Apologies for being AWOL in Pawtucket, but despite being optimistic and booking a room for Sat. night, the stomach flu proved both brutal and persistent. (Homepage photo: HFC’s Pat Sweeney and Whirlaway’s Chris Spinney lead women’s winner Kristin Shaw and runner-up Cara Harrison, photo by MickFoto/NERunner)
The only decent byproduct was dropping 15-pounds in a week; hence, onsite scribe Mike McGrane will handle Music Fest duties for the next issue.
This was an exciting race for Mike as 1) he moved to within 1-point of overall M40 leader Kevin Delaney of CSU, and 2) wife Amanda Watters took control of the women’s division while 3) Mike and Amanda’s good friend and B.A.A. teammate Kristin Shaw won the women’s race in a PR 19:15 to move past HFC’s Dana Deingenis (4th woman) into second on the Pub Series leaderboard.
Speaking of which…women’s leader Hayley Sutter had mentioned at Doyle’s that she had a conflict with a race, and Music Fest it was. Just 5-points short of a perfect score heading into Pawtucket, Hayley now sits in 5th with 195 points with Whirlaway’s Heather Spinney in 4th with 201 points. (photo: impromptu bike shop near the race start).
Clawing back after missing a race will be tough. To wit: If Hayley wins Paddy’s and Heather duplicates her 6th place finish from Music Fest, Heather will have 246 points to Hayley’s 245.
HFC’s Eileen Cakouris has a firm grasp among women W40, same for HFC’s Mary McNulty at W50 although 2nd place (W50) between Jennifer Stewart and Lisa Williams is separated by just 2-points. (Photo: W40 leader Eileen Cakouris.)
Ocean State great Marge Bellisle and W70 superstar Jan Holmquist continue to embarrass the lower divisions.
On the men’s side it was another dominant performance by Newton North coach Shawn Wallace, winner in 15:46. SRR’s Chris Kluczniak (4th overall) also has a good cushion at 2nd in the men’s standings but a resurgent TJ Unger (3rd) has now generated a 3-way tie for 3rd.
TJ and HFC teammate Lee Danforth along with CSU’s Pat Bugbee all have 219 points.
SRR’s Greg Picklesimer (M50), Greater Lowell great John Barbour (M60) and long-time pubster Dave Pember (M70) all have a nice cushion. Below Pember and courtesy of his overall M70 win at Music Fest, the irascible Denny LeBlanc has now moved into a tie for 2nd with defending M70 champ Rich Paulson.
That’s it from NER World HQ, we’ll see you all at the Grand Finale at Paddy’s on Oct. 15!
Women’s Standings
Men’s Standings
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