Liberty AC racing results the week of August 10, 2025

Bobby Doyle 5 Miler

The Bobby Doyle Classic/USATF-NE 5-mile championship finally arrived, and, eventually, so did the athletes once they made it through all the traffic backups (and perhaps a few didn’t make it because of them?).  The maxim by which I’ve lived for years, “arrive an hour before the start and you’re fine” didn’t apply yesterday – I’ve never seen traffic backed up so far, or so early, for this race.  (And for those who weren’t there, this also includes lines for port-a-potties.)

I’m not clear on why this was the case, but a little research suggests at least part of the reason. Back in 2016 this race had 678 finishers.  In non-USATF years, the numbers were lower, 400 or less.  Then in 2023, 809 runners finished, 854 in ‘24, and 1,018 this year.  Ohhh-kaaaay.  I know a lot of Liberty folks had difficulty getting there (I’ve only heard a couple of stories so far) and several clubs, ours included, weren’t even able to get tents set up.  (We found shade and made do, as it were.)

Remarkably, everyone (seemingly) kept their cool and ran outstanding races!  Miles 2 and 5 were tough, as expected, but outside of those, the course was favorable and mostly shaded.  Let’s get right to the numbers, shall we?

Individuals:

39-under: Madeline Miller 33:21, Catherine Xie 33:56, Margaret Keaveny 40:11, Ashley Robbins 42:37

40-49:        Maria Rojas Duran 53:02

50-59:        Pauline Entin 35:24 (Liberty debut), Veronique Vanderhorst 35:36, Alison Conway 38:20,

                    Melanie MacFarlane 44:23

60-69:        Mary Cass 34:24, Mimi Fallon 34:58, Lauren Leslie 36:08, Jackie Shakar 38:34, Viki Bok   39:10, Anne Shreffler 41:24, Brenda King 48:51, Helene Sussman 49:01

70-79:        Marge Bellisle 41:13

Marge was the champion of her division by a full 2:00.  In the 60-69s Mary, Mimi, Lauren, Jackie & Viki went 3-4-5-7-8 . . . !  (Fun facts: In 2018 Marge was the top 60-69 finisher for both women and men, and in 2019 Jackie and Marge were 1-2 in that bracket.)  Your coach ran 32:21 to win the men’s 70-79s.

Team results aren’t official quite yet but this is what they’ll look like. (3 score in 60+, 5 in all others)

Open (all ages):  6th of 11, 2:52:05 (Madeline, Catherine, Mary, Mimi, Pauline) [GLRR 7th, 2:58:06]

40-plus, 5 score): 4th of 10, 2:56:31 (Mary, Mimi, Pauline, Veronique, Lauren) [Tracksmith 2:57:17]

50-plus (5):          2nd of 8, 2:56:31 (same group)

60-plus (3):          1st of 5, 1:45:31 (Mary, Mimi, Lauren) [GLRR 2nd 1:50:52]

Note: This morning’s initial draft of team results contained an error by timing company RaceWire.  It showed the women’s and men’s 50-plus adding the times of only the top 3 runners, not 5.  Liberty was still 2nd but it was squeaky-close over Tracksmith (11 seconds total) and Greater Lowell (13).  Going 5-deep, Liberty’s depth comes into play and it isn’t close any more.

Other results: On Thursday evening Julie Menosky won the 60-plus division at the Beverly Yankee Homecoming 5K at Lynch Park (“I could run that course blindfolded,” says Julie.)  Her 22:51 was the first time she’d broken 23 in quite a while -- all that good 400m speed work?

Jennifer and Alexa Stewart headed to Milwaukee for the US Triathlon Championships, held in nasty weather conditions.  Jennifer managed to re-qualify for worlds at the Olympic distance on Saturday while Alexa, sadly, was “flooded out” from the sprint event after heavy overnight rains.  I’d report more on JStew’s race but I can’t locate a results page.  (Note to USA Triathlon: can you make finding results just a little bit easier?  With all the divisions in triathlon it’s difficult enough as is.)

What’s next? Cross country season!!