
The 2024 Stockade-Athon was held on a beautiful but chilly November morning. A total of 1,204 runners finished the 15km course through Schenectady. This was the highest number of finishers in the four times the event has been run after the COVID-19 pandemic. It looks like we are on pace to hit pre-pandemic numbers next year.
Runner’s get off to a fast start on State Street. The course runs slightly downhill for about the first half mile of the race before turning onto residential streets and then beginning a gradual climb towards Union College and Central Park.
This year’s male and female champions respectively were Alex Corbett, 28, of Worcester, MA (46:26) and Cara Udvadia, 27, of Clifton Park, NY (53:50). This was Udvadia’s third Stockade-Athon win.
On the men’s side, Grant O’Connor, 27, of West Hartford, CT (46:34) and Jack Huber, 24, of Delmar, NY (47:41) rounded out the top three finishers. O’Connor was coming off of a win at the Hartford Marathon in October while Huber would go on to claim his first Troy Turkey Trot victory later in November.
On the women’s side, Amanda Chambers, 25, of Schenectady, NY (53:55) and Kerry Flower, 24, of Schenectady, NY (55:45) came in second and third. Chambers was a local standout at UAlbany and this was her first time racing the 15km distance. Chambers led for much of the race but faded slightly in the cemetery before getting passed by Udvadia in the downhill finish.
The Stockade-Athon always attracts a lot of master’s runners as well. The 2024 event was no different as Sam Morse, 41, of Syracuse, NY (47:53) and Karen Bertasso-Hughes, 40, Selkirk, NY (56:11) both ran fast times to claim the male and female master’s division. In addition to winning the master’s titles, both Morse and Bertasso-Hughes placed fourth overall in the race. Nick Conway, 49, of Schenectady, NY came in second in the master’s category and eleventh place overall with a very fast time of 48:57. Conway had the highest age-graded performance of the day with an astonishing 92.34% indicating a world class performance. Two other athletes had age-graded performance over 90%. Beth Stalker, 65, ran an impressive 1:08:55 and achieved an age-graded performance of 90.62% while Paula Wiltse, 57, ran a 1:02:06 and achieved an age-graded performance of 90.35%. A total of 40 athletes ran age-graded performances of 80% or better indicating national level performances. HMRRC is proud to have inspired such performances at this long standing race. The club welcomes everyone in the running community to continue their own running journeys in 2025. Remember to register for club events including the Stockade-Athon!
There was a lot of great coverage in the news for this year’s Stockade-Athon.
Check out the articles from:
The Times Union - https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/new-mom-cara-udvadia-wins-women-s-stockade-athon-19902841.php
and
The Daily Gazette - https://www.dailygazette.com/sports/corbett-udvadia-each-win-by-close-margins-in-mvp-health-care-stockade-athon-15k/article_5b02b51a-9f97-11ef-a9be-bf08aea0dc6c.html