McGraw Hill Financial Takes Media Cup For 6th Year In a Row

Six championships in a row!  If we had championship rings, we'd have as many as this guy!

In the series finale on July 9, we had another unbelievable showing from our runners, with four men AND four women in the top 10 of their respective races.

The men were led by James Sung who came in 3rd place, followed by Joe Violone (4th), Eric Nietcsh (5th), Chris Donnelly (10th) and Alex Laitamaki (16th). Chris also received the 2nd place grandmaster award.

On the women's side, we were led by Kerry Kantin (4th), followed by Robyn Shapiro (6th), Sue Pearsall (7th) and Andrea Stranglen (9th). Sue got first place master and Andrea named second place master. Team results are below, but here's a special note from Coach/Captain/Hall of Famer/Mentor Sue Pearsall:

"As most of you know this is my last year as Captain, my division is being sold so I want to take a moment and thank all of you for yet another unbelievable season. I want to thank each and everyone of you who this year and over the years have shown such dedication and determination race after race. Thank you for giving us your time and your sweat. It has really been such a pleasure to a part of such a tremendous group of people. Please keep me informed of the races so I can come cheer and bag watch. 

I will be sending out a few more emails because we might be adding a few more races to our summer racing season and some people have shown an interest in doing group runs again. If you are interested in group runs, please shoot me a quick email.

I also want you all to welcome Brenna McDonough, who has stepped forward to take over as Captain next year. It would be great if one more person could co-captain."

Race 5 Team Results

MHFI    55

CBS    75

NYT    95

HBO    112

ABC    230

News Corp    285

NBC    307

Sony    459

2014 SERIES TOTAL

MHFI    269

NYT    460

CBS    590

HBO    631

ABC    1051

News Corp    1318

NBC    1434

Sony    2058

Media Race 4: Unstoppable!

Race 4 might have been the most dominating team performance ever for McGraw Hill Financial, or any team in the Media Race for that matter. Put it this way: our records go back pretty far, and if any team ever had a lower score than 35 points, Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow were probably running for CBS.



Shannon Vong returned to action and showed no rust at all, finishing second overall in the women's race, and Robin Smith finished second for the men for the second time this year. After those two, we had a ton of depth, with 6 of the top 8 men and 3 of the top 7 women. Sheesh!

Kudos to Adom Rosengarten (3rd), James Sung (4th), Joe Violene (5th), Eric Nietsch (7th) and Olson Jaimes Carillo (8th). For the women, Brenna McDonough finished 5th and coach/captain/Hall of Famer Sue Pearsall was 7th and top master. Robin Shapiro was 12th.

The finale is July 9th, don't miss it!

Team Results - Race 4
McGraw Hill Financial            35
CBS                                      103
HBO                                     124
NYT                                     135
News Corp                           193
ABC                                     235
Sony                                     327
NBC                                    379

Media Race 3: Overwhelming Force

Still smarting from that surprising loss in Race 2, McGraw Hill Financial left nothing to chance in Race 3 on a hot, humid evening in Central Park. We threw the kitchen sink at them for a resounding, 40-point victory! We had 7 of the top 10 fastest men and 4 of the top 20 women!

Geoff McGrane had a media race PR but had his individual winning streak stopped by an extremely fast NBC guy with a big peacock on his back. Also scoring for the McGraw Hill Financial men were Brenn Jones in fourth overall (first place master's), Robin Smith, Joe Violone and Gregg Lemos-Stein. Eric Nietsch would have been our fourth or fifth man, but he neglected to grab an index card right away (Honest rookie mistake, just as long as it doesn't happen again!).  Also in the mix up front were Adom Rosengarten and Olson Jaimes Carrillo. We were also happy to report Tom Koster showed up to represent the retirees.

Scoring for the women were Hall of Famer Coach-Captain-Runner Sue Pearsall (first place master's and 5th overall), Brenna McDonough and Jyotika Bisht.  Robyn Shapiro was our fourth woman and finished right on Jyotika’s heels.

