Clocking in at 19:57, Denise Mazzeo, 27, placed first among the 13,465 women finishing in New York City’s JPMorgan Corporate Challenge, a 3.5-mile race in June with about 30,000 runners. Mazzeo wakes up daily at 5:30 a.m. to train. Her running is on top of the dozens of hours she bills each week as a second-year associate at 160-lawyer Seward & Kissel in the mergers and acquisitions practice. Depending on her work hours, Mazzeo said she will spend one to four hours a day training.
After competing in some races in college and then taking an eight-year break from competitive running, Mazzeo only recently started racing again when she joined the Central Park Track Club New Balance team. Traveling around the region and the country for meets, she has won some cash awards and carried home trophies. She says her goal is to hit an Olympic trial standard within the next few years.
