Run to Win

Here is a quick breakdown of races today throughout Maine. I will update this page as I find more results. If you know of any races that are missing, please let me know in the comments so that I can add it! Same goes for any photo galleries.

The current tally of the number of runners that competed today in Maine: 5152

The LL Bean 4^th of July 10k in Freeport is first this year, since I decided to go back and race there after taking a few years off.
Ethan Hemphill once again took top honors, finishing in 32:36 with a 15 second margin. Kristin Barry led the rest of the women by 68 seconds with a time of 35:12. There were 918 finishers. (Full Results - Photos)

Next up is the 32^nd Bridgton 4 on the 4^th. Stan Pyle was looking to go under 20 minutes today, but he missed the mark. He can’t be too upset, though, because he beat some very stiff competition to win the race in 20:26, winning by only 2 seconds. Carry Buterbaugh had about a half minute lead with her winning time of 23:26. There were 1670 finishers. (Full Results - Race Website - Photos: CD1 - CD2 - CD3 - CD4 - CD5 - CD6 - CD7 )

The York 4 on the 4th also had a pretty good draw, with 787 finishers. Bob Winn had a 19 second lead with his winning time of 21:10, while Amy Gosztyla had to fight for her 4 second winning time of 22:51. (Full Results)

The Goose Rocks Beach Association puts on an annual 5k in Kennebunkport, and it also had a large draw with 777 finishers. The entire field got “Huppeed” when Nathan Huppe crossed the line in 15:49, 13 seconds ahead of 2^nd place. Abby Iselborn had a similar lead over the rest of the women with her winning time of 18:22. (Full Results - Race Website)

The Walter Hunt Memorial 3k in Brewer was led by Ruben Sanca in 8:25, giving him a win by 7 seconds. Hilary Maxim had a 19 second lead with her winning time of 10:27. There were 472 finishers. (Full Results)

The Friends on the 4^th 5k, put on by the Friends of the Cobbosse Watershed in Winthrop, was won by 16 year old Luke Fontaine in 16:16. He won by less than a half second. Lauren Laroche had a slightly larger lead of 18 seconds to take the women’s title. There were 405 finishers. (Full Results - Race Website)

There were 107 finishers in the Firecracker 5k in Thomaston. Darren Winchenbach won the race in 19:45. (Full Results - Video - Photos)

There was a 5.1 mile race in Brooks called Let Freedom Ring. There were 16 finishers, led by Kevin Patrick who won with over a 4 minute lead in 28:34. (Full Results - Photos & Video)

There were 8 teams of 8 legs each in the 6^th Annual Mount Desert Island Relay, a 61.09 mile race. I have not yet had a chance to figure out how many people ran more than one leg but there are at least a few so there were less than 64 competitors. The Spudland Racers won by over an hour, setting a course record. (Full Results [pdf])

I am still awaiting the results of the Sebec Village 4th of July 5k.

Even with the results of at least 3 1 races still pending, there are over 100 500 more people hitting the streets for a race today than ran last year. This is great for the sport. I am looking forward to seeing what the final tally comes to; currently, we know that at least 4624 5152 people finished a race today.

Updates to follow.

This morning was the LL Bean 4^th of July 10k, which I have not run for the past few years. As I said back in 2005, this course is not quite flat:

Today was far and away the best running weather that I have ever had on this course. It was humid, but the temperatures never got too high and the last mile or so down Main Street did not involve thundering through the relentless sun as it usually does. There was a nice breeze and it felt pretty good.

There were 918 finishers this year, the majority of whom managed to get a free pair of New Balance 1062 running sneakers for being one of the first 500 people to register for the race. The post-race refreshments were a little meager and didn’t really last long enough, although there were enough popsicles for the kids at the end of the 1 mile fun run which is the important part.
(Click here to continue reading…)

Norm Duphily (29:04)

The YMCA Fit Fest 5k was this morning, kicking off the Greater L/A Triple Crown racing series. The series got off to a good start, with a record 249 finishers in today’s race.

Last year’s winner Stan Pyle ran 70 seconds faster this year than he did last year, but it wasn’t enough. Ethan Hemphill managed to win the race by 1 second, finishing in 15:20. Their closest competitor was almost a full minute behind them.

Anne Martin had a slightly larger margin in the women’s race, where 18:26 gave her a half minute lead over second place.

Dirigo did well as a team today, placing all three runners in the top 10 in positions 1, 2 & 9. I was about half a minute slower than I thought that I would be with a 17:34, but I wasn’t overly surprised with my time. In the next 2 to 3 months, I need to cut about 90 seconds off of that in order to meet this season’s goals.

