Monthly Archives: July 2013

July 31, 2013 · 11:53 am

Aschalew Mekete and Meseret Kitata win 2013 Yankee Homecoming 10 mile race

Aschalew Mekete wins with fellow Ethiopians Mengistu Nebsi and Tariku Bokan close behind.

Meseret Kitata takes the female division with Aimaz Fekade in sight behind her.

(Newburyport) They represented the West Side Runners of New York City, as well as Ethiopia, extremely well.

The top three spots in the 54th Yankee Homecoming 10-mile race in both male and female divisions were captured by newcomers to this race from WSX/Ethiopia in terrific times.

With temperatures in the low 70s, the Tuesday evening event was pleasant for both runners and spectators.

Dan Hocking narrowly won last year’s race with a time of 51:49. Granted it was a hot evening. In this year’s event, that time would have earned him 10th. That’s how fast the male field was this time around.

As the photo above shows, the top three (Aschalew Mekete, Mengistu Nebsi, and Tariku Bokan) were all in view in the final stretch at Newburyport High School. They were five seconds apart with Aschalew winning at 49:07.

Tariku, in 3rd, completed the course over a minute ahead of fourth place finisher Amos Sang (Abilene Christian/Kenya). Amos was part of the lead pack in the early going.

Early leaders in 10 mile

Another person in the early-lead pack was Tadesse Biratu who ended up 7th.

The winners in the female side were: Meseret Kitata, Aimaz Fekade, and Hirut Beyene. These women finished 17th, 18th, and 19th overall. Meseret’s time was 56:22 and Aimaz was only seven seconds after her.

Pat Fullerton runs alone at one-mile mark

Pat Fullerton dominated the 5K part of the racing program and that’s putting it mildly. I try to position myself one mile into the race (Cushing Museum) to get a sense of the early going. As my picture shows, Pat was at the museum as his pursuers are at the State Street/High Street traffic light. (What those cars in the picture are doing I’ll never know!)

Pat won the race (15:21) by over thirty seconds over Lucas Parson of Umass Lowell.

Alanna Poretta #1702

Alanna Poretta paced the 5K women (18:25) finishing 23rd overall. I saw her win the Cape Ann League championship running for Pentucket at Bradley Palmer Park a few years ago.

Rebecca Morse, also a Pentucket grad, finished third just four seconds behind Jana Schulson of Newburyport.

The races attracted a total of more than 3,000 runners ranging from the serious to the casual. The course provides a nice look at two of Newburyport’s most scenic areas: High Street and the downtown area.

In researching the West Side Runners of New York City, I found Alene Reta mentioned as a member. Alene won the Yankee Homecoming 10-mile event several times. Maybe he had something to do with getting this year’s participating club members involved in the Newburyport race??

This is the link to the complete race results for 2013.

(All of the pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

Matt Pelletier (6th)

Brian Harvey (5th)

Amos Sang (4th)

Tadesse Biratu (7th) and Nick Karwoski (8th)

5K crowd at Fruit Street

Lucas Parson (#3038 – 2nd) and Stephen Robertson (#1803 – 3rd)

Hirut Beyene – 3rd

Aimaz Fekade – 2nd

Justin Freeman – former winner finishes 11th

2013 Harrison Old Home Days parade

fire engine girl

(Harrison) I’ll admit it. I used to go to the Harrison Old Home Days parade for the candy. In fact, I used to bring my granddaughters along because they would attract candy tossers.

But that was until I started taking pictures for this blog. I now take my camera to every event I attend and almost always give the event a blog entry including pictures.

If you peruse my blog you’ll see that most of the events I attend are sports related. I’m getting to like parades because the participants see a camera and pose without encouragement.

Temperatures today (Saturday) were in the low 80’s and there was plenty of shade along the Main Street route to please spectators.

twins

(I do not sell pictures. However, I will send, via email, the original copy of a picture in its unedited condition to anyone requesting it.)

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

Tim Even and Halee Phelps win the Harrison 5K Run by the Lake

The runners slosh off in the Harrison 5K. Tim Even, in the blue shorts, gets a fast start.

(Harrison ME) Under downpour conditions, Tim Even won the 11th Annual Harrison Rec Department’s 5K on Wednesday night for the second straight year.

Halee Phelps (junior at Westbrook High School) paced the women with a seven second victory over Anna Lastra (sophomore at Fryeburg Academy).

Halee Phelps

Tim Even

The rainy conditions were a big factor. If you weren’t carrying an umbrella, or sitting in your vehicle, you were a runner.

It was actually quite dark for the 7PM start but those running this well-managed event (Tammy Anderson and Julie Crawford-Murphy) were more than capable of handling the safety issues that driving rain, darkness, and a flow of traffic might cause.

