Ukrainian Running Club to inspire and raise awareness during Saturday's Brooklyn Half marathon
NEW YORK -- On Saturday, thousands of runners will hit the streets for the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Among them will be New Yorkers who immigrated from Ukraine.
CBS2's Vanessa Murdock spoke with members or the Ukrainian Running Club who will make the journey from Prospect Park to the Coney Island boardwalk to take part, raise awareness, and inspire.
The bold blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag demands attention at Prospect Park. Dmytro Molchanov and Andriy Herasymchyk, both proud Ukrainian Running Club New York members, hope the same will happen Saturday during the New York Road Runners Brooklyn Half.
"Bring the attention, to spread the word," Herasymchyk said.
The war with Russia is still on.
"There are people dying on a daily basis,' Herasymchyk said.
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Both men have family in Ukraine. Herasymchyk's sister lived in Kyiv.
"Heartbreaking, because every time you open up the phone, you're looking for the news," he said.
Thankfully, she arrived safely in the U.S. just weeks ago. His cousin, a soldier, is still at war.
Molchanov's sister, mother and grandmother live in the southern part of Ukraine and come face to face with Russian aggression daily. He visited a week before the war began to celebrate his grandmother's 85th birthday.
"Nobody really believed that it's going to happen," Molchanov said.
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The war weighs heavy on him. He runs every single day and describes the sport as meditation, but when Russia invaded, he says, "It became really hard to run. It's been really difficult to enjoy even like running."
For Herasymchyk, the opposite happened. Running helped him cope.
"You have a lot of anger," he said.
So he puts one foot after the other to put his mind at peace.
"Go for a run and sometime you ended up running way more than you were planning to do," Herasymchyk said.
Both share that through the turmoil their running club became their community.
"Our running community turned into protest group," Molchanov said.
It has hosted two 5K runs for Ukraine and raised more than $10,000 to send home.
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For the Half, the Ukrainian Running Club expects to be 50 people strong and all will be wearing their country's colors, not only to remind spectators that the war rages on but to also remind their Ukrainian brethren that they stand with them.
"You're not alone of there," Herasymchyk said.
Molchanov told CBS2 the Brooklyn Half holds a special place in his heart. In 2015, it was the first race he ran with New York Road Runners after moving to the states. He hasn't missed a year since. Even during the pandemic, when the run was canceled, he ran the entire course on his own.
Often runners paste their name on their shirt so spectators can offer words of encouragement along the route. Molchanov told CBS2 instead of his name, he boasts "UKRAINE" proudly on his chest because it is more meaningful to him.
