The 10^th annual TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10k was this morning in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. As always, it was a closely contested race that is great for spectating. While the temperature was not very high during the race, it was quite humid. The fog burned off over the first 4+ miles before the race began, but was still present in the last few miles for a good portion of the race.

While warming up this morning, I thought that I saw Meb Keflezighi jogging around. I assumed that it was just somebody who looked like him, but I was wrong. He was here, and he was the first American to finish. Meb came through the finish line about 6 seconds behind the leaders to finish in 27:57.8 for 4^th place. The race was won by Duncan Kibet of Eldoret, Kenya. Evans Cheryiout came through in second place, just over a half second behind. Ayalew Taye was the first Maine finisher, but could not accept the $1000 purse because he is going into his freshman year at Georgetown University this Autumn.

Luminita Talpos of Romania has been in the top 5 four times, and finally achieved a win for the first time by running 32:20.3. She was followed by Natalyia Berkut in 32:28.5. In the Maine division, Emily LeVan ran a strong 35:01.3 to win by over a minute. Emily had quite the cheering section around 4.6 from her nieces and nephews.

Last year or the year before, my picture made it into New England Runner from right before I passed Emily a half mile from the finish. It took me a little longer to pass her this year; I edged her out in the last quarter mile and she finished less than a couple seconds behind me. Fellow B.A.A. runner Mariko Holbrook finished not too far back from us; she traded places with me quite a few times during the race.

The race as always encouraged me to go out about 15 seconds faster than I wanted to. I made up for that by being about 15 seconds slow at the halfway point. I did run my negative splits, however; my 6^th mile coming up the hill to Fort Williams was just as quick as most of my other miles. Once again, the hill remembered me. Even so, I think that next year I will need to make an effort to get some practice on the course ahead of time. I would like to get my body used to not going out quite so quickly, and these past two years I have not taken enough advantage of the down hill mile from 3.5 to 4.5. Overall, I am happy with my race, if a little disappointed with my time. I ran 35 point from the gun with a net time of 34:58.7.

Joan Samuelson ran 41:59.3 to finish her own race (for just the second time) in 364^th place. Race director Dave McGillivray had $1 donation to the race beneficiary for every runner that beat Joannie to the finish line.

(Official Results – Full Results w/better formatting)