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Hearst Racers Dance Way to 5K Victory

Congrats go out to the Hearst Corp., publisher of newspapers and magazines and inspiration for “Citizen Kane,” for its big media division win during last Saturday’s National Press Club 5K.

Hearst, which didn’t field a team for the media division in last year’s race, came out of nowhere to triumph, thanks to the efforts of its top three runners, Zeus, Murdock and Modo, all of whom have the same last name, Dance-McQueen, and all of whom are listed as being 18 years old. Another 18-year-old Dance-McQueen, Lars, came in fourth on the Hearst team.

HOH thought those names and ages sounded very interesting, so we sought to clarify with Hearst Washington Bureau Chief Rick Dunham, the only member of the team to run in 2011.

It turns out that Hearst does not have an internship program designed to attract 18-year-old quadruplets who can fill out its running team ranks. According to Dunham, the Hearst team was made up of his sister, his nephews and three of the eldest nephew’s friends. The names of the four top runners were inspired by Swedish pop sensation Abba’s “Dancing Queen.”

So congratulations to Hearst and the Dunham family, who, as dumb luck would have it, also happened to be related to or at least be friends with some pretty talented runners. Maybe the race’s “open division” was too crowded, so the media division was the best place for the Hearst-Dunham-Dance-McQueens.

Full disclosure: CQ Roll Call also had a team competing, which came in second in the media division.

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