I last checked in after the Massepequa Firecracker back on July 5th. There the SRC team stole the show. Now flash forward a few weeks and two races later SRC is still doing it the only way they know how.
On July 19th 2009, was the Thunder Run 5k up in Hauppauge. This was a teams race and Sayville was looking to continue its way up the team ladder. However there was a few little snags in the team. Kevin Beach had come down with a bit of a niggle in the shin/ankle area and Brendan Barrett was feeling under the weather and didn't want to push through it and get even more sick. SRC sent Mike Petrina, Paul Murphy, Ryan Soltan, and Steve Chaklos to the line to keep the ball rolling.
The four of them did exactly that. All four ran intelligent smart races and kept themselves in it the whole time. The conditions were not ideal, but still better than prior years. With many runners playing it cautious the first half mile Petrina decided the first uphill was a good place to make a jump to the lead and stretch it out a bit. That's exactly what happened, Petrina sat in second place around the hilly and tough Thunder Run course waiting for the right time to shift gears and bring it home. With a half mile to go Petrina pushed it to the front and never looked back, winning in a time of 16:20. The rest of the team followed right behind. Paul Murphy was a strong 7th in 17:09, Soltan and Chaklos then rounded out the four SRC team racers with a 9th and 10th place respectively in 17:20 and 17:22.
All in all on this day SRC left with plenty of hardware and most importantly the 100 team points that was needed.
Jump ahead to the 26th of July and you have the CF Run of Sayville 4 miler. While not being a teams race it was still a good showing for the whole SRC team. Petrina, Barrett, Soltan, Banger, Beach, Mullaney, Connors, and many others toed the line for SRC.
Some of you who were there might have notice that some of the SRC faithful were rocking their Alumni jersey's. All in good fun Petrina was running with the Ferret of SBU, Soltan was in the Black and Gold of Adelphi XC and Beach was wearing the Purple of Scranton U.
While I don't want to bore you with race details I am being forced to give you step by step details...NOT. All the team members competed while especially Barrett and Beach who were back after their week hiatus. Here is a quick look at the SRC Finishers.
1 1/8 Michael Petrina W. Babylon NY 24 M 21:29 5:23
3 1/8 Brendan Barrett Sayville NY 25 M 22:05 5:32
6 2/8 Ryan Soltan Sayville NY 25 M 22:53 5:44
9 3/8 Kevin Beach Long Beach NY 28 M 23:48 5:57
11 1/26 Craig Banger Smithtown NY 41 M 24:20 6:05
14 1/12 Matt Connors Brightwaters NY 34 M 24:41 6:11
34 4/26 Bill Mullaney Sayville NY 44 M 27:14 6:49
57 5/8 David Oroza E. Patchogue NY 25 M 29:19 7:20
If I missed anyone please let me know. All in all it was a good two week stretch for the SRC faithful! Catch us all over the next two weeks in the Sayville Summerfest and then at the Massepequa Mile.
The 4th of July is known for a few things. Fireworks, Beaches, Barbecues and the Massepequa Firecracker. This year the Massepequa Firecracker was a race on the SRC calender that everyone was gearing up for. It was a race that SRC was going to use to see where the team stands for the rest of the summer and the fall season. Big things were going to happen and we as a team felt it coming on.
Back to the race at hand. While everyone else was off at family barbecues, SRC was out getting the job done. If you look at the results from the Massepequa Firecracker you can see the team training is paying off. With stellar showings from everyone straight across the board. While the conditions weren't all that great everyone ran the best that they could. 
