Trash RunThe 4th of July is the most popular day to hold a road race in the United States, but this year I didn’t feel like racing. Fortunately, my friend Jeremy at Atayne didn’t either so he decided to put on a trash run behind the runners at the L.L. Bean 10k! We collected 4 bags of trash and 2 bags of recycling, plus made arrangements to compost all of the cups used on the course. Not too bad for 90 minutes of work.

As usual, I’ll provide links to the results for all of the races here in Maine that I can find, and will update this article over the next few days. As of right now, I’m aware of at least 5477 people that ran a race in Maine today.

First, there’s the L.L. Bean 10k in Freeport, with 1132 official finishers plus 10 trash runners. Pat Tarpy set an 88 second course record with his winning time of 30:51. Joanie won the women’s race in 38:25. (Results)

Next, my normal race for the day, is the 4 on the 4th in Bridgton. This race always has a lot of finishers because of the campers that take part and this year is no exception with 1756 runners. Phil Richert went sub-5 pace per mile with his 19:58 win, and Erica Jesseman had a comfortable lead with her winning time of 23:06. (ResultsPhotos)

The 31st Annual Heritage Days 5 Miler in Bath added 137 finishers to today’s total, with Jason Kaake winning in 27:30 and Beth Shipley winning in 33:34. (Results)

761 runners came out to Goose Rocks Beach for a 5k, led by Matthew Methot in 16:39 and Beth Coughlin in 19:33. (Results)

The 4 on the 4th race in York also celebrated it’s 31st race, contributing 775 finishers. Daniel Blouin won in 20:23, with Lesley Hocking leading the women in 23:18. (Results)

The Thomaston Firecracker 5k and 1 Miler provided a combined 162 runners, with 117 finishers in the 5k and 45 finishers in the 1 mile race. Larry Smart led the way in the 5k in 17:44. (Results)

The Around Mount Desert Island Relay always adds a fair number of people, this year with 8 teams each completing 8 legs in the relay for a total of 59 people taking part (as 5 folks ran 2 legs each.) The winning team was Black Out from Orono, finishing the 61 mile trip around the island in 6:20:15. (Results (PDF))

In Bangor/Brewer, the 30th Walter Hunt 3k had 483 finishers, with Riley Masters leading the men in 8:13 and Elizabeth Brunton winning the women’s race in 10:08. It’s been a few years since I’ve been up to run that race. (Results)

On Frye Island, there were 3 races, a 1 miler with 110 finishers (led by Peter Richard in 5:55 and Maggie Wagner in 6:56), a 5 miler with 90 finishers (led by Chris Deming in 30:41 and Courtney Baker in 33:34) and a marathon. I think there were 2 finishers but one of them finished in 42nd place so I think I just don’t understand the results. (Results: 1 Mile5 MileMarathon)