(Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD – On Friday, Stanley Park played host to The New England Challenge’s Old Colony marathon race, part of an ambitious marathon series.
The New England Challenge consists of five marathons held in five different states throughout five consecutive days. This year the challenge began in Maine then traveled onto New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and ended in Massachusetts.
Race Director Chuck Savage got the idea from another race series called the Mainly Marathons. Savage saw that the Mainly Marathons hadn’t covered the New England area and Savage then wanted to create the opportunity for runners to participate in a series on the East Coast.
“It occurred to me to do something,” said Savage. “We wanted runners to be able to participate in multiple races all in one trip”.
Close to 100 runners from across the country participated in the marathon, about 60 of whom who had already run all of the four previous days in the Challenge. There were passionate runners and walkers of all ages, some who had come all the way from states like Chicago and Minnesota.
“People were from everywhere. I applauded everyone who went by,” said Stanley Park Managing Director Robert Mckean. “It was quite a thrill and I was so impressed”.
It was a pleasant surprise to McKean when the Challenge first approached the park asking to use it as the race location. The previous year the New England Challenge used Forest Park in Springfield as the Massachusetts race location, but this year wanted a safer route so that the runners wouldn’t have to be out in the traffic.
“We are always interested in bringing other people to the park,” said McKean. “It’s really great to see things like this happening.”
Race results and more information on the marathon series can be found at www.newenglandchallenge.org
