before, Wallace in 2009 and Haas in 2005 when she carried two empty Wachusett
Brewery 12-pack cases across the finish line.
Present day Haas could have
carried her two daughters to the finish but left that to hubby Mike (1st baby stroller) as she blitzed
the women’s field at sub-6 pace to finish in 17:46 to claim her second Pub
Series tiara.
The BAA’s Amanda Watters copped 2nd overall (and
in the Series) in 18:19 with BAA teammate Kristin
Shaw breaking a tie with HFC’s Sarah
Barrett to place 3rd in the Series with Barrett 4th and HFC teammate Christine Howe placing 1 point ahead of
Whirlaway’s Katrina Martyn for 5th.
This is a nice segueway to
the men’s race as Katrina’s dad, Doug,
had an exceptional race to place 9th here in 16:36. Also, with SRR’s Chris SmithÛÓthe 50+ divisional leaderÛÓ
and CSU’s Terry McNatt (3rd behind
Martyn) surprising no shows, Martyn takes over as numero uno at Series end
among Seniors.
champion TJ Unger of HFC ran 2nd
here in 15:17 (to Wallace’s 15:04) to retain his Pub Series title, there was a
big shakeup among the Top-5. CSU’s Patrick
Bugbee (2 points behind Unger after the Finish For A Guinness fiasco)
placed 5th here in 16:03 to finish as Series runner-up – but then – HFC’s Andrew Holmes was spotted running the
race course before the race.
Holmes was holding down 3rd
in the Series but had to split for his grandson’s christening before the race
start. With CSU’s Kevin Delaney
having a solid run and 40+ leader Joe
O’Leary of SRR having a less than prime time performance (and with the
absence of Holmes scoring any points) the pair have tied for 4th.
The poetic justice here is
that both are in their 40s and bump up into the top-5 money positions, meaning Macdara NashÛÓwho turned 50 midway
through the seriesÛÓis now the bronze medalist Master behind HFC’s Tom Vossen and top 40+ ace Mike McGrane of the BAA.
Well, it was a great finale
on a sunsplashed day (with a few Series twists) to close out NER Pub Series
XIV. Can you believe next year is XX?
An announcement will come
via our free enewsletter and website about the Awards Night celebration at
Doyle’s. We always shoot for the 1st Thursday in Dec. For all the award winners
this is where we dole out cash, and for those who have done 6 races, jackets.
We receive the shoe certificates (for those who’ve done 5 races) the night of
the awards and then mail those out.
stay warm and keep moving, we’ll see you soon.
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