Despite Forecast, Nearly 1,300 Compete in Hamptons Marathon Festival of Races

Despite a dreary forecast in the days leading up to it, the 16th annual Hamptons Marathon and its festival of races went off without a hitch in Southampton Village on Saturday.

According to one of the organizers, Diane Weinberger, who puts the marathon together along with Amanda Moszkowski, over 2,200 runners registered for the three offered races — the marathon, half marathon and 5K, with a little over 1,300 contending with the rainy and windy conditions and lacing up their sneakers.

“Given the forecast, we offered runners deferral up until race time and obviously many people took us up on it,” Weinberger said.

Despite the loss of runners to the weather, the estimated 1,300 runners this year beat last year’s total of about

1,100, but competitors in last year’s race, and the few others in recent years, had to contend with high temperatures, another weather pattern often avoided.

While the forecast called for torrential downpours, gusty winds and coastal flooding on Saturday, for the most part there were bouts of rain, followed by no rain at all. Overall, the consensus was, it wasn’t so bad.

The Hamptons Marathon is the only marathon on the South Fork and has grown significantly in popularity over the years, making it, logistically, a challenge to cancel or postpone, meaning runners can take heart that in future years, unless the region is bracing for hurricane conditions, you can bet the marathon will be on.

“We never seriously considered canceling the race, but spent the 24 hours before the start working closely with Southampton Village PD to envision all the possible scenarios given the storm predictions,” Weinberger said. “We had alternatives for a lightning strike, wind gusts taking down old trees and anticipated flooding on Wyandanch and Gin Lane. We even considered the possibility of doubling the marathon course on the half route to avoid potential flooding on Meadow Lane.

“As luck would have it, none of these scenarios proved necessary,” she added. “We maintained radio contact throughout the race with eyes on various parts of the course that were at high risk for flooding. Fortunately, the really bad weather did not hit until around 1 p.m. when most of the runners were off the course or close to it.”

This year’s marathon had a completely new slate of top three finishers. Jake Gallagher, 36, of Larchmont, was the overall winner in 2:43:46, a mile pace of 6:16. He was followed by Kevin Collins, 37, of New York City, who crossed the finish line in 2:54:45 and Ryan Law, 27, also of New York City, who finished in 2:55:09. Oz Pearlman, who has won the marathon four times including last year’s, did not return to defend his title.

Emily Heine, 36, of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, was this year’s female champion of the marathon, finishing in 3:24:19. Alyssa Bahel, 26, an East Hampton High School graduate who now calls Water Mill home, placed second in 3:27:41. And Elena Taylor, 44, of Dix Hills, rounded out the top three women in the marathon by finishing in 3:34. Last year’s female champion, Sarah Cottone, did not return this year.

This year’s half marathon field had some very familiar faces in it. Jordan Daniel, 28, of Westhampton, who cut his teeth by winning his first-ever marathon at the Hamptons Marathon in 2018, won the half marathon on Saturday in 1:08:43, an impressive 5:15 mile pace especially given the strong headwinds that were in place. Sergey Avramenko, 38, of Hampton Bays, pushed Daniel but ultimately finished second in 1:12:47. Ryan Renken, 24, of New York City, finished third in 1:18:15.

Corinne Fitzgerald, 31, of New York City, returned and was once again female champion of the half marathon, after winning last year and placing second in 2019. She crossed the finish line on Saturday in 1:22:48, about a second faster than last year. Camila David-Smith, 23, of New York City, placed second in 1:25:42 and Sophie Cantine, 24, also of New York City, placed third in 1:27:16.

Danny Cohen, 24, of Solon, Ohio, won the 5K in 18:01. Anthony Russo, 24, of New Haven, Connecticut, placed second in 18:11. Stephanie Popovitch, 26, of Medford, finished third overall, first among women, in 18:20.

For full results of all three races, go to areeventproductions.com/results.

“Those who showed up had a great time and felt a sense of accomplishment over what mother nature served up,” Weinberger said. “As always, we’d like a shoutout to Southampton Village PD, our Stony Brook Southampton Hospital medical team, and all of our amazing volunteers who stood in the rain for 6-plus hours to make this race safe and successful for our intrepid runners.”

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Southampton Youth Services, Project Most and the Southampton Educational Foundation continued to be the main benefactors of the Hamptons Marathon.​