For Josh Cassidy, competing in last Saturday’s New York City Marathon just 27 days after placing fifth at the Boston Marathon would normally not be a newsworthy fact. He is after all, a man has regularly raced Boston on a Monday in April, hopped a plane and contested the London Marathon just six days later. However, nine days following Boston, Cassidy’s partner Laiken gave birth to son Henrik – leaving Cassidy without a full night’s sleep for three weeks heading into one of the more difficult marathon courses on the circuit.
Despite the lack of sleep, and time off training during that time, Cassidy pulled off his highest ever finish in New York, placing fourth in 1 hour 40 minutes and 38 seconds.
“Expectations low, motivation high, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” was how Cassidy described his mindset heading into the race. The focus was a top-6 finish to be in the prize money.
As he reached the 1-mile mark atop the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn, Cassidy had already settled into fourth, between two packs. The following 25 miles would become a game of cat and mouse with American Daniel Romanchuk for bronze.
Cassidy held a ten second advantage at the mid way point, but Romanchuk was able to overtake him by the 25 km mark. Cassidy would narrow the gap to two seconds at the 20 mile marker, before hitting a wall in the final kilometres to hold on to fourth.
“Pretty emotional at the end, after an exhausting few weeks, tough marathon, a lot to overcome mentally and physically,” wrote Cassidy on Instagram this week. “Super proud of this one, and great way to end the season.”
In a road race closer to home, Nic Roberts took home top spot in The Great Big Cookie Run 5km last Sunday. Roberts crossed the line in a time of 15 minutes and 57.0 seconds, to finish nine seconds up on second place.
On the women’s side, Club President Jennifer Dumoulin finished in 22:26.0 to place 18th.