Cupids Chase 5K

After a one week weather delay, the 4th Annual Cupids Chase took place in Wakefield, MA.

This is the second race in the Melrose Running Club Race Series. Unofficially, I think we had about a dozen runners turn out. The postponement probably didn’t help. For some people February vacation began Friday night also.

The official results show 206 finishers which is up quite a bit from 2016.

The winner was Ciara Camire of Beverly with a time of 20:1. Second place went to Julie Barrett of Wilmington finished in 20:40. The top man to finish came in 3rd over all, which is quite unusual.

Douglas Cronin of Waban finished in 21:17.

The top Melrose Running Club finisher was Matthew Kerton at 22:30. Matt won his age group also.

Next was Diarmuid (Derm) Cahill who came in first in his age group at 23:13. Audie Bridges came in second in his age group at 24:02. Don Keren, our club President, came in third in his age group.

The three of them cleaned up the 60-69 men’s age group bracket!

I came in 29th over all and 2nd in my age group at 24:34.

Just about everyone I spoke with enjoyed themselves. It was cold, but it wasn’t raining and it was a 5K on a flat course.

There is a long slow rise in the road around mile 2.5 that you would barely notice in a car. You certainly notice it near the end of a race!

Cupids Chase Chaser

It was too cold to wait at the finish line and cheer people on, though many of us did hang out for a bit.

The after race party was fairly subdued. The food options were limited and they had Sam Adams by the bottle. This made it difficult for the bar tenders to keep up with a long line of thirsty runners.

It was great to have a Saturday race. Several runners were also running the MRC Sunday Long Run, so this was great for them. A few people had to rush off to take care of family commitments and the usual Saturday errands we all have.

I think most people had a beer, socialized a bit and headed out. I heard that the Mac & Cheese was awesome!

Full race results here.

A few photos