This morning could not have gone any better for the race directors at the Mid Winter Classic. The 10 mile race seemed to go off without a hitch, from volunteer support to record participation, and even including beautiful running weather. It was about 34 degrees out with an average 5 mile per hour wind, which is much better than the low teens and high winds that we dealt with last year.

There were over 850 registered runners and a record 691 finishers this year. (Full Results)

The course begins on the access road between Cape Elizabeth Middle School and Cape Elizabeth High School, and runs counter clockwise through town to finish up behind the high school. There is a total of 1400 feet of elevation gain along the way, with a net drop of 22 feet from start to finish.

Ethan Hemphill was 14 seconds off from his record pace that he ran last year, finishing in 52:59, but he was 2^nd this year. First place honors went to Rick Rountree of Vermont, who shattered the record with a time of 52:03. The four runners following Rick in the top 5 were all Dirigo Runners.

On the women’s side, Sheri Piers repeated her winning performance from last year. She shaved over 4 minutes off of her time, though, finishing the race in 58:25. It’s a good thing, too, because this year she had competition. Kasie Enman was breathing down her neck, trailing Sheri by only 4 seconds in 58:29.

Once again, the race course support was stupendous with numerous volunteers making sure that the runners had a good experience. The food was again excellent, having the same spread of pizza, bagels, yogurt, bananas and beverages that were out last year. The awards this year were backpacks, which I thought was pretty neat.

My own race went pretty well. I said before the race that I wanted to go out in 6:15 (NOT 5:45) and then carry 6 minute pace through the next few miles and see what I had in the second half. My original goal (a few months ago) was 57-60 minutes, and I was going to aim for 60 since I haven’t done the speed work, just the base work. I did wind up going out in 5:45, but then I settled in at that pace for almost the entire race. My splits were (approximately): 5:45, 5:59, 5:43, 5:45, 5:43, 5:51, 5:47, 5:56, 5:49, 5:37. All in all, a very even pace to bring me through in 57:58 for a 13^th place finish.

Photo Collections:

• Photos by Don Penta (Part 1 of 2)
• Photos by Don Penta (Part 2 of 2)
• Photos by Sandy Walton at Mile 6 (updated link!)
• Photos by Beth Rand
• Photos taken at Mile 5
• Photos taken at Mile 9
• (Race Videos) (updated link)
• Maine Track Club Finishers (Gallery of MTC runners with names/times)

There were quite a few photographers out on the course. As I find links to online photo collections, I will update this article and include them here.