New Bedford Half Marathon: Thousands of runners hit the streets. Here's who won.
NEW BEDFORD — The luck of the Irish? Don't even go there.
What Grant O'Connor accomplished on Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with talent, guts and preparation. Running the 13.1-mile race of his life, O'Connor handily won the 45th New Bedford Half-Marathon, in a time of 1:04:43.0, 61 seconds ahead of second place.
“I'm going to give today probably a 10 out of 10,” said the 26-year-old resident of West Hartford, Conn.
In the female competition, Anna Oeser, 24, of Brookline, also dominated. Her winning time of 1:13:40 gave her a 1:32 margin of victory. An assistant track and field coach at Boston College, she said and entered the New Bedford Half Marathon to go along with her Battle Road Track Club running team.
“It unfolded really well. I just tried to stay confident and calm the whole time,” Oeser said. “I didn't really have a time in mind, but that was a good time for me.”
The race had almost 2,100 entrants and was part of this year's United States Track and Field Grand Prix.
Where to refuel: New Bedford restaurants gear up for busy St. Patrick's Day and the Half Marathon
Men's New Bedford Half winner sets a personal best
“It unfolded a little differently than I expected,” O'Connor, a former NCAA D3 men's track and field athlete of the year at RPI, said. “I knew the two-time defending champion was in the field, Matt McDonald, who I look up to a lot. He has a lot of experience on this course. So I took the first couple hills pretty hard. I found that I had a gap on the field. I just used the gap the rest of the way.”
The winner here in 2022 and 2023, McDonald was not listed among the finishers.
O'Connor said his 1:04:44 is his personal best half-marathon time by almost two minutes. He said he has been training well and consistently the last few months. He had the lead by about two miles and opened the gap by about 5K.
He said St. Patrick's Day counter-clockwise running tour of New Bedford went so well he may have to re-assess his goals for the Boston Marathon next month. “I've got to see what I can do there,” he said.
Ryan Eiler, of Boston, took second place in 1:05:44.
Women's half-marathon winner takes the gold
Oeser ran close with Battle Road Track Club teammate Holly Rees until about the 8-mile mark. The former ACC cross country and track all-star at Boston College – where she ran a 15:30 5K outdoors – then pulled away and held strong. This was Oeser's second half marathon, her first New Bedford, and her best time.
“I didn't really have a time in mind,” she said. “but that was a good time for me. I'm pretty excited about that.”
Rees, also from Brookline, finished second in 1:15:12.
Oeser said she has no plans to run the Boston Marathon on April 15, though she's now likely to have people urging her to give it a try.
Oeser described the New Bedford course as “never boring.”
The top 10 female finishers
1, Anna Oeser, Brookline, 1:13:39. 2, Holly Rees, Brookline, 1:15:10. 3, Rachel Hyland, Belmont, 1:15.36. 4, Tammy Hsieh, Belmont, 1:16:06. 5, Emilee Risteen, Derry, N.H., 1:18:18. 6, Jaclyn Solimine, Derry, N.H., 1:18:32. 7, Reilly Kiernan, Jamaica Plain, 1:18:46. 8, Katie McMenamin, Boston, 1:18:53. 9, Alexandra Ross, Boston, 1:19:00. 10, Molly Colwell, Cambridge, 1:19:11.
The top 10 male finishers
1, Grant O'Connor, West Hartford, Conn., 1:04:43. 2, Ryan Eiler, Boston, 1:05:44. 3, Thomas Toth, Plaistow, N.H., 1:06:11. 4, Christopher Allen, Somerville, 1:06:16. 5, Alex Neuffer, Halifax, NO, 1:06:25. 6, Sam Morse, Syracuse, N.Y., 1:06:48. 7, Michael Durkin, Boston, 1:07:00. 8, Gilmar Silve Lopes, Brockton, 1:07.40. 9, Aaron Dinzeo, Providence, R.I., 1:07:45. 10, Prescott Leach, Waltham, 1:08:04.
New Bedford Half-Marathon comes back strong after pandemic
Shut down in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid concerns, the New Bedford Half-Marathon took a big step forward on Sunday by cracking 2,000 entries. Race director Dan McCarthy was one happy man watching runners finish.
“It really is the best day of the year for me,” he said. “We had two years with COVID where we weren't able to participate, and we're really coming back. It's our third year back. It's our biggest of the thee races. We're part of the U.S. Track and Field Grand Prix. We got the luck of the Irish with the weather today. It's just an awesome day here in New Bedford.”
Weather cooperates for half-marathon runners
While it was 50, gray and chilly breezy at the 11a.m. start of the race, the conditions improved late morning into early afternoon, ending with bright sunshine and very good running conditions.
Top local finishers
The top SouthCoast finishers were Fairhaven's Will Benoit (63rd, 1:13:06) and Fall River's Cheryl Borden (33rd, 1:25:57).
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford Half Marathon 2024 draws more than 2,100 runners
