Runners Channel their Inner 'Revenge' Characters for Hamptons Race

Five friends from the Philadelphia area turned heads at the Hamptons Marathon event, donning full costumes as they ran the 5K through Springs on Saturday.

They didn't think Halloween was a month early, they're just hooked on the ABC series "Revenge," a drama set in the Hamptons.

Long distance runners, the girlfriends — who range in age from 29 to 31 —travel the northeast competing in half-marathons. Though they were disappointed when the half-marathon sold out quickly, they decided to have some fun running the shorter distance race, dressed as their favorite characters from the television show. It was also partly a nod to the show, which premiered its second season on Sunday.

"We got lots of cheers from other runners and spectators. Some people knew who we were right off the bat. Others just asked 'What's the occasion?'," said Colleen Rygiel, of Narberth, PA, who dressed Victoria Grayson, the glamorous matriarch of the Grayson family and the reigning Queen of the Hamptons social scene, according to ABC's description.

The show is about Emily Thorne, a woman seeking revenge on a community of people responsible for framing her father and killing him years before.
Tricia Taggart, of Conshocken, PA, dressed as Thorne in the simplest costume of the bunch — all black, though she carried a hatchet.

Jen Andrews, of Philadelphia, dressed in a boater's outfit and captain's hat to portray Nolan Ross, a billionaire tech genius and founder of Nolcorp, in which part of Emily's fortune is linked; Wearing a school girl's uniform, Christina Merritt, of Phoenixville, PA, played Charlotte Grayson, Victoria's daughter who has a $100 million trust fund; and Kate Baun, of Philadelphia, dressed more slovenly the rest, portraying Jack Porter, who runs a Montauk bar, "the Stowaway."

Rygiel, who wore a long, slinky, red, sequined-dress and a black wig, said she and her friends weren't running competitively, but just for the thrill of taking part in an event that's based in the very place they hear about on the show. It was also their first time on the South Fork.

"We're not TV junkies," said Rygiel, a speech therapist. All the women are athletes. Rygiel played basketball at Holy Family University in Philadelphia with two of them and she went to high school with the others at Archbishop Carroll high school together in Radnor, PA.

"We’re goofy, we like to have fun, we like to have a reason to get together and have a good time."

A sixth friend in the group, who just had her second child, came along as the "producer," but didn't run.

After the run, they spent some time on the North Fork — dressed in t-shirts that said their characters names, of course.