SULLIVAN COUNTY -- In this Tuesday's Sullivan County Democrat, we'll be keeping with tradition and running photos from the top stories of 2019.

But before we do that, let's reflect on what occurred just a few months ago.

In October, we ran a pre-story about a group of local runners who were participating in the New York City Marathon on November 3 to raise money for the Allyson Whitney Foundation. Seven-of-the 10 runners were from Sullivan County.

The #AWFSQUAD (Susan Harte, Ashley Morse, Jenna Diaco, Stephen Mulvihill, Alex Buchaca, Jennifer Mitchell, Courtney Schadt, Emily Casey, Sharon Osterholt and Jackie Rutledge), completed the 26.2-mile NYC Marathon course, and raised a total of $41,258. The fastest runner in the group was Stephen Mulvihill, who finished in 3:17:52.

“We all had an inspiring, emotional weekend,” said Barbara Strong, CEO Allyson Whitney Foundation. “From the Friday night opening ceremony, as some of our team members proudly represented and walked in the parade, through our gratitude lunch Saturday for lots of hugs and a few tears, to race day Sunday, the enthusiasm was contagious. Being part of their journey, to their finish line was the ultimate finale! We are overwhelmed once again with the support our runners received. The board and our volunteers are truly grateful for the donations received. Every dollar counts and goes directly to support our initiatives to assist a cancer patient.”

The Allyson Whitney Foundation (AWF) was established in 2012 in memory of Allyson Whitney Strong. Allyson was 25 years young when she passed away after battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer that affects only 200 women a year in the United States.

Through compassionate family, friends, businesses and individuals, the volunteer organization exists to award ‘Life Interrupted' grants, ‘HOPE' comfort bags to oncology suites and funding innovative research projects.

For more info about the Allyson Whitney Foundation, visit www.allysonwhitney

.org.

Notable finish

On a separate note, one county native that had an exceptional performance running at the NYC Marathon was Tri-Valley graduate and standout runner Kate Landau, who was representing the Tacoma City Runners Club. She finished 92nd overall of 53,517 runners at 2:33:04. She was fourth in her age group -- women 40-44 -- which consisted of 3,585 of the country's best runners. Also, Landau was the 15th woman (out of 22,719) to cross the finish line.

Congrats to Landau for another milestone in an already impressive running career.