For the first time in two years, on a characteristically sunny and humid Labor Day morning, the New Haven community gathered together for the first in-person running of the New Haven Road Race. Due to Connecticut’s health and safety guidelines, about half the normal capacity, around 3000 participants, signed up to run among the four races (20K, Half Marathon, 5K and Kids Run). But even with the reduced capacity, the vibe on the Green and throughout the City of New Haven was spectacular.

Maggie Vanoni, writing for the New Haven Register, described the excitement and the drama that went down in the final stretch of the men’s 20K Championship race, as the lead pack, twenty strong, came down to three runners hammering out the final half mile and finishing in less than a second apart: with Nico Montanez in 3rd; Biya Simbassa in 2nd (both finishing in 59:54); and Ben True who passed Simbassa “within meters of the finish line to claim the 20K title in 59 minutes, 53 seconds.” True, an All-American distance runner who competed for Dartmouth College and in the Olympic trials, described what it was like to run in such a tight pack for the majority of the 12.4274 mile race: “it’s always a little discouraging when you look around late in the race and there are still a lot of people around you. It just makes the nerves a little bit higher coming into the finish.”

“While still packed with talent, the women’s race wasn’t as tight through the race as the men’s,” writes Vanoni. The women’s champion, Erika Kemp, started her kick with two miles to go, leaving behind a pack of about five runners. “Right when I realized I had two, two and a half [miles] to go, mentally I was like, ‘I can run a hard two miles. I know I can do that.’” And, of course she did. Makena Morley, who finished second, reflected on that moment, saying: “Probably with two miles to go, [Kemp] started cranking. We had a little bit of an uphill and I thought, ‘Oh maybe I can catch her on the down,’ but no she had a great [race]. She was flying.”

Although my experience in the Half Marathon wasn’t quite as exciting, it was still pretty awesome. It was my first long-distance race since running a virtual Boston Marathon just about a year ago. It was great to be around so many runners, who came into town from all over to run in the last big race of the season before heading into the fall. Several running friends and members of the Yale/STM community also came out for the New Haven races. My running buddy, Dan, my high school teammate and captain, joined me for the day and we went to the starting line together. Sarah Nikkel, Senior Associate Director, Major Gifts at Yale, was also on the starting line. I also knew that Sarah Woodford, STM Library Director and YDS alumna came out in support of several friends who were also running in the race.

After the start I was in a pretty tight pack of what felt like a few hundred for the first few miles; so packed that I kept my mask on for the first mile until things started to thin out. I came through the first mile at 6:08 – a little too fast, but that’s typically how I start a race. I come through that first mile, panic a bit, and then try to fall into a more reasonable pace. At around three miles in I saw Jason Schwartz, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health, cheering us on from the sidelines with his family. As I ran by the water station at the five-mile mark I heard someone say: “It’s Fr. Ryan!” – it was Kathleen, who’s co-leading a team of STM volunteers on our refugee resettlement project. And as I ran down Chapel Street and passed the Yale Green, we were cheered on by Assistant Chaplain Grace Carroll and Mary Margaret, Co-Chair of the Undergraduate Council, who both ran the 5K earlier in the morning.

Since I was not contending for the win (not by a long shot), I was grateful for the company of the men and women in my pack, which was spread out and would change from time to time in the middle miles through Fair Haven. Along the way we were cheered on by crossing guards, police officers, families and neighbors gathered on porches and stoops and lining the roads. An inspiring high school drum line gave us a much-needed boost as we approached the ten-mile mark at the base of East Rock. As I made the turn from Whitney onto Temple and prepared to enter into the final stretch – (by then just barely holding it together) – I saw Dr. Peter Ellis, M.D., M.P.H. of Yale Internal Medicine, and wife Dr. Ditas Villanueva, Director of the HIV/AIDS Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at YSM, both of whom also raced the 5K earlier in the day. Monica and Peter, STM community members, gave me that final cheer that got me down Temple Street and over the finish line.

As Dan and I replenished ourselves with two complimentary post-race pilsners from East Rock Brewing Company, I thought about the race. It was the reality check and wake-up call that I needed as I now turn my focus towards Boston in October. Thinking of those heroic top finishers, my fellow runners, friends and members of the STM/Yale community who were on the course with me on Labor Day, the inspirational words from the author of Hebrews 12: 1-2 came to mind:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of our faith.”