Ryan Ford’s breakout 2024 continued this past weekend at the New York City Marathon. Ryan took a huge step on the track this spring and summer, running 27:40 for 10,000m and finishing 9th at the US Olympic Trials. However, in his marathon debut Ryan proved that his long term future lay at 26.2 miles. On the challenging New York course Ryan broke the ZAP record with a time of 2:11:08, finished 11th overall and 4th among Americans in a US field that had 6 of the top 10 runners from this year’s Olympic Marathon Trials.
Ryan began the race alongside teammate Josh Izewski, in a large lead pack that went through the first 5k in a relatively pedestrian 16:04 and 10k in 31:28. As the leaders began to pick up the pace just before halfway, Ryan stayed true to his game plan and remained patient. Ryan passed halfway in 1:05:49 in 22nd place. At that point, Josh, who had begun to struggle with back and hip pain, had begun to lose contact with Ryan’s group. And while he would grit out a brave finish, his 24th place finish was well off what he had hoped and prepared for on the day.
Crossing into Manhattan at the 15 mile mark, Ryan felt strong running up 1st Avenue to 30k and began to slowly move up the field. By 35k Ryan had moved up to 16th place and was continuing to close on the athletes in front of him. After the race Ryan remarked, “I felt really good at 18 miles, 20 miles and I just kept telling myself to be patient and wait for Central Park.” He did exactly that, and when he got to Central Park over the final 5k of the race Ryan began to fly. His discipline paid off and Ryan passed 5 runners in Central Park en route to his 2:11:08 finish. His time shaved 1 second of Josh’s ZAP record from the Olympic Marathon Trials and makes him the 7th fastest American in New York since the course changed in 1980.
In the women’s race, Tristin Colley (formerly Van Ord – and making her “Colley” debut!) was also making her first appearance at the New York City Marathon. Coming off a 3 year rocket ship that saw Tristin take her PR from 2:40 to 2:25, Tristin’ 2024 has been a bit more up and down. She came into New York looking regain her 2:25 form and compete among the top Americans. Tristin did exactly that, finishing 13th overall and 5th among Americans.
Tristin, similar to Ryan, focused on being patient and running her race. As a result, Tristin ended up running alone for a large part of the race, but that strategy saw her steadily move up through the field. Tristin passed the halfway mark in 1:14:30 in 22nd place. By the beginning of the 2nd half she started to make up ground on several women ahead of her. Coming into Manhattan, Tristin worked through a difficult patch up 1st Avenue. As she approached the 35k mark she was able to build some momentum by moving up to 16th place. Over the final miles she would pass 3 more runners and clock a finishing time of 2:30:02.
After the race Tristin commented, “Sometimes all you need is a “B+” day to get you out of the dark. Today was just that for me: I had fun, I was patient, and I closed hard. Of course I went in with bigger goals in mind, but I’m still learning to celebrate the small wins.”
Joining the marathon trio in New York was Dan Schaffer. On Saturday, the day before the marathon, Dan competed in the US 5k Championships. In the middle of training for his first half marathon in Houston, Dan raced against a deep US field and finished 16th in 14:07.
You can see full results from the marathon here, full results from the 5k here, and watch Ryan’s post race interview below: