Megan Hogan would’ve raced the New Bedford Half Marathon the prior weekend…had she not spent the night before in the emergency room. Still not back to full strength from the illness, Megan was there on the line at the 39th Annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race this past Saturday.

Unfortunately for the competition, a weaker Megan Hogan is still too much to handle. Hogan covered the 10k course in 33:40, placing third amongst the women and 19th overall in the deep, competitive field.

Ahead of Hogan were a couple of New York runners: Askale Merachi won in 33:14, followed by Alice Kamunya in 33:29.

Apryl Sabadosa, whom you may remember as the mysterious barefoot runner who gave Meagan Nedlo a run for her money earlier this year, was out representing the Western Mass Distance Project. Still feeling the New Bedford Half Marathon in her legs (and wearing shoes this time!), Apryl ran a strong race and her 38:54 was good enough for 7th in her age group.

On a side note, I’ve never seen so many people puke after a race. That just shows that people weren’t sitting back and mailing it in. They were out there pushing it to that red line, making sure they earned those post-race beers. Sure, it’s easy to applaud Megan and Apryl for their efforts (and they do deserve it), but there were quite a few people much further back that were also giving it their all and testing their limits.

Men’s coverage coming soon…