Liberty AC at Frank Nealon Boston Prep/USATF-NE 15K, Upton 4/04/2026
The former and perhaps future Upton loop course was hilly from start to finish. This year’s
revised version (due to road work on a bridge, we’re told) was a no less relentlessly hilly out-and-back
(plus a pair of ‘keyholes’). The second keyhole came just before 5 miles, and anyone who ran this one
will likely shudder at the mention of Juniper Road.
Upton is a classic “leafy suburb” -- large homes amidst woods, some old, many new, much of the
course shady and scenic. The right turn up Juniper Road, though, revealed a spacious, freshly-
landscaped development – which few will have noticed since Juniper Road was just a monster hill climb.
Neither iteration of the Frank Nealon course feels easy at any point, right up to the long haul back up
Pleasant Street to the high school that heaves into view with the finish line still nearly a half-mile away.
All of which is by way of saying that the 18 marvelous Liberty women that took on this race
represented themselves and their club exceedingly well. Here’s how they finished:
Madeline Miller 1:04:56; Mimi Fallon 1:07:19; Catherine Xie 1:07:19; Mary Cass 1:10:49; Maureen
Larkin 1:10:52; Pauline Entin 1:10:58; Judy Jungels 1:12:03; Ann Liu 1:12:33; Amanda King
1:13:09; Ashley Robbins 1:15:49; Jackie Shakar 1:16:23; Viki Bok 1:18:21; Anne Shreffler 1:22:24;
Caitlin Sweeney 1:22:39; Margaret Keaveny 1:23:53; Kara Brown 1:24:51; Jessica Wheeler
1:29:44; Brenda King 1:35:09.
Highlights:
This was Jessica’s first Liberty race and she was a ladle-winner, 3 rd in the 70-plus division. Mimi was
the day’s top division-placer with 2 nd in the 60-69s (ladle!)
“ “ Anne Liu’s first USATF-NE team race with Liberty; Maureen in her second.
The 60-plus group again stood out, and while Tracksmith took the 60s team title by a noodge
Liberty’s depth was crazy, with 9 of 33 age 60-69 finishers wearing Liberty blue.
If you look up your result https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/197686#resultSetId-638590;perpage:10
you’ll find your 5M split and finish time, each with pace-per-mile. What stood out to me is that nobody
“fell off the table” but all in fact paced themselves well, a few slowing slightly in the second half but
many with negative splits.
Amanda equaled her time from this race four years ago: this western Mass hills must agree with her!
Madeline was really strong over 2nd half, averaging 7:06 through 5M where she caught up with me. I
picked up to 6:58s over the 2 nd half but Madeline pulled away, from me and a bunch of strong runners,
covering 5-9.3M at a 6:50 pace. Several, like Madeline used this as a Boston prep race, and all the
even- and negative-split pacing reflected a smart approach.
Lots of close LAC packing, with Catherine and Mimi; Mary, Maureen & Pauline; Judy, Anne L &
Amanda; Anne S, Caitlin, Margaret, Kara right with or near one another. Love that.
TEAMS: https://d368g9lw5ileu7.cloudfront.net/races/results_bkrclrc3gzvsgwm71idvhbaslypi.txt
OPEN (top 5 times) – LAC 7 th of 13, 5:41:14 [BEN RC 5:41:22 & SRR 5:41:55] – Miller, Fallon, Xie,
Cass, Larkin
Masters 40+ (top 5) -- LAC 7 th of 11, 5:44:52 [Notch 6 th , 5:42:56] – Miller, Fallon, Cass, Larkin, Entin
Seniors 50+ (top 3) – LAC 5 th of 9, 3:28:59 [Tracksmith 4 th 3:26:45] – Fallon, Cass, Larkin
Veterans 60+ (top 3) – LAC 2 nd of 6, 3:28:59 (Tracksmith 3:26:45] – Fallon, Cass, Larkin
. . . Suddenly we find ourselves wishing that 50s & 60s teams scoring went 5-deep, you know? . . .
Oh, and breaking the 60s into 5-year divisions (as will be done for USATF-NE series purposes): 65-
69s = Jackie, Anne & Brenda went 3-4-9; 60-64s = Mimi, Mary, Maureen, Judy, Amanda & Viki went
2-5-6-7-9-11.