Breaking

The Sunday morning race began early, with a start at Cramer’s Park, followed by a climb up the rolling hills to the Millennium Monument, and a return run to the park for a fast downhill finish.

GHCDS junior, Dominic Pugliese, was the first to finish the challenging run. His time was 19:44. Fresh off of yesterday’s win in the Run to Your Library 5K, Joe Noonan was second in 20:11. Fifth grader Mason Lambert, who also ran in yesterday’s race, crossed the line with his mom as the third place male.

As the first place female, Megan Lambert cruised in with a time of 23:28. Shari Bashaw was second and Catherine Seguin was third. In total, nine men and seven women conquered the Beast of the East.

As if the climb up Point Udall wasn’t impressive enough, seven of those BOTE 5K runners also signed up for the race which followed a triple mini triathlon — where athletes competed in a short swim, bike and run three times. While several triathletes arrived at the conclusion of the 5K with fresh legs, all thirteen took to the starting line on the beach at the same time. Athletes ran down the beach where they entered the water for a point-to-point 200-meter swim, then on hopped on their bikes for another trip to the top of Point Udall, then on to a .5-mile run within Cramer’s Park.

Teammates Dom and Mikey Dizon-Bumann went head to head for the first two laps until Dom broke away on the third bike leg. Dom was ahead by over one minute, then opened up the gap on the final run to finish one minute 15 seconds ahead of Mikey with a time of 58:50. Mikey was second and Wayne Nichols, who is nearly 4 times older than the teens, was third in 1:10:52.

The female winner of the BOTE 5K was also the female winner of the Triple Mini Triathlon. Megan Lambert mentioned last week that she “wasn’t ready” to do all three laps of the mini triathlon, but proved herself wrong by turning out three pretty consistent lap splits. Her overall time was 1:23:24. Although she couldn’t shift into her lowest gear while climbing, Shari Bashaw came in with a smile on her face and talked about how much fun she had. She finished second in 1:31:51.

GHCDS classmates Kaeden Gleason and Mason Lambert completed all three legs of triathlon with such determination. The two fifth graders were a steady distance apart until the second lap when Kaeden leaped forward a few minutes ahead of Mason. Kaeden finished all three laps in 1:12:32 and Mason crossed the line in 1:25:25. We commend both boys for their effort on the course.

A special category was named for the ambitious athletes who ran the 5K then completed all three laps of the mini triathlon – Fit For Four. With a combined time of the 5K and the three laps Dominic was the winner in a time of 1:18:34. Young Kaeden Gleason was second in 1:37:26 and Wayne Nichols was third in 1:44:33.

The next event hosted by the VITF is the Grand Finale Junior Triathlon on Sunday, April 22 at Cramer’s Park at 8am. It will be the final event in the Junior Tri VI series until the fall.