Run to Win

This morning was the 11^th Annual TD BankNorth Beach to Beacon 10k in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It was a beautiful day in the mid-80s that left the runners very happy to reach the shade on Shore Rd.

Repeating last year’s performance, Ed Muge led the way in 28:05, about 13 seconds behind last year’s time. 11 of those 13 seconds came from the first mile, which went out at only 4:23 this year and allowed for a lead pack of about 12 people to stick together for a few miles. Local favorite Ben True was a part of that pack but fell off the back side, only to pick up the pace and finish in the top 10 with a new Maine Record time of 29:11!

Speaking of Maine Records, Sheri Piers took down the Maine women’s record by 20 seconds with her 34:17 finish (also in the top 10!) Fantastic! That was just over 2 minutes behind Kenya’s Irene Limika, who won the race in 32:06.

There were 5613 finishers this morning, and I was not one of them. I broke my foot last week so I volunteered with the Atayne crew instead and cut D-Tags off of people’s shoes to recycle them with the help of my 11 year old niece. My nephew and my sister ran with the Sweep Crew picking up all of the trash that was left behind on the course, so hopefully we left things a little cleaner than they were before the race and got everything separated into recyclables, compostables and actual trash.

I’ll have another update probably tomorrow about the volunteer experience with the race, which certainly a different way to experience a large race like this.

(More Info: Full Results)

It was a fun but tiring weekend, so details will be forthcoming later. In the meantime, I’ve got a few announcements:

• I’ve uploaded my photos of the marathon.
• I haven’t had a chance to look at the video I shot yet.
• Congratulations to the Dirigo runners, especially to Sheri Piers who finished in 11^th place with a time of 2:37:01 (less than 5 minutes behind the winners!)
• Universal Sports has continuing coverage on their website:
  • On Demand Race Coverage
  • Men’s Highlights
  • Women’s Highlights
• Here is another photo gallery worth looking through, this time by Roger Morse.

The 28^th running of the Mid-Winter Classic in Cape Elizabeth was this morning in what were pretty ideal conditions for the area this time of year. Temperatures hovered around 20 degrees with wind speeds under 3 miles per hour. There were 686 finishers, just a few shy of last year’s record 691.

Speaking of records, the overall course record fell for the 3^rd time in as many years, this time with Dan Vasello cutting nearly a minute off to bring the record down to 51:09. His closest competitor was Judson Cake who finished 91 seconds behind him.

In total, there were 22 people who ran under an hour for the 10 mile course, including the top 3 women who had a much closer race. Kristin Barry led Sheri Piers by less than half a minute with her winning time of 58:42. They were followed by Shannon McHale who ran 59:42.

For myself, I ran 58:09, and while it was about the same time as I ran last year, I had to work much harder for it. I went out a little too quick and was stuck with the lead pack for the first few miles, but there was nobody near us and dropping off would have meant running alone. Of course, once the pack started to string out, I fell back fast. I had a few people around me most of the race to keep me honest, although the uphill stretches nearly did me in. Normally one of my strong suits, I just could not eke out any sort of decent leg turnover, although I made up for it on the flats and downhill stretches. I guess I am not 100% recovered from the 50 miler.

I’ll post links to the photographs and videos of the race as they become available.

(More Info: Full Results – Photos)

This race review was provided by my wife, Erin Moore.

The Maine Coast Half Marathon: 600 women and One Lucky Guy

The second annual running of the Maine Coast Half Marathon got under way at 9:00 this morning. The weather was perfect for running and overall the day was as enjoyable as it was challenging. However, this young race has considerable room for improvement. The race drew 601 finishers, 600 women… and One Lucky Guy.

The Course

This 13.1 mile course wound through the beautiful area of York Village and included picturesque landscapes, the sound of the waves hitting the sand and a not insignificant number of hills! The race began with a semi-circle around York High School, but once we turned out of the driveway, the rolling hills began to challenge runners right away. However, having trained for hills thanks to my husband choosing many of my training routes, I found the hills quite manageable.
(Click here to continue reading…)

The annual Clam Festival 5 mile road race was this morning in Yarmouth, Maine. The temperatures were not nearly as high as they were in years past, but the high humidity made the race tough for the 932 finishers this year.

Despite the lack of some of the annual favorites in the race, there was a very deep field this year which led to an exciting finish. Jon Wilson went out hard but spent the majority of the race near the middle to back of the lead pack. He retook control on the trails and in the park as he came into the last mile of the race, however, and made it look easy as cruised in 12 seconds ahead of everybody else in 25:44. A total of 12 people ran under 27 minutes.

Kristin Barry had a little less competition near the end, finishing the race in 27:59. She was followed by Sheri Piers in 28:31.

It was interesting watching the race from behind the finish line this year, as this is a race that I have run every year since moving to Maine. It is generally one of the hotter races each year, falling as it does near the end of July, and it certainly led to some of the sweatiest chip bands that I’ve ever had to remove from runner’s legs.

I quickly stopped congratulating people on how they ran and instead just pointed them straight to the water once I had gotten their chips off. That was about the extent to what some of the people were able to understand. One of the runners put a whole in his singlet in an effort to take it off and thought he was supposed to turn in his bib number instead of his timing chip!

(Full Results – Photos: Fun Run (a) – Fun Run (b) – CD 1 – CD 2 – CD 3 – CD 4 – Awards – Finish Line)

Jeanne Hackett interviewed Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry this evening at Peak Performance Multisport as part of her “A Running Conversation” lecture series.

The talk went for about 50 minutes, with a little better than half of that time devoted to Kristin and Sheri answering Jeanne’s questions and the rest of the time devoted to answering audience questions. The topics centered mostly around the Olympic Marathon Trials this past April in Boston, including the training and discipline that it took to get there.

This year’s Olympic Marathon Trials was the 7^th running for the women, and was the second time that 4 women from Maine competed. (For the trivia buffs, the other time was in 1996.) The evening began with a quick background on all 4 ladies and the stories that they brought with them to the Trials.

The Stories

Emily LeVan was the top Maine qualifier, having run extremely well in Boston in 2005 and 2006. She had the 12^th fastest qualifying time for any of the competitors who ran. She was also dealt a large emotional blow last November when she discovered that her 4 year old daughter had Leukemia. Emily and her daughter Maddie started the Two Trials website in order to raise money for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program, and they far exceeded their goals to raise a total of over $77,000 to date. (Click here to listen to an interview with Emily.)

Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984, and has qualified for every Trials since then. She has competed in all but 2 of them. She was the oldest runner in the field at 1 week shy of 51 years old, and set an age group record for the marathon on her way to beating her goal of running a sub-2:50. She has a long and storied history with the Boston Marathon, and she wanted to finish her competitive marathon career in the city where it all began.

Kristin and Sheri’s stories are intertwined, because the two of them train and race together constantly. After months of training, they both went to run in the Philadelphia Marathon and crossed the line together with Trials qualifying times. Both women are in their mid-30s, both women work, and both of them managed to fit in their training around caring for their children.
(Click here to continue reading…)

Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry both ran very well at the Olympic Marathon Trials back a few weeks ago in Boston. They will be offering a retrospective tomorrow evening (Tuesday, May 13^th, 2008) at Peak Performance Multisport on Marginal Way in Portland, Maine.

The event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 6:00 in the evening. You can RSVP at the Peak Performance Website with the option of contributing a question that you would like answered during the panel.

More information and to RSVP visit:
www.mypeakmultisport.com

(Click here for more photos from the Olympic Marathon Trials)

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)