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February 2020 Recap

Wow! Did we have a huge February this year! If you follow along, then you know this is already a few days late! As you can imagine, it’s been busy for us planning for this month’s Queens Marathon, QDR Half, and Spring Forward 10M and 5M races, as well as being consistent with our own training. Let’s get to it!

This past February’s temperature was milder than most Februarys. Of course, there were some pretty harsh days which many of us still braved to run outdoors – and even race! February was a very exciting time in the running community, especially in the NYC running community, because we were all excited, inspired, and motivated by the USATF Marathon Olympic Trials. Leading up to the race, there were many predictions on the top three male and female athletes who would represent the US at the Olympics in Japan, but there were so many highlights of all the local NYC runners who were racing the Trials and their stories just moved us.

Achieving a spot on any Olympic team is a distant dream for many of us, but we can still dream. Even better, we can incorporate what many professional and top amateur athletes do on their day-to-day training into our own training. You don’t have to be an elite athlete to train like one.

All of this to say that, the dreams we have — whatever they may be — are not silly or ever out of reach if we make a plan and consistently work towards them. The bigger the dream, the bigger the risk of failing, but at least we put the effort to go for it.

We’d like to congratulate Chaz, Charles Remillard, who ran the Trials on February 29th! He’s in Colorado at the moment, but always a friend of the team!

QDR Gala

Another year has past and that means another year to celebrate all of our achievements. What better time than to do it at our annual Queens Distance Gala! It was a time to put away the running clothes and get the dance shoes on.

This year was very special; our teammates ran a committee to gather photos and videos of special moments throughout the past year and we also had Mike Bocchinfuso and Mario Silva as hosts for the evening. Here is just one of the many award categories for the evening – Rookie of the Year! For the rest of the categories, check out our Instagram!

We want to thank and congratulate everyone who ran with QDR in the past year, who scored points for the team, who celebrated big PRs, who invited their friends to run with us, and those who wore our gold singlets proudly!

For photos of the event, check out the album from Horse and Duck Studio!

Races

We hosted the first of many QDR races – the For the Love of Queens 5K and 10K relay! It was a cold morning but a lot of fun. The next race is the Spring Forward 10M and 5M race on March 8th. For more races, check out the racing calendar on Elitefeats. For race day photos, check our partner, Horse and Duck Studio!

As always, we follow the races in the tri-state area but also in other cities. This past month we saw teammates race in NOLA, Miami, and more cities across the country. Marie also won first overall female at the Manhattan 7 Mile race!

Unfortunately, we saw the Tokyo Marathon get canceled for non-elite runners and then the Paris half. Since then, into the first week of March, the Rome Marathon and the Paris Marathon were canceled and postponed. We are currently monitoring official word and recommendations from the city and will act accordingly.

Group Runs

As usual, follow the schedule below and make sure to RSVP on Strava for our runs! The leaders wait around for everyone who RSVPs and it helps us make sure everyone is accounted for. All our runs are open to everyone from any club and any experience. We just ask to be respectful and to bring a good attitude!

Thursday evenings in Flushing!
Monday nights at the RunCenter!

Keep an eye out on our site’s meetups page as well as on Strava for more group runs and training sessions. Make sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates and news!

Queens Distance

1 – Group runs in Queens

2 – San Jose 408K: Race to the Row
NYRR Gridiron 4M

3 – QDR Monday Evening Group Run: Central Park
4 – QDR Tuesday Evening Astoria Track

5 – QDR Queensborough Community College Wednesday PM Track Session

6 – QDR Thursday AM Long Island City Group Run
QDR Thursday PM Flushing Group Run
7 – QDR Friday Morning Group Run: FunFridayRun Astoria
QDR Friday Evening Forest Hills: The Kessel
8 – Cupid’s Chase – Queens
9 – NYRR Manhattan 7 Mile

New Orleans Half

Miami Half

10 – QDR Monday Evening Group Run: Central Park
11 – QDR Tuesday Evening Astoria Track
12 – QDR Queensborough Community College Wednesday PM Track Session

13 – QDR Thursday AM Long Island City Group Run
QDR Thursday PM Flushing Group Run
14 – QDR Friday Morning Group Run: FunFridayRun Astoria

QDR Friday Evening Forest Hills: The Kessel
15 – QDR: For the Love of Queens 5K and 10K Relay
16 – Cherry Tree 10M
17 – QDR Monday Evening Group Run: Central Park

Tokyo Marathon Cancelled
18 – QDR Tuesday Evening Astoria Track
19 – QDR Queensborough Community College Wednesday PM Track Session
20 – QDR Thursday AM Long Island City Group Run

QDR Thursday PM Flushing Group Run
21 – QDR Friday Morning Group Run: FunFridayRun Astoria
QDR Gala

22 – NYRR Al Gordon 4M
23 – NYCRuns Central Park Half Marathon
24 – QDR Monday Evening Group Run: Central Park
25 – QDR Tuesday Evening Astoria Track

26 – QDR Queensborough Community College Wednesday PM Track Session
27 – QDR Thursday AM Long Island City Group RunQDR Thursday PM Flushing Group Run
Club Night at NYRR

28 – QDR Friday Morning Group Run: FunFridayRun Astoria
QDR Friday Evening Forest Hills: The Kessel

29 – Mississippi Blues Marathon