The 10th 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 4th 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 6th 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 364th 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)
Great job out there, Blaine. It was awesome seeing you out there amongst the elite. You are one fast dude.
Hah, thanks a lot, but I can’t count myself as elite quite yet. It was nice getting a local elite number and those perks, but 82 people beat me today. Next year I’ll need to cut a minute off of that; this year I went in the wrong direction.
It was cool seeing you near the finish, though; thanks for yelling! You were one of the few people that I actually saw that yelled my name. Good placement!
Thanks for the report, I’m inspired. I always enjoy reading them.
lovely job blaine
cannot believe you’re beaten by 82 people
[...] years, but I was reminded of it last week after jogging to the starting line with my wife at the Beach to Beacon. We both had backpacks, but she was wearing her singlet under her warmup shirt and the humidity was [...]
[...] are available in various places on the internet for this year’s Beach to Beacon race. Here are the ones that I am aware of; please email me the website address of any other photos [...]