Team results:
MHFI 57
NYT  96
HBO 118
CBS 179
NBC 205
ABC 275News Corp
PandoraSony
 
Next race is Wednesday June 25th

Can't Win 'Em All

There was a collective gasp from several teams as the results were announced and the words "in third place, McGraw Hill Financial..." sank in.

In an amazingly close media race #2, the lime green army of the New York Times came away with the win and CBS finished second. McGraw Hill Financial was third, just 6 points behind the winner. That snapped a streak of five straight race wins, often dominant, dating to July 2012.

"I'm proud of our folks but I'm worried we're getting complacent -- time to start 100 mile training weeks!" said captain Sue Pearsall after the race.

Robin Smith improved by more than a minute from race #1 to finish second overall on the men's side. Also placing for the men were Gregg Lemos-Stein (second place master), James Sung, Chris Donnelly (first grand master) and Mark Hulsmann. David Hitchcok won second place grand master. Scoring for our women's team were Kerry Kantin, Brenna McDonough and Jyotika Bisht.

Team results are below and you can also find individual results from race #1 at the link to the right.

NY Times - 69 points
CBS - 73
MHFI - 75
ABC - 140
News Corp - 230
NBC - 272
Sony - 366

McGraw Hill Financial Wins Media Race Opener

McGraw Hill Financial opened the 2014 Media Race season in style last night in Central Park, picking up exactly where they left off last year with another big win.

The New York Times showed up in force with new neon green shirts, and a strategy to go out hard and try to blind the competition with the new attire. The front pack looked like a big slice of key lime pie sliding downhill for the first half mile. But the five-time defending champs showed patience, chipping away at the leaders little by little, and taking over in the second lap. While the Times had individual winners on both the men's and women's side, McGraw Hill Financial had FIVE of the top 11 male runners and THREE of the top 8.

McGraw Hill Financial has a couple of rookie of the year candidates in Eric Nietsch and Olson Jaimes Carrillo. Carillo wins the "managing expectations" award for saying he planned to run 8 min pace, but actually running in the mid 6s. Also placing for the men were veteran stalwarts Gregg Lemos-Stein, Adom Rosengarten and Robin Smith.

On the women's side, Shannon Vonk was third place overall, Kerry Kantin and Brenna McDonough were 7th and 8th respectively, and Robin Shapiro cracked the top 20.

Lemos-Stein was announced as "Lemons" in receiving the first place master's award. At least they didn't call him a lime.

Team results are below check back in a week or so for individual times.

McGraw Hill Financial - 43 points
New York Times  -  65

HBO/Time Warner - 147

CBS  - 160
ABC  - 209
News Corp -  248
NBC  -  268
Sony -  449

Media Race Sweep

Congrats on another amazing season! McGraw Hill swept the series for our FIFTH consecutive season win.
 
In the series finale on July 24, McGraw Hill Financial had 5 men in the first 12 spots! We were led by Geoff McGrane who won the race in a blazing 19:06, next up was Brenn Jones in third, Robin Smith in fifth, Chris Donnelley in sixth (also first Grand Master) and the team was rounded out by Michael Sarnoff (first Master)
 
The women were led by Cap'n Sue Pearsall in fourth place (second master) followed by Kerry Kantin in eighth place. Amazingly, even though we only had two women and were penalized by having to take the last place female as our third female we still won by 16 points!
 
Also repping McGraw-Hill Financial was Mark Hulsmann, David Blumel, David Hitchcock, Vadim Krisyan and Tom Koster (retiree)
 
Series Results:
 
McGraw Hill -- 198 points (44, 72, 82) 
CBS  -- 285 points (107, 79, 99)
New York Times  --  398 points (82,98, 218)
HBO/Time Warner -- 498 points (290, 110, 98)
ABC  -- 509 points (217, 164, 128)
News Corp --  617 points (119, 205, 293)
NBC  --  1,137 points (283, 488, 366)
Sony --  1,255 points (512, 446, 297)

Results For Races 1 and 2 Are Up

Take a look at the sidebar to the right for individual and team results from the first two media races. Savor the victories!

See you next race which is Wednesday June 26.