Anne Perzeszty
by Amy Duquette
We all know Anne Perzeszty as an incredibly driven, energetic 71-year-old athlete with a great sense of
humor who has led our track club as president for the last eight years. She’s completed 11 marathons and
her first triathlon at age 70. She bettered her time in her second one and is looking forward to and has
plans on how to better her time in the next one. Anne believes that "Age is just a number. I refuse to buy
into the saying that growing older means slowing down. Also, having good genes certainly helps." She
continually looks for challenges and even more importantly, embraces them.
Anne didn't always test herself physically. She was born in the Bronx and raised in Queens during a time
when "...girls did not sweat. It was not even an option." When Anne was working at Brooklyn Union Gas, which
later became Keyspan, the company formed its own running team and one of the women recruited Anne. She
hesitantly ran her first race, the first Kenny Dolan 5K in 1989. "I was terrified! I just did not want to
bring bad karma to the team."
She continued to run and in 1993 completed her first marathon with a time of 5:56:26. She considers her
first experience "exhilarating" even though a Sri Chinmoy volunteer took her shoe off near the Willis Ave
Bridge and found her socks soaked with blood. His response to her was, "I think you picked the wrong sport."
Anne never once thought of giving up. She told herself in the last mile of the race that even if she had to
crawl on all fours she would finish. Her first thought at the finish line was, "I can do that better." She
did in 1996 cutting off almost a full hour of time with a marathon PR of 5:09:02. However, they were testing,
but did not yet perfect, net timing and had the shoe chip mats at the finish line only that year. Anne
swears that her time was actually under 5 hours.
She was inspired to run her first marathon the year before as she watched some friends, including Cecil Brooks,
and thousands of other marathoners of all abilities running. After her friends passed, she stayed to watch
and realized that the media coverage of the event was geared toward the front of the pack and watching it live
made it much more personal. "These people look like me," she said, "and, I have it in me to do one, too."
Anne joined PPTC in 1993 because at the time, if you belonged to a local running club your chances of getting
into the marathon were higher. She came to find much more than just that in the club. Anne has always been
pleased with the diversity of age, gender, ethnicity and ability that she found in the PPTC. "Anyone can find
a place in this club where they feel comfortable." In regards to becoming president, Anne feels that it was an
organic experience. "It really is amazing; It just happened. When Bobby Fisher was president, he asked me to
be vice president. When he was about to step down, I looked to run for cover, but it didn’t work," she said
smiling. In her eight years, Anne saw many club improvements happen, including taking over the Turkey Trot
from NYRR, starting up the Speed Series and continuing to make running for Brooklynites accessible.
During her presidency, Anne stepped away from running marathons and became more involved in organizing the
club activities. "It was very difficult to see the buses off on marathon morning. I had to grieve the first
time I saw them leaving and I was not going with them!"
In 2007 Anne thought it was important to step down to allow for new blood to come in. It is her hope for the
club is that the members continue to build camaraderie, which has been happening in Tony Watson’s running
series and when members wear their club singlets. Also, that the club strives to meet the needs of every
member as the board consistently evaluates what is working and what needs to be put away. This, she believes,
is why the club has been successful.
With the influence of her three daughters, all of whom are athletic, Anne’s races expanded to triathlons.
"It was ironic that they all swim and I had to learn how do to it at age 70 to complete the Danskin Tri." The
swim in that race was "...brutal, but the fact that I finished blew me away. My daughter Lynn came back and ran
my 5K with me. I was so happy to make her proud." Anne also had to learn how to ride a racing bike for this
race. She started in the basement of her building, (and hopes there were no surveillance cameras down there
recording her beginning efforts). Eventually she got up the courage and took the bike to the Brooklyn Museum
parking lot. She has still not conquered going down the big hill in Prospect Park, but fortunately enough,
the Danskin bike section was flat. She nailed a hairpin turn in that race and thought to herself "Lance could
have not done it better. He would have not been surprised and I was thinking ‘holy shit’ I just did that!" The
first time Anne got to yell out "on your left" as she passed another biker allowed her to feel that she can
now "die happy."
Besides athletics, Anne is interested and involved with photography, with a preference to "...digital, because
I like the instant gratification." She also goes to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows as often as possible and
also enjoys writing. She intends to write her memoir when the time allows. Anne is working now for the Council
or Senior Center Services in Brooklyn and also teaches a Family and Consumer Economics class at Queens College.
In terms of running, Anne would like to get back to running half’s but not another full marathon. "Well, on
second thought," she stated, "I would like to do an official sub five..."