(Full Results - Awards - Photo Credit: David Colby Young - Don Penta’s Photos)

The Sea Dogs Mother’s Day 5k was this morning at Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with clear skies and warm temperatures. The race saw a record number of entrants for I don’t know how many years in a row now, with 1780 runners pre-registered and over 2200 runners registered for the race. There were 1926 finishers. Next year may have to involve a cap to the number of entrants into the race.

Dirigo had a very good showing, capturing 4 of the top 5 positions. Ethan Hemphill led the way, beating Judson Cake by 5 seconds to win in 15:14.

On the women’s side, the top 3 women were all Dirigo runners. Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry were neck and neck, both finishing in 17:26 with Carry Buterbaugh coming in 33 seconds later in 17:59.

I did not run today. I spent a few hours behind the table in preregistration before the race, and then prevented a small Korean woman from convincing her husband to run everybody over as she waited to cross the race course. Thankfully, I was able to refer her to the officer across the street when she paused to catch her breath, so she started screaming at him instead.

(Official Site - Full Results - Videos - Photos: Set 1 - Set 2 - Set 3 - Set 4)

The Safe Passage 5k was this morning, with little to no wind, a clear sky, and cool but warming temperatures. There were 392 finishers. Ethan Hemphill led a string of 4 Dirigo runners to win the race in 15:29, with Suzanne Ray taking the women’s race in 19:07.

The race raised almost $11,000 for Safe Passage, an organization that provides educational resources to children in Guatemala City. The race was started by and now memorializes the Safe Passage founder Hanley Denning, who passed away in a car accident before the 2006 running of the race.

(Full Results - Race Photos)

The New Bedford Half Marathon in Massachusetts was this morning. It is the first of seven races in the USATF New England grand prix racing series. The temperature was in the high 30s with some strong wind but not as strong as in years past. It was much stronger at 9:30 in the morning than it was at race time.

The course is pretty flat, with some hills in the first few miles and one decent sized hill over the last mile of the race. There are 4 or 5 miles of (mostly) gentle downgrade in the middle of the course. Those miles correspond with when the wind is at your back, but it comes straight into your face from mile 9 through most of the rest of the run.

There were 1666 runners this year. Derese Deniboba won with a time of 66:29, almost 2 minutes ahead of New Balance Boston’s Ryan Carrara.

Ethan Hemphill led the Dirigo runners, outsprinting a few competitors to finish 11^th in 69:45. I rounded out the scoring for our team as the 5^th man in 76:31.

Heidi Westerling led the women’s race, finishing 65^th overall and winning with a time of 74:30. She passed me about 4 or 5 miles into the race. Molly Taber came through in 5^th for the women with a time of 77:16 for her warmup for the Olympic Trials in April. She ran the majority of the middle miles with me, but decided not to let me break the wind for her in the back stretch and fell back a little.

The Boston Athletic Association dominated in the team race, winning the men’s race with a combined time of 5:47:57 and the women’s race in 3:49:47. Scores are the aggregate time of the first 5 runners on a team for the men’s race and the first 3 runners on a team for the women’s race. The men’s team won by about 9 minutes and the women’s team won by about 5 minutes.

Dirigo finished 5^th overall, following the Merrimack Valley Striders by only 30 seconds. Our combined time was 6:02:28.

(Full Results)

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.

I got down to the Patriot’s Day 5 Miler today, which is Veteran’s Day.

I’m glad that I got there early; they put me on parking duty and I got to warn people to park higher and higher up the Eastern Prom as the parking lots filled up. Between the race and a boat launch, they filled pretty fast. Once I was basically in the road, there was only 5 minutes left to the start of the race and the few people still coming in were there for the boat launch and most tried running me over rather than listening to what I had to say so I let them head down and not find a place to park.

The race had great weather. It was 44° out and quite sunny. There was a chilly breeze, but the runners did not seem to mind it as much as us folk that were just standing around. The start began over by the East End Beach, and the finish was about ⁸/₁₀ of a mile away near Marginal Way. The trail looks like it is finally getting repaired and is in much better shape than the last time I was over in that area.

I had a front row seat (well, standing position) at the finish line, and got to hit the plunger as each runner crossed the line to mark their time. The general consensus was that the course was a little short, with Ethan Hemphill powering into a sub-25 first place finish. Christine Reaser won the women’s race.

There was a great turn out today; there were around 130 runners for a noon start in mid-November.

(Results)