The Moulton’s were in prime position to pull off another double win on Sunday in Providence but Eimear Black had other plans. Pat & Katie Moulton have pulled off the feat a few times in the past but they would have to settle for only a win and a runner up between the two of them.
Pat pretty much ran all by himself and cruised to victory in the full marathon, running 2:33:30. His nearest competition was Gary Krugger, who was over six minutes behind him.
@levelrenner Pat Moulton with well over 2 minute lead at mile 22 at Providence marathon. pic.twitter.com/CknFdvcMnp
— Fiona Murphy (@FionaMurphy19) May 3, 2015
Hayley Miller was the first woman, and she came through in 2:57:46. She also placed 12th overall. Hayley also enjoyed a sizeable lead (nearly five minutes).
The top masters runners on the day were David Principe and Kathy Hitchcock, who ran 2:44:54 and 3:13:35 respectively. Principe impressively came in 4th overall, just after trail runner extraordinaire Robert Jackman (2:43:53).
On how the day went, Moulton said: “I just went at a comfortably hard effort and led from the start. It’s nice racing the same roads you train on and seeing friends along the way.”
It also served as a nice training run for Pat, who is considering running a 50 miler at the end of the month. That’s not too much longer, right?
The competition was a little closer in the half, especially on the women’s side. Eimear Black, a former Bryant Bulldog, ran seemingly on a whim. “Ryan Busby was running the marathon and I didn’t want to sit and wait for him for ages,” she said jokingly. Looks like Ryan’s decision to run the marathon resulted in a more competitive field for the women’s half marathon. Who knew? Well, sicne we’re talking about him, Ryan himself ran a 2:59:06 on Sunday.
On how the race went for her, Eimear said that “Katie went out around 6 min pace and I just sat with her for a while then felt ok around mile 5 so I went to the front of the pack we had. It was a nice wee pack of a few guys and Katie.” It would be better if the phrase ‘nice wee pack’ came up more in race reports.
Anyway, Eimear ended up running a 1:20:34 compared to Katie’s 1:21:12. That’s pretty close for a half marathon.
Even with the win, Black knows that better times are on the horizon. “I feel really unfit so I know I can do much better. I’m hoping for a sub 80min half soon. I haven’t worked out in about a year due to about a million injures so I should probably start that.” A step up to the full marathon distance is in the cards for her, too, if she can stay healthy and string together some consistent training. If this is how she fares with a rough base then she has a bright future ahead of her on the roads.
The overall winner of the half was Eric Lonergan, the ace of the Rhode Runner Racing Club. Lonergan ran a 1:09:52 and was able stay in control and just ahead of Jonathan Joyce (1:10:31).
“I ran a little behind Jonathan and Derek (Jakoboski) the first two miles as I imagine they were around 5:15-5:20s. Jonathan had taken off at mile 2 and had probably a 30 second or more lead on Derek and I. I ran with Derek through 5 or 6 miles at 5:30 pace and then started to gap him.” After that, Eric was off to reel in Joyce, which he did by mile 10. Once out in front, Eric didn’t let his foot off the gas and pushed on through for the win.
Lonergan, along with a group of fellow Rhode Runners, has his sites set on running the Philly Marathon in the fall. He certainly seems to be in good position to run a solid time there if he can continue building off of this.
Although Sunday felt significantly warmer than what we’ve experienced so far this year, it didn’t seem to affect the runners. Well, not the ones leading the race at least. “The warmer weather was great, I hate the cold!” said Eimear. It was a little surprising to hear that since the temps went from below average to above average rather quickly, but that sentiment was shared by both Moulton and Lonergan. Not sure if the other couple thousand runners felt the same way though.
