cOACH jOHN’S RACE REPORTS
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Twenty Liberty athletes – roughly a quarter of the club’s membership – took on the great James Joyce Ramble, once again the national 40-plus 10K championship, from Dedham’s elegant Endicott Estate on Sunday. It was a magnificent sea of blue before, during and after the race. Support crew Maria Rojas Duran & Caitlin Sweeney brought the tent (pitched on the wide estate lawn next to Michelle Lebrun & Bob Fitzgerald’s New England Runner tent), Jennifer Stewart & Karen Lein held signs, Amanda King (& others?) brought tasty baked stuff from western Mass. Nothing not to like here!
Where to start? Let’s go with the 14-strong volunteer crew at the convention center, representing Liberty at packet/number pickup. Saturday was a morning for two traditional races, the BAA 5K and the Lexington 5-miler. There was something on Monday, and there’s hardly a need any longer to try describing the Boston Marathon in words.
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.
Saturday’s world championship was something to behold: the best distance runners in the world at Tallahassee’s now-famous Apalachee Regional Park course, on a sunny and quite warm day. The competition was fabulous.
Liberty runners ran tightly together and this had a positive aspect in team scoring (see below). With cross country scored by points (places added together) rather than by cumulative times, it turned out to be a glorious day for the Liberty Athletic Club.
The 2025 USATF-New England road grand prix series concluded in grand style on Sunday, at the mouth of the Merrimack River up in Newburyport MA. Conditions were chilly at the start but clear throughout with not too much wind interference, excellent overall running conditions.