Tim Even, by way of Fryeburg Academy and Southern Maine, started fast and never trailed, although last year’s 73-second margin of victory was reduced to 13 seconds by Eric Darling.

Tim’s winning time was 17:19, which was over thirty seconds slower than last year. Blame the rain? Maybe. I saw Tim finish 17th in the big Bridgton 4th race a week ago after he took second in 2012. I’m guessing that there’s some sort of injury in the mix.

Eric Darling

Anna Lastra

Eric Darling, who won the race in 2011, finished ninth last year on a warm evening. The native of Shelborne VT shaved over three minutes off of his time in 2012 to get second place this year.

Josh Grenier and Brett Albright finished 3rd and 4th. Mark MacDougall (Lake Region High School) and Arno Bommer (from Houston) were separated by two seconds for 5th.

Tim Cushing (Bridgton) ended up 7th followed by Patrick Ridlon (he was 12th in 2012) and 18-year-od Michael Mayles. Nathan Cushing rounded out the top ten males.

Halee Phelps is 16-years-old and finished 16th overall to capture the female title. Close behind Halee was Anna Lastra a 15-year-old from Fryeburg Academy.

Erin Seavey of Newburgh (ME) was the third woman finisher.

Laracy brothers

For the second straight year I got a picture of the Laracy brothers, Matt (14) and Mitchell (11), running together down Main Street.

This site has complete race results.

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

Mark MacDougall (5th) and Arno Bommer (6th)

Brett Albright (4th)

Josh Grenier (3rd)

pre-race lineup

Tim Even pre-race

Erin Seavey (3rd female)

Nathan Cushing (10th)

Patrick Ridlon (8th) and Michael Mayles (9th)

Tim Cushing – 7th

pre-race darkness

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Filed under Harrison 5K Run by the Lake

Tagged as 2013 Harrison Recreation Department 5K Run by the Lake, Anna Laska, Eric Darling, Halee Phelps, Josh Grenier, Tim Even

July 4, 2013 · 9:32 pm

Moninda Marube and Mary Pardi win 37th Annual Bridgton 4 on the Fourth

(Bridgton) Last year the elite runners from away stayed away.

On this very hot morning, a collection of talented newcomers appeared and dominated the 37th annual race.

Moninda Marube

Mary Pardi

Moninda Marube, the 34-year-old originally from Kenya, started fast and won easily with a time of 20:27.

Second place finisher Matt Rand (Tufts University) trailed Moninda by over thirty seconds.

Finishing third was Craig Robinson (Bentley University) who trailed Matt by nearly thirty second.

So there was plenty of space between the first three. In each case, the runner ahead had reached the Bridgton News office as the next runner was coming down the hill above the Big A.
The promising youngster among the Top Ten was 15-year-old Thomas Ratcliffe, the Concord-Carlisle sophomore, who overtook John Vallo (Southern Maine) down the stretch to capture 4th. Thomas won the Dual County (MA) League championship for the mile in outdoor track as a freshman.

Matt Rand

Jenna Willett

Philip Parent of Pinkerton Academy (Derry NH) followed Pete Bottomley and Silas Eastman to get 8th.

Last year’s winner (Silas Eastman) finished two full minutes after the 2013 winner Moninda Marube in seventh place. Silas just graduated from Fryeburg Academy and in the fall will be attending Colby College.

Fifty-one-year-old Pete Bottomley reached sixth this time around after his best finish ever (3rd) in 2012.

Forty-year old Michael Keenan (South Glastonbury CT) got past Taylor Days-Merrill (Assumption College freshman) late to gain the ninth spot.

Mary Pardi finished twentieth overall and first among the women. Mary was ninth among the women in the 2012 Philadelphia Marathon.

Craig Robinson

Bridget Gagne

Jenna Willett (Kenyon College Fighting Scots) was second and Bridget Gagne (winner of the Miles for Miracles in Hartford last month) took third.

The tough heat was certainly a factor in this one. My suspicion is that many runners signed up but (wisely?) chose to stay away from the actual event. It was even hot watching the race!

The coolest spot in the area had to be where a mother duck and her five ducklings were situated in Stevens Brook as the race went on.

I did some Google research on Moninda Marube and was able to see his Facebook page. One of the pictures on the page looked very familiar to me and I realized that I had seen Moninda run last July in the Newburyport Yankee Homecoming 10-miler. Moninda came in a close 4th against a very strong field. Here is my story/pictures from that race.

Click here to see the race results for the 2013 Bridgton 4 on the 4th.

(If you click on any of the pictures they will enlarge considerably.)