(Newburyport MA) Sometimes it’s your parents who set the boundaries: “Leave your sister alone!”
For runners the boundary-setter comes from their bodies.
Ruben Sanca at the finish
Eric Ashe finished second to Ruben Sanca in the 63rd annual Yankee Homecoming 10-mile road race.
“My legs didn’t have it today, I knew right off the bat,” said Eric afterwards.
“I took a couple of easy days after working hard training thinking it would be enough (for this race) but it wasn’t,” he added.
It was hard to tell that anything was wrong with Eric’s legs in the early going.
Eric and Ruben Sanca were flying together at the first-mile marker seeming destined for a close, fast matchup.
Eric Ashe – second
But that togetherness ended over the next two miles.
“I wasn’t aware of what kind of pace we were running at,” recalled Ruben after winning the race for the fourth time. “I was just trying to stay relaxed and maintain my effort.”
Ruben said that he thought that he gained separation from Eric “on the other side of Hanover Street.”
“Ruben pulled away in Miles 3-5 and put a big gap on me,” said Eric. “After that I was trying to not give up.”
Ruben came in at 51:48 while Eric settled for 53:24.
Jackie Solimine-Fazioli was pleased with her win: “I’ve come in second and third. It was nice to get a win.”
Jackie Solimine-Fazioli
Like Ruben, Jackie’s competition didn’t last too long.
I was surprised when Jackie told me the specifics of how her breaking away from her nearest competitor happened.
Jackie and Emma Bianculli
“There was another woman nearby for a mile or two,” said Jackie. “We were chatting, and I looked at my watch and said that ‘I should probably pick it up.’”
And pick it up she did.
You know that conversations go on among the casual runners. Who knew that the top runners do it too during a race!
Jackie (1:00:19) won the race and Beth Dollas (1:04) finished second.
“I was trying to break an hour,” said Jackie. “Maybe next time.”
Maybe if Jackie could cut down her chatting time…….?
Beautiful weather, close to seventy degrees.
Over 600 runners finished the 10-mile race. There were 114 runners from Newburyport who completed the course.
The course was changed a bit this year because going over Route 95 and blocking the exits and entrances to the highway were no longer allowed. The major adjustment to compensate was continuing down High Street/High Road to Rolfe’s Landing instead of Federal Street before taking the left toward the Merrimack River.
“The crowd was great and there was plenty of support,” said Jackie.
(Newburyport MA) The Yankee Homecoming 5K was back Tuesday night and the weather was fabulous.
The runners are on their way in the 61st edition of the YH 5K
After Covid-19 turned the popular event to virtual last year, the sixty-first edition was highly anticipated.
The 5K is usually combined with a ten-mile race but time constraints did that race in.
Ruben Sanca before the race
That fact put everyone who wanted a Tuesday night of racing through scenic downtown Newburyport into the 5K. And there were 1437 participants.
Highly successful, long-distance runner Ruben Sanca announced days prior to the race that he would be in the 5K and hoped to break the course record (14:37). Matthew Ely set the record back in 1999.
But as it turned out tonight, Ruben not only didn’t set the record, but he also didn’t even win.
The winner was Chris Alfond who finished at 14:38.
Where was Ruben?
“I’ve been pretty sick the last couple of days,” he explained afterwards. “I was tested Saturday and it wasn’t Covid, but I missed running three of the last four days.”
Ruben, who ran for Cape Verde in the 2012 London Olympics in the 5000 meters, took second but trailed Chris by over forty seconds.
Ruben Sanca settles for second
“I had trouble even from Mile One breathing,” said Ruben, “I was really congested.”
“I didn’t try to keep up with the winner after he opened up a gap,” added Ruben. “If I had done that I wasn’t going to be able to finish. I just tried to maintain position after 1 ½ miles since I was already in the top three.”
It makes you wonder what we would have seen if Chris and a healthy Ruben had gone head-to-head Tuesday night. I’m guessing that the 5K record would have belonged to someone else other than Matthew Ely after the race.
Betsy Suda won the female side of the race for the third time. Last two times were in 2009 and 2010. Betsy was second in 2019.
“I wasn’t near my best time,” said Betsy. “I just wanted to compete and do my best. I feel like I did that.”
“There was another woman (Olivia Sheffield) who was pretty close,” added Betsy. “I always try to picture someone close.”
Olivia finished at 19:12 which was twenty seconds after Betsy.
Waiting for the race to start on a beautiful night
The weather (76 degrees) was perfect at the 6PM start. I’ve covered this race many times and often in the past the heat has been an issue. Not tonight.
Ben Pare (3rd)
Tim Poitras (4th)
Chris Alfond (23 years old) said afterwards that he was aware that Ruben was in the race and was intent on setting a new record. Chris thought that they could work together to accomplish it. But not tonight.
Betsy Suda lives in Gainesville (FL) but comes north in the summer. Can’t blame her on that one! “When I’m in Florida I run with a group of women out of the University of Florida,” said Betsy.
Betsy is thirty-nine and said that she has run this race every year since she was thirteen. “This race was a lot of fun,” she said, “it’s nice to be here.”
“It was good to see everyone back for Homecoming,” added Ruben.
Ruben probably shouldn’t have run the race. “This race is so local (he lives in Salisbury) that I wanted to take part in it,” he said.
Joseph Walsh (5th)
Cody Moran (6th)
Plenty of folks watched in downtown around Market Square. “The crowd was great downtown,” said Betsy. “It may not have been as big as other years, but it was definitely as loud.”
My attention was caught with the common thread among eight of the top nine men finishers.
With the exception of Steve Dowsett (8th), every other runner is connected to the UMass Lowell River Hawks. Every one of them!
