Tierney, Dionne break tape at Arnold Mills

Jul 04, 2014

Photo (and cover photo) by Mary Tierney

Although he lives in East Greenwich, the Arnold Mills Road Race is more like a hometown event for Colin Tierney.

His dad, Scott, a star runner for Cumberland High in the 1980s, often competed in the four-mile race that has been held in the town's affluent community every Fourth of July holiday since 1969.

“He’s run it for years," Tierney said. “His dad has run it. It has been like 25 years in a row that at least one Tierney has run it.”

That tradition continued on Friday morning, only this time it was a little more special - one of the family members actually won it.

The 18-year-old Tierney, who recently graduated from Bishop Hendricken where he was a multiple all-stater, surged past Warwick’s Eric Lonergan with less than a quarter-mile remaining to take the 46th annual event with an impressive time of 20 minutes, 23 seconds. He was just 30-meters ahead of Lonergan, who placed second at 20:28.

“It feels great,” Tierney said. “This is my dad’s hometown. All his friends are here and his son was able to win. It was awesome.”

There was no drama in the women’s division as former Cumberland standout and one of New England’s top marathoners, 28-year-old Hilary Dionne, blazed the four-miler in 22:32. She was 20th among the 575 finishers.Trish Hillery, a 47-year-old ex-Providence College runner from Greenville, was second and first among masters with a time of 25:18, good for 44th overall.

For Dionne, who now resides in Somerville, Mass., and runs for the B.A.A., it was her first race since competing at the Boston Marathon in April where she finished 23^rd overall and was the eighth American to cross the line with a personal-best time of 2:35:09.

“That was pretty much what I was hoping,” said Dionne, about her winning time. “I haven’t done many track workouts yet. I have just been doing base mileage - intervals near the river, on the road. In terms of pace, I figured that was the fastest I could go today.”

Tierney, a second-place finisher at Arnold Mills in 2013, was confident about his chances of winning the historic race. He put himself in position from the beginning, hanging with a tight lead pack of about 10 runners after the first mile.

Leading the group was PC freshmen and former Cumberland great Trevor Crawley (third, 20:40). Also among the front-runners was ex-Hendricken distance ace Connor Doyle (fourth, 20:42) and six-time winner Chris Magill, who at age 41 ran the second fastest time posted by a master at the Cumberland race with an outstanding, fifth-place time of 20:49.

The leaders went through the opening mile on Abbott Run Valley Road a few ticks over five minutes and hit the two-mile checkpoint around 10:20.

“We were packed together up until like the last 800 meters,” Tierney said. “There was a solid four pack of Connor Doyle, Trevor Crawley, Eric Lonergan and I. Everybody was up there until about two and a half miles. Everyone was right there. Trevor started picking up the pace and Connor and Eric and I went with him. I just hung on them, hung on Trevor the whole time.”

Tierney admitted it wasn’t easy the second half of the course.

“Just before the three-mile mark I was really feeling it,” he said. “When you get back there, there is no one out there, you are running in the middle of the road. It’s you versus your competitors. It’s really tough. It’s really easy to give up back there. Luckily, my teammate Connor Doyle kind of helped me out and motivated me a little bit to kind of stick on them.”

Lonergan and Tierney broke from the pack just before leaving Sun Valley Drive for the final stretch home. Tierney made his move for the title the last few meters on Nate Whipple Highway, the final downhill portion of the course before making a right-hand turn to the finish near the North Cumberland Fire Station.

“I knew with the downhill you can’t make much separation,” he said. “I figured I’d move on the straightaway where it’s flat and go for the win and I was lucky enough to get it.”

Participants of this year’s race dealt with slightly better weather conditions than last year with occasional raindrops making the humidity a little more manageable.

“Last year was scorching heat, 97 degrees and sunny so that was really tough,” Tierney said. “I mean it was really humid out so breathing was a little bit tougher (today). I felt like we were going a little faster than we actually were. But in a road race like this, time isn’t everything. It’s all about place and running with friends. That’s what it was today.”

En route to her victory, Dionne established her position quickly and was already far ahead of her closest rival by the mile mark, which she passed in 5:27.

“It was a little fast,” she said. “I know my overall pace was in the low 5:30s so it wasn’t too far off.”

These days a four-mile race like Arnold Mills is rare territory for Dionne, who has concentrated her efforts on the longer distances such as the half and full marathons.

“It feels easy but at the same time it’s harder for me to run,” she said. “I am not used to the pace and the distance and not needing to save as much at the end. But it’s good to mix it up. I have been trying to do shorter races early in my training building up to the marathon to work on speed.”

Next up for Dionne is the prestigious Falmouth Road Race on Aug. 17, the 7.1-mile event that attracts some of the country’s best. She then will focus her attention on the marathon.

“I’ll do something in the fall, like late November or early December,” she said. “I’ll wait until then. There’s one in California or maybe New York, something else later in the season.”

Dionne, who averages about 80-90 miles per week, will be eyeing a time for the 26.2-mile distance near her current best of 2:35 that she did at Boston.

“Everything lined up (in that race),” she said. “That was the best possible scenario for me. I had wanted to break 2:37 to get the ‘A’ standard (for the U.S. Olympic Trials) because I had run 2:39 twice at Boston and then again in Hartford in the fall. I was shooting for under 2:37, so getting 2:35 was awesome.”

Certainly not to be overlooked on Friday was the performance of Magill, the former St. Raphael Academy runner who is more than twice the age of most of the top finishers.

“I was really happy,” he said. “My goal was to get under 21 minutes and I got 20:49. I knew what I could do. If it was good enough to compete for the win it would be good enough, but these guys are talented. They are young. They are fast. If you look at the ages, most of them are under 20. There was a guy 16 behind me (La Salle Academy sophomore Matt Bouthillette, sixth at 20:56). I’m 41. I was pleased with the race. I was fifth overall but it’s one of my better Arnold Mills I have ever run. I am very pleased.”