A banner day for 14th annual Hair of the Dog 5K
Breaking the banner is a ritual of road races only offered to first-place overall finishers. On New Year’s Day on the Bethany Beach boardwalk, 14-year-old Liam Steyn of Newtown, Pa., cruised to a first-place win in 17:57 in the 14th annual Hair of the Dog 5K.
Novice children unfurled the Races2Run banner. Liam ran around it. Two seconds later, Matt Sparacino, no stranger to winning races, happily ran through it.
“I had nowhere else to go,” Sparacino said. “I knew they would do a reenactment for the kid who pulled away from me in the last 100 meters.”
Sparacino was the masters champion, which earned him a stuffed dog on a windy New Year’s Day.
Maleah Chumley, 23, of Camden was the women’s winner in 18:41. Chumley saw the banner and bopped on by til it dropped at her feet.
Mike Sewell, 55, was grandmasters champion (new category) in 21:07.
Theresa Gagliardi, 41, of Glenolden, Pa., was female masters champion in 21:33.
Karen Hallman, 55, of Naco, Ariz., was female grandmasters champion in 23:54.
Vic Yzaguirre, 70, of Lewes won the 70-99 age group of 11 men in 25:43.
Runners were happy with awards broken down into five-year age groups, except age group 70-99. A total of 17 runners, male and female, in that grouping each broke one hour.
Cassie Fike, 8, of Hyattsville, Md., won the 9U female group in 28:43. Robert Raj, 8, of Lawrence Township, N.J., won the male 9U race in 22:22.
The first 13 runners in the race broke 20 minutes. Eight states were represented in the race.
