Despite Conditions, The Bridgehampton Half-Marathon Returns

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seventh annual Bridgehampton Half-Marathon returned this past Saturday in some pretty unfavorable weather conditions, which included temperatures struggling to get past 50 degrees, with a stiff wind and rain.

That didn’t deter the nearly 600 runners who turned out for the event’s two races, the half-marathon and the coinciding 5K, but that was still well below the 950 who originally signed up, according to Diane Weinberger, who co-founded the race with Amanda Moszkowski.

As most big races are, the Bridgehampton Half-Marathon is a rain-or-shine event, and Weinberger said conditions leading up to the race were reassuring people that the race would still be on.

“The rain was the big story here,” she said. “My take was, COVID created a whole mess of new runners, which is great from a fitness perspective and for our industry. But some of these newbies didn’t know that we tough it out no matter what the weather. The lead-up to the race was spent assuring people that, yes, we run in the rain.

So we had about 950 signed up and 575 cross the finish line, which is a significantly higher no-show rate than normal. I also extended the deferral deadline, giving people the chance to opt out and run next year or in September, once the forecast was for 100 percent chance of rain.”

Weinberger admitted that the past two years have been tough. Canceling the race in 2020 made sense because the pandemic was only three months or so new and “we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” as Weinberger put it. But canceling the race in 2021 was frustrating, she said.

“Most people don’t realize that the race takes months to plan,” she said. “We worked with our timer to create a social distancing plan, and we were hopeful, but at the time we needed to make the call — in February — there was still enough uncertainty that our medical team could not get behind it.”

After a huge turnout for the Hamptons Marathon last October, both Weinberger and Moszkowski were assured that they would be able to bring back the Bridgehampton Half-Marathon, their personal brainchild.

“We work with a team for the fall race, but the Bridgehampton Half is just us,” Weinberger said. “Amanda and I noted that we were a little rusty — where had we ordered the tent from in 2019? Where had the mile signs ended up after the last race? — but we thought things came together Saturday.”

Michael Herbert, 25, of Smithtown won the 13.1-mile race, in 1:13:57, a mile pace of 5:39. Claudio Telles Gonzalez, 44, of Long Island City placed second overall, in 1:14:41, followed by Jason Green, 18, of Shelter Island, who finished third, in 1:15:19;Nicholas Giampietro, 26, of Babylon, who finished fourth, in 1:16:33; and Steve Tranter, 42, of New York City, who crossed the finish line in 1:20:45, which placed him fifth overall.

Herbert said it was the first time running the Bridgehampton Half. He thoroughly enjoyed it and would certainly recommend it to friends.

Herbert has been running since middle school but really got into the sport during his time at Smithtown West High School. Although he didn’t compete collegiately while attending Stony Brook University, he was coached privately by a friend of his, and he wound up running for Long Island University during grad school.

Since graduating from LIU in December 2020, Herbert admitted he’s had a bit of a love-hate relationship with running. “But I had a solid 10 weeks of training leading up to the Bridgehampton Half, and it felt great to be out there racing again,” he said. “I’ve run a few half-marathons, but that was my first time winning one, so that was really cool.”

Herbert said the rain wasn’t as bad as the wind, which he said was brutal at times.

“Running is all about patience, and especially for a long race in tough weather, staying patient is key,” he explained. “It’s also always important to remember that no matter what the conditions are like, even if they are less than ideal, they’re the same for everyone, so it evens things out, and there’s camaraderie in that as well. Everyone who competed in the half-marathon and 5K toughed out the rain and wind. I’m glad I got to be a part of that.”

Lastly, Herbert thanked “the gentleman on the lead bike,” who was Core Dynamics Gym coach Joao Monteiro, “for guiding me along and handing me water after I missed it.” He also thanked his dad for supporting him and joining him at the race.

Nicole Salerno, 34, of Great Neck was the half-marathon’s women’s champion, finishing in 1:24:54. Cristin Delaney-Guille (1:29:55), 41, of Long Beach; Deki Yangzom (1:30:13), 34, of Forest Hills; Heather Wright (1:32:17), 48, of Westhampton; and Alyssa Knott (1:32:52), 28, of Smithtown rounded out the top five female finishers.

Like Herbert, this was Salerno’s first time running the Bridgehampton Half, although she had run the Hamptons Half-Marathon back in 2018. Her last half-marathon was the Northwell Health Great South Bay run in 2019, so it had been a while since she last ran 13.1 miles.

Salerno also runs the New York City Marathon, and has every year since 2015, excluding 2020, when it was a canceled due to the pandemic.

“On Saturday, I was super fortunate to have the rain hold off until after I finished running,” she said. “The wind was tough, but it was about getting to the next turn where I knew there would, hopefully, be a little bit of a reprieve from the direct headwinds.”

James Consiglio, 61, of East Hampton won the 5K, in 20:57, while Kerri Novick, 26, of New York City placed second overall and was the first woman to cross the finish line of the 3.1-mile race, in 21:31. Eric Tortorela, 28, of East Hampton, placed third overall, in 22:07; Nicolas Hoyos Cardona, 28, of Southampton finished fourth, in 22:58; and Curt Nelson, 59, of Wayne, Pennsylvania, rounded out the top-five finishers, in 23:01.

All results can be found either at areeventproductions.com or bridgehamptonhalf.com under “Event Info.”

Consiglio said he’s just grateful to be able to run at 61 and admitted that he was surprised he was taking the lead and no one was coming up from behind him. This was the first time he ran the 5K after competing in the half-marathon a few times, having placed in his age group once.

Novick said the Hamptons Full Marathon in 2015 was her first race, and she kind of fell in love with running, and the surrounding area, since then. She has run in the Hamptons Full and Half-Marathons a few times since then, but Saturday was her first time running in Bridgehampton — and she said she’ll be back.

“Through running, I’ve met some of my best friends, and I’m also a firm believer that it’s the best way to explore any new city,” she said.

Weinberger thanked a number of people for their help in putting Saturday’s races together. She thanked local sponsor Gary Cooper from Saunders, Lululemon East Hampton and Humming Homes. She also thanked charity partners, “without whom we could not have hosted this race”: Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, the Bridgehampton School, particularly the Killer Bees baseball team, the Bridgehampton Library, Project Most, Flying Point Foundation for Autism and the Southampton girls lacrosse team.

“We can debate if it’s harder to run a half in the rain or run an aid station in the rain, but these folks rallied,” Weinberger said.