Team Race for Impact Takes to the Streets of NYC

Today was the return of the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon after the 2020 and 2021 race were canceled from COVID-19! This year, Impact Network was allocated charity spots for the race and had five runners participate as part of Team Race for Impact. The team was made up of Michael Weiss, Sid Banthiya, Deepti Zalavadia, Frank Wu, and me (!) and we raised over $13,000 for our programs in 2022.

The 13.1 mile race went through the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan, running through Times Square and ending in Central Park. The first of the 25,000 participants took off from Prospect Park right after 7AM. This year had the strongest professional athletes in the history of the event! Twenty-three 23 Olympians and eight Paralympians took part! The list of celebrated athletes included Des Linden (who won the 2018 Boston Marathon), Galen Rupp and Molly Seidel (U.S. Olympic medalists), Rhonex Kipruto (the 10km world record-holder), Sara Hall (the American half-marathon record-holder), and a ton of celebrities.

It was a picture perfect day, and definitely a celebratory note in New York City’s streets who haven’t seen a race at full capacity since 2019. On the men’s side, it was a tight, three-man race between two Kenyan athletes, Rhonex Kipruto and Edward Cheserek, and Ethiopia’s Teshome Mekonen. Kipruto ultimately outran the other two for the win, breaking the tape in 1:00:30, only seven seconds ahead of Cheserek. On the woman’s side Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi beat Kenya’s Irene Cheptai to win the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon in a new course record of 1:07:35.

A huge thank you to our five racers who trained and worked so hard to represent Impact Network today! This was our first time gaining entry to this amazing race – a small select group of charity partners are selected for spots each year, and we were thrilled to participate in our inaugural race. More importantly though, it helped to spread the word about the incredible work of our schools, teachers, and most importantly – our students – and raise funds to support over 200 students in 2022!

-Katie