cOACH jOHN’S RACE REPORTS
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With White Stadium out to lunch for the foreseeable future, no access to the path on the back side and construction fencing extending to the edge of Pierpont/Playstead Road, Franklin Park was its old self, but different. Changes involved a simplified use of three course elements: Playstead field, the Wilderness, and (of course) Bear Cage Hill. The women’s 6K involved two of each in that order, while the men’s 8K added a third Wilderness-Playstead circuit. (Open men ran 8K as a 10K course was deemed too complicated.)
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. More than 1400 completed a course that included stretches along Maudslay State Park and the Artichoke River, with the last mile on a wooded rail trail.
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.
Lots of weekend Liberty racing news, almost all of which was concentrated on a 400-meter track in Weston. First, though, we were pleased to have a Loomis encounter last Thursday – for those new-ish to Liberty, Amanda Loomis (always call her Loomis) is a veteran club member, great person, fine runner, and fellow denizen of West Roxbury. She came out to the Thursday evening Parkway RC run and we did about 40 minutes (give or take) together, catching up and discussing her upcoming Chicago marathon plans. Great to see you, Loomis!
The USATF-New England Road Mile and Falmouth Sprint Triathlon topped the marquee this weekend, with excellent group and individual results for Liberty.