Eight months without racing.
Not a problem for Jack McMahon.
The former Bishop Hendricken star returned to racing Friday night with a dominant performance at the 52nd annual Blessing of the Fleet (BOF) Road Race in Narragansett. The 24-year-old McMahon captured his third title in the popular 10-miler, crossing the finish line in 50 minutes, 3 seconds.
Just as he did when he won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024, McMahon was all alone when he reached the finish line, winning his latest race by more than two minutes over his nearest rival.
Capturing the women’s race was Bay View alum Hanna O’Connor. The 2024 University of Rhode Island grad was timed in 59:54, good for 38th overall among the 2,847 finishers.
McMahon didn’t waste any time establishing himself at the front in the men’s race. He opened with a quick first mile and had already created a slight cushion over the field. That lead grew to more than 200 meters by the halfway point, and as he made the left-hand turn onto South Pier Road with a little more than two miles remaining, there was no one in sight.
“It’s always a fast first mile. I like to kind of test it a little bit,” he said. “My hope was to have a couple of guys come with me the first few miles and push a little bit. Probably about a mile I thought I was going to be alone for a while. Someone told me about four miles I had about 200 meters probably. I didn’t really know after that, which is a little bit of a stressful feeling. I just kind of stayed steady. I think I was right around five-minute miles the whole way after the first mile.”
Finishing second was Dennis Ryan of New York in 52:26. Taking the next three spots were a trio of former Rhode Island high school stars. Onetime East Greenwich standout and current University of Rhode Island senior Nick Ryan was third in 53:00. He was followed by Chariho alum and recent Bridgewater State graduate Kyle Ackroyd in 53:07 for fourth, and ex-Hendricken star and 2021 BOF champion Nick Celico in 53:03 for fifth.
McMahon is a year removed from a successful collegiate career at Davidson College and Butler University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. Now, he’s looking ahead to earning a berth in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
This past December, he came within 28 seconds of the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 2:16:00, clocking 2:16:28 at the California International Marathon in Sacramento. The effort placed him 57th overall.
It was his last time competing before Friday’s race.
“After the marathon, my knee started bugging me and I didn’t really run half of December, and then January and February,” he said. “I started back up in March and really got going April through June. I kind of didn’t know where I’d be at, but it was a good start.”
McMahon is hoping to run the Bobby Doyle 5M Summer Classic on Aug. 9. After that, his focus will turn to The Marathon Project in Chandler, Ariz., on Dec. 12.
“I like it. I’ll keep doing it. I’ll probably run this every year,” he said, referring to the Blessing of the Fleet. “Hopefully, I’ll get a little more speed in me and have a good Bobby Doyle. I didn’t know if that’s in the cards this year. I got The Marathon Project in December and hopefully I’ll take some time off and PR in that. That’s the goal.”
O’Connor was more than a minute ahead of runner-up Ella Bosselman of Holliston, Mass., was finished 46th overall in 1:01.14. Bethany Steiner of Wakefield, was third in finished 47th overall in 1:01:25. She was followed by Westerly’s Shara Delene Bousquet in 1:02:22 (50th overall) and former East Greenwich standout Rylee Shunney in 1:02:23 (51st overall).
“Sometimes this race is super hot, sometimes it’s nice and cool and rainy,” O’Connor said. “Today was perfect. I had fun the whole time. It’s always good to come back to Rhode Island and see everyone we know. This race is awesome every year.”
The 25-year-old runner was competing in her sixth Blessing of the Fleet race. Just four months ago, she made a successful marathon debut, clocking 2:35:32 at the McKirdy MicrOTQ Marathon in New York.
O’Connor’s effort qualified her for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
“Today, I just wanted to go under an hour,” she said. “I wanted to use this as a training day. I just came out of a big marathon block a couple of months ago. I’m in a bit of a down season before I enter another block.”
O’Connor had a slightly aggressive goal leading up to the race. That changed after just a few miles on the scenic oceanside course.
“I went into the race kind of knowing I wanted to run around 5:45-5:50s. At three miles, I was a little tired. I was like, ‘Let’s just go for the win.’ I just hung around 5:55 pace. It felt smooth. I ran it smiling, which is always good.”
“It was kind of just a good effort,” she added. “I just wanted to have a good time. It was still hard. I was going slower than my marathon pace, but it was still hard. It was good.”
