Athletes of the Week - January

Writeups by EJ Hrynowski

Week Ending January 6th - Bethany Knoettner

Bethany Knoetter at the Carver 5M

The AOW committe would like to thank all of you for your cards and emails expressing concern for our whereabouts and well being. We should have told you of our plan to hibernate through the month of January, to allow the New Year's abuse to be slowly and thoroughly detoxed. We left a wakeup call request with Punxsutawney Phil, just in time to see the Patriots try to win another Super Bowl. Time to get back at it, we've got some catching up to do.

With her outstanding performance and AG win at the 1st Run 5k, Bethany Knoettner got her year off to a great start. She's really the one that deserved to sleep in for a month, but that would be way out of character for a hard running Angry Chicken like Bethany. Winning Athlete of the Week for January 1-6 is probably way better than paying down your sleep debt anyway. Congratulations Bethany, with a fantastic start like this we'll expect more great things from you throughout lucky '13.

BETHANY KNOETTNER 1084 38 WESTFORD MA 21:31

By the way, who are the Pats playing tonight?

Week Ending January 13th - Liam Skinner

Liam Skinner @ Fudgicle

The road crews at the DPW aren’t the only ones trying to fill in holes these days, the AOW committee has a couple to fill in too. And we better keep our beaks to the grindstone, somebody left the coop unlocked and the Angry Chickens are running amok. Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for the week ending January 13th…

The AOW for January 7-13 is another Angry Chicken who often flies under the radar. I know I wasn’t aware of the current state of his running until he blew by me heading to the first handoff at Mill Cities. I tried to stay with him, to no avail.

Liam Skinner earned AOW with an outstanding race at the Fudgcicle on January 12th, placing fourth overall and first Angry Chicken in 18:12 (5:52 average pace).

And he’s not just a great runner, he’s a great guy too. I had the pleasure of his company for a run back to the Mill Cities start, if the opportunity to chat with him presents itself I heartily recommend you take advantage. Please join me in extending long overdue congratulations to Liam Skinner on his selection as Athlete Of The Week.

Week Ending January 20th - Pabst Blue Ribbon

It had to happen sooner or later

Week Ending January 27th - James Sullivan

James cleaning the course.

I picked up Matt Theodoros and the Athlete of the Week for January 21-27, and headed west to the Log Cabin 10k in Fitchburg. We knew he had been on a tear, but what he did on that Sunday still left us astonished. On a hilly course, he charged off the line and ran solo from the gun to the finish. With a finish time of 33:37, James "The Pocatello Kid" Sullivan was a full 60 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

Matt and I weren't the only ones impressed by The Kid, when the RD uploaded the results to coolrunning.com, he added "Weather for today was Sunny, Temps in the 20's with a stiff wind. Thanks to the boys from Geater Lowell for coming down and cleaning the course!!!"

Please join me in congratulating our Director of Sartorial Chickenness, for his well-earned repeat selection as Athlete Of The Week.

Photo Courtesy of Paul McDermott