Marion 5K sees veteran runners, first-timers
It didn’t take long for the Marion Village 5K to have a winner – only 15 minutes and 43 seconds.
Andrew Sukeforth of Middleboro finished first, with second place finisher Nicholas Stathos of Wellesley coming in less than three minutes behind him. Third place for the male division was Evan Tilley of Rochester with a time of 18:30.
Fourteen-year-old Meg Hughes of Rochester won the female group, coming in at 19:40. In second was Anne Preisig of Falmouth with a time of 20:24, and third was Rebecca Cotugno, of Dartmouth at 22:03.
The top three men and women finishers each received prize money.
The race saw a good turnout, with many runners confident that the flat terrain would work to their advantage.
“I haven’t done a lot of training recently,” Kate Hartley of Rochester said. “I’ve never done this race, but it seems like it’ll be easier because it’s pretty flat.”
Scott Hartley agreed, saying that he runs a lot of 5K races, but this one is one of his favorites because it’s flat.
Both of the Hartleys are experienced 5K runners, but there were other participants running in their first 5K.
One of those first-timers was 8-year-old Nora Flynn who felt pretty confident.
“I already practiced,” she said. “My mom goes to the gym and there’s a track there so sometimes I go and run.”
Her brother Liam, 12, had run one 5K before on Cape Cod and had his strategy down.
“I’m going to run as far as I can, then walk for ten to fifteen seconds, and then run again,” he said.
Nora and Liam ran with their parents Ted and Katie Flynn. This was their first 5K as a family.
“We’re just kind of going for it,” Ted said.
Full race results can be found at: http://www.jbrace.com/Results16/marion16over.txt