They didn’t all attend UMass Lowell at the same time, but Chris Alfond wasn’t kidding when he told the NDN, “I brought a bunch of my UMass Lowell teammates with me so we could have a good time together.”
Chris is a graduate student while Ruben graduated in 2010.
The others with UMass Lowell connections: Ben Pare (3rd), Tim Poitras (4th), Joseph Walsh (5th), Cody Moran (6th), Justin Carbine (7th), and Liam Kimball (9th).
Crowd starts to gather for the start of the race
And now you know, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story!
Runners came in a wide variety of age groups and training levels. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I have great admiration for those who push baby carriages the entire length. However, with the recently paved road on High Street in front of Newburyport High School, it may not have been quite as difficult as in previous years.
A great source for the results is “ATH.LINKS”
(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)
Justin Carbine (7th)
Liam Kimball (9th)
Steve Dowsett (8th)
Cody Moran, Ruben Sanca, Steve Dowsett
Waiting in front of Newburyport High School
Dave Sawyer (Wenham) warms up
Jonathan and dad Jason Everett of Amesbury before race
Meghan Myrbeck of Merrimac
Hannah Rafferty (401 – Newburyport) and Ava Herrera (444 – Rowley)
Michael O’Connor (592 – Newburyport), Pamela Kipp (1417 – Newburyport), Ethan Jason (142 – Newburyport)
Jeffrey Seelaus (2539) in the lead for good in the 5K
Yvonne Bungei wins the 5K
Ruben Sanca in the crowd with Eric Ashe nearby
(Newburyport MA) “Three miles in I was in a world of hurt”
“At five miles, in this weather, you start doubting yourself and your pace gets slower and slower. You try to hang on as best you can.”
Sounds unpleasant. And those were the words of the two top finishers (Ruben Sanca & Eric Ashe) in last night’s Yankee Homecoming 10-miler!
Margaret Njuguna (1581) leads but Karen Roa (1828) is nearby at the Cushing Museum
Imagine what the rest of the folks, running in heat in the mid-to-upper 80’s through the streets of Newburyport, must have felt like.
The women’s winner, Karen Roa, said that a key to handling the conditions was keeping hydrated. “It was a mental thing,” she said afterwards. “I wanted to go out conservative because of the weather.”
Mission accomplished for Karen. Cleveland Marathon winner Margaret Njuguna was also in the field and she started fast. Karen kept Margaret in her sights and eventually the conditions changed the positioning at the top.
“The young lady at the top kept looking back,” explained Karen, “so I thought that she was weakening. I kept after her and passed her at the seven-mile mark and didn’t look back.”
Enjoying the ride
Karen Roa won by nearly a minute (59:12).
Ruben Sanca captured the 10-mile event for the second straight year.
“I tried to take it out hard from the beginning,” said the UMass Lowell graduate. “My plan was to get away from everyone else. Unfortunately, because of how hot and humid it was I couldn’t maintain the fast pace.”
Enter Simmons University cross-country coach Eric Ashe.
“I tried to be a little conservative with the start and it almost worked,” he said. “I caught Ruben at about seven miles. I tried to make a final move to win.”
Ruben remembered it: “I knew someone was coming up on me. Eventually Eric caught me at eight miles. We ran together for about a mile. I knew the last mile pretty well and I started my kick and got the win.”
Justin Freeman shadows Brandon Newbould
Justin Freeman, the winner in 2011, came across third. “Last year I was in fifth coming up the last hill into the schoolyard and ended seventh. I tried to save a little more this time and take it easy. I settled behind Brandon Newbould (5th) for about 4 ½ miles then moved ahead. I came up on Mark Hegarty (4th) and created a little gap of about 30-35 yards. He (Mark) reeled about half of it back but I had something left at the end.”
One of the unique features of the 10-miler is that a 5K starts on the same route ten minutes earlier. That makes for some interacting of the two races about a mile in as well as at the finish. There are serious runners and there are those wanted to try it.
“There was a nice crowd,” said Eric Ashe. “It does get a little hectic at times trying to weave through the runners from the first race.”
Bryan Popp (1748) and Nicholas Denari (513)
I have always positioned myself one mile from the start near the Cushing Museum. The top finishers always show themselves by that point. Case in point was today’s 5K. UMass Amherst graduate Jeffrey Seelaus was in front there. Same for Williams grad Yvonne Bungei among the women.
St. John’s Prep math teacher Nicholas Denari was poised behind Triton grad Bryan Popp at Cushing but moved on to take second at the finish.
A little more from the top finishers from my interviews:
Eric Ashe: “All the hoses along the way were really helpful. I’ll probably do the New England Grand Prix and the Cape Cod Marathon. Besides coaching at Simmons, I also work for Tracksmith (running company in Boston).”
Justin Freeman: “It was a lot cooler the time I won this race. I’ve been coming here for more than ten years. It’s fun to do an evening race. It’s nice to do the same race over and over and be able to make comparisons. I teach math at the American School in The Hague (Netherlands). I have a condo in New Hampshire and my family comes over here for seven weeks in the summer.”
Ruben Sanca
Ruben Sanca: “It was great to win for a second time. I was lucky this time because my strategy of going out fast wasn’t the best. I am training for the Chicago Marathon in October.”
Karen Roa: “Running is a mental thing for me. Very busy. I am a doctorate candidate taking classes. I had labs this morning. I stuck to one guy in this race from Whirlaway who helped me a lot.”
My curiosity is why area high school running standouts weren’t in this year’s race. Where were John Lucey, Peter Lopata, and Dreese Fadil?
McClelland Miscellanea 