NE Runner dev site
Sorry for the long delay, we just got the Sept/Oct issue off to the printer yesterday (Tuesday, Aug. 22) so since the Memphis Soul 3.3-miler on Aug. 13 it’s been ‘all in” with our deadline cycle.
Tomorrow we head to the Cape for a day, so today was spent compiling Results and if you’re reading the Sept/Oct issue and the Memphis Soul write-up seems a tad redundant, it’s because what follows below is the Sept/Oct issue write-up. How’s that for a time-saver!
We’ll be much better getting the Music Festival 5K up and online shortly following Pub Series race No. 5. See you there!
Pork, Pints and Points in Soulful Union Square
Memphis Soul BBQ Run Race Director Paul Collyer moved the 7th edition of his race from Davis to Union Square in Somerville this Aug. 13 and the only difference was the race distance moving from 3.1 miles to 3.3 miles.
T-shirts and classy medals were proffered along with pork, chicken and baked beans outside of Sally O’Brien’s fine establishment. Inside, free beer was featured from Somerville’s Aeronaut Brewery; plus and foremost, there were the soulful wailings of Shor’ty Billups and his band.
Billups played with Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave back in the day, and departing club members (those who eventually departed) were effusive in their praise to the event’s head honcho for bringing the band to Union Square. The band’s presence was hard to miss with its white stretch limo parked near the finish line. (Photo: The B.A.A.’s Kristin Shaw moved to within a point of 3rd in the Series while HFC’s Eileen Cakouros – raven tressed in back – holds a 5-point lead among masters, photo by FitzFoto/NERunner).
There’s no major shakeups to report in Pub Series standings. Newton North coach Shawn Wallace and former Nebraska Wesleyan runner and current BU graduate student Hayley Sutter continued their winning ways, Wallace in 17:15 (5:14 pace) and Sutter in 19:54 (6:01 pace).
It was warm for the 11:00 am start—80˚ under sunny skies with a dose of humidity thrown in. “It’s not a bad course but it’s not an easy course,” offered Somerville Road Runner Chris Klucznik, third in 17:36. “There was a lot of incline, but nothing bad, and then the final downhill is a screamer. It reminded me of the Corrib.”
Substitute Vinal Road in Somerville for La Grange St. in West Roxbury and you get the picture, although we’d offer that Vinal Rd. has a steeper pitch and a lot of runners were observed windmilling their arms here.
First of course was Wallace, 36, followed 14-seconds later by Somerville’s Tim Harder, 32. Twenty seconds after Klucznik finished, defending Pub Series champ TJ Unger of the Hurtin’ for Certain Striders ran 17:56 ahead of Pubsters Patrick Bugbee of CSU in 18:10, past Pub champ Lee Danforth of HFC in 18:12 and SRR strongman Greg Picklesimer in 18:21. At 51 and yet to be drug tested, Pickle Power proved supreme among the 40+ set. (Photo: Chris “Sureshot” Spinney)
The great John Barbour, 63, of Greater Lowell, would run 19:58 (6:03 pace) to retain M60 Pub supremacy. Likewise for Medfield’s Dave Pember, 74, who ran 8:18 pace (27:21) in the M70 bracket to turn back NH Wildman Denny LeBlanc, 75, of Nashua, in 28-flat.
Racing out Somerville Ave. and looping back on Highland Ave., women’s winner Sutter was out of sight after halfway. Her time of 19:54 put her well ahead of the B.A.A.’s Kate Roberts, 35, in 20:41 and N. Kingstown, RI’s Jordan Silva, 22, in 20:45. 
The B.A.A.’s Amanda Watters, 37, in 5th at 21:05 resumed the Pub Series scoring with Ms. Watters firmly ensconced in second while HFC’s Dana Deingenis, 32, and the B.A.A.’s Kristen Shaw, 43, continued their hard-fought Series rivalry, Shaw besting Deingenis—21:36 to 22-flat—to pull within one point of Deingnis’s third-place standing. (Photo: Shady characters.)
Also cracking the top-10 was HFC’s Eileen Cakouris, 49, the top master here in 22:49 (and in the Pub Series). Other Pub stalwarts also winning their respective divisions included top senior Mary McNulty of HFC in 24:19, top veteran Marge Bellisle of Warren, RI in 23:35 and top 70+ runner Jan Holmquist of Whirlaway in 24:56 (Yup, 7:33 pace!). (Photo: Our hero, Larry Cole!)
Winning $75 as the first costumed Elvis was Mike Campion, 27, of Cambridge, who ‘thanked his way very much’ to the finish line in 23:11. The next stop on the malt and hops tour is Sept 9 in Pawtucket, RI for the Irish Music Festival 5K. See you there! (Photo left: Professor Dowling, photo by MickFoto/NERunner)
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