DeSisto wins 26th Steamtown Marathon
Oct. 8—SCRANTON — It didn't matter how far ahead of him Tom Beilby got. Robert DeSisto Jr. stuck to his game plan and ran his pace.
When Beilby slowed and dropped back, DeSisto had more than enough to overtake him and pull away to victory.
DeSisto won the 26th Steamtown Marathon on a chilly, windy Sunday. The 27-year-old from Mableton, Georgia, covered the 26.2-mile trek from Forest City High School to Courthouse Square in Scranton in 2 hours, 25 minutes and 18.37 seconds. That was almost 12 minutes ahead of the runner-up.
"You have to trust your fitness and trust that you're running your race," DeSisto said. "Even if someone is out ahead of you or someone is closing in on you, if you stay with what you're doing everything is going to work out in the end."
Loc O, 46, from Williamsburg, finished second in 2:37:06.36. Beilby, an Australian who lives in Denver, Colorado, finished third in 2:38:21.35. Rounding out the top five were Andrew Whitacre of Leesburg, Virginia, in 2:38:32.40 and Caleb Bendewald from Granbury, Texas, in 2:38:48.35.
Heidi Peoples won the women's race for a record seventh time. The 43-year-old runner from Clarks Summit crossed the finish line as the first female and 11th overall in 2:43:17.17. That time set the Female Masters Division record, surpassing the previous mark of 2:52:58 set by Jen Locke in 2001.
Peoples also won Steamtown in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2019.
Karen Bertasso Hughes of Selkirk, New York, was second in 2:48:57, while Scranton's Clare Schoen was third in 2:54:56.
At the start of the race, DeSisto and Beilby broke away from the rest of the field. They ran side-by-side for the first four miles before Beilby moved ahead. He opened a 20-second lead at Mile 7 and extended it to 25 seconds at Mile 8.
Even though he had fallen behind, DeSisto resisted the temptation to chase Beilby. He knew about the downhills in the opening miles and conserve his energy for the uphills in the final three miles.
"I kind of made up my mind that I didn't want to have anything faster than like 5:27, 5:28 on those early miles rolling down into Carbondale," DeSisto said. "Tom opened up a gap on me, it stayed there a bit. I just knew those last hills were coming. I didn't want to gas myself. I just wanted to run controlled until 90 minutes or so and then start pushing."
But DeSisto didn't have to chase Beilby. At the midpoint of the race, Beilby began to struggle and came back to him.
The margin shrunk to 11 seconds at Mile 11, seven seconds at Mile 12 and five seconds at the half (13.1 miles). DeSisto pulled alongside Beilby in Mile 14 and had a two-second lead at Mile 15.
From there, he kept putting distance between him and Beilby until Beilby fell out of sight.
"I kept running my same pace. I think it was more him dropping a little bit off the pace than me really picking it up," DeSisto said. "That happens at this. Those first 10 (miles) can really shoot your legs if you go too hard. I didn't want that to happen because it would make for a real painful (miles) 23 to 26. So it was about being in control, not getting too emotional, not letting other things impact the way I was running my race."
All that remained was for DeSisto to make it to the finish line, which he did without incident.
"You do a lot of training, a lot of miles by yourself," DeSisto said. "To kind of see it all come together on race day almost makes everything kind of worth it; all that stuff you put in to run it fast. It was a great day, perfect marathon weather. Little bit of a headwind, but other than that it was a perfect race day set up for me. I'm really happy about it."
Meanwhile, Beilby continued to drop back. That enabled O to pass him for second around Mile 21.
It is the best overall finish in seven marathons for O, who placed seventh at Steamtown in 2019 in 2:34:53, which ranks as the second-fastest Men's Masters time.
"I just was able to pick runners off," O said. "I'm a Masters runner so I was happy with my overall finish.
"I like the area. Scranton has always been good to me."
Steamtown was the second marathon for DeSisto, who originally is from Westford, Massachusetts and ran at New York University. He ran the Houston Marathon in January and finished in 2:33:58.
He was looking for a fall marathon and remembered coming to Steamtown in 2018 to support his friend and NYU teammate Neil Saddler, who finished second overall.
"I love it. This place is beautiful this time of year with the trees," DeSisto said. "The course is fantastic, even on a hot day because it's so shaded. You're going to have a good time out there. It's really fun to run through the different communities along the way, see the folks come out. The gravel part was fun; that's when the legs started to feel like a marathon. I love this area."
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