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Hop Harvest A Happening (& it Happened!)
The 8th annual Pub Series Brewery race in Weymouth, and the first from the Vitamin Sea Brewery (with Barrel House Z 2-doors down shuttered) was spared the worst of the weather on Sunday, Sept. 13.
Winner of the nonexistent Mocktail division.
The forecasted continual rain didn’t start at all until an hour into the race, so 92 year-old Larry Cole received a spritzer, but nothing he couldn’t handle, while in other areas of New England, lightning and thunder wreaked havoc.
Among larger races, the Downtown 5K in RI was postponed and the Surftown Half Marathon in Conn. was cancelled.
So the show went on at Pub Series stop No. 5 with 3:59 miler Liam Back out of Providence College leading the show. Back was led off course by a motorcycle cop, lost 10 seconds, but still “jogged” it in the winner in 15:34.
It was a speedfest up front with top Publican Patrick Bugbee placing 7th followed by 10 other Series stalwarts in close succession. Top Seniors Tim Gavin (18-flat) of HFC and Doug Johnson (CSU) were just 3-seconds apart – but both have missed a race – leaving the top M50 slot the sole province of VT’s Michael McGrane who is 3-points ahead of Gavin and 4-points ahead of Johnson.
Top Veteran on the day, Scott Grandfield of the Greater Springfield Harriers (18:15) maintains a 3-point lead over steady Chris Smith of SRR, while Septuagenarian speedster Gary Morin rules the M70 roost with a game Ed Kehoe in second. The rarified air of the Octogenarian division is breathed by NE-65+ member Rich Paulson, with the same breathing apparatus employed by Colonial Road Runner Betsy Knapp in the distaff side.
Recent Bowdoin College graduate Tori Bacall had a momentary advantage over recent Merrimack College graduate (and fromer Weymouth high schooler) Marianna Collins.
While recent Bowdoin graduate Tori Bacall and recent Merrimack College graduate Marianna Collins relived past collegiate duels up front in the women’s race, CSU’s Elizabeth Bugbee once again had one runner behind her displacing points from current leader Mimi Fallon, who hangs by a thread in front (229 to Bugbee’s 228) with just Paddy’s Shillelagh Shuffle 3M on Oct. 18 left on the docket.
After the Hop Harvest 5K, Elizabeth Bugbee is just a solitary point behind in the quest for the Pub Series golden chalice.
Paddy’s is a race RI’s Carla Colcord just has to complete to snare the women’s Masters division. Likewise, Mimosa Run diva Kristin Majka of Plymouth is a W50 lock. Another Mimosa Run regular, Cassandra Clancy, is one spot behind leader Mimi Fallon, who will bump upwards into the top-3 leaving Clancy the W60 prize winner. Thing happen in threes, so W70 belongs to the Mimosa Run hostess herself, Marianne Withington.
That’s that until the next tap is pulled at Paddy’s. See you there!
