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Ridgeites welcome marathoners warmly
BY JAIME DEJESUS
JDEJESUS@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
It was off to the race once again!
The 2017 TCS New York City
Marathon was yet another big
hit among runners from near and far.
The competitive race, which featured
50,000 runners, 12,000 volunteers,
and legions of supporters from the
five boroughs, saw some firsts and
continued the city’s storied tradition
for the 26.2 miles long race.
Locally, Brooklynites were out in
full force supporting the runners.
Bay Ridge’s own Ridge Runners
were stationed at 82nd Street and
Fourth Avenue offering support and
refreshments.
Sunset Park native, military
veteran and actor in FOX's hit show
"Gotham" J.W. Cortes participated and
finished the race.
"It was one of the most challenging
things I’ve ever done," he said. "I
learned a lot of lessons from my first
marathon. At the end of it, I didn’t
expect I would feel so many emotions
spilling out of me in the way that they
did. Brooklyn was represented in a
tremendous way. That motivated me
and it was great to see fellow Sunset
Parkers out there yelling my name.
Having my family and my two sons
watch me as I crossed the finish line
meant a great deal to me and hopefully
they’ll remember it and find some
inspiration in that."
Why did Cortes participate? He recalled
that he had been asked by the
Semper Fi Fund to run in the Marine
Corps Marathon on their behalf, but
didn't think he was in shape to run
the taxing marathon. Instead he ran
in a 10k.
"That didn’t sit well with me and
I said I've got to do better than this,"
he explained. "So I looked at the New
York City Marathon and saw that I
had 11 weeks to get ready, so I signed
up as a member of the Semper Fi
Fund team. I decided that if I made it
about something else other than me,
I could find a way to muster up the
strength to endure the 10-plus weeks
of training to make a good showing
and that’s what I did."
Cortes said he found motivation in
Semper Fi Fund and other veterans.
"I was in D.C. with medal of honor recipient
Kyle Carpenter who I thought
of throughout most of my run," he
said. "He's the youngest medal of
honor recipient who jumped on a
grenade."
He added that running in the Marathon
was a dream of his. "As a young
kid, I adored the movie 'Rocky.' I remember
him running through the
streets of Philadelphia," Cortes said.
"I fantasized about that as a youngster.
To run through Sunset Park and hear
people call my name was a dream
come true and to see young people’s
faces when they recognized me was
awesome. Not only am I planning on
doing it again but I want to get a team
of Sunset Parkers and Brooklynites
in general to run it with me."
Among the elite runners, on the
women’s side, Oregon native and
36-year-old Olympian Shalane Flanagan
took top honors with a record
time of 2:26:53. This marks the first
American woman to win the New
York City Marathon since 1977. For
the men, Geoffrey Kamworor of
Kenya won with a time of 2:10:53.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug won the
Wheelchair Division for a consecutive
year with 1:37:21. Manuela Schar,
also from Switzerland, won the women’s
side with a time of 1:48:09.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by Arthur de Gaeta
Scenes from the New York City Marathon as runners made
their way off the Verrazano Bridge and through Bay Ridge.