25 years of memories from the Beach to Beacon 10K road race
Jul. 30—The core reason for Joan Benoit Samuelson founding the Beach to Beacon 10K came to her in the dark, about 600 yards from completing the marathon victory that made her a running legend.
"I had the idea of giving back to the sport and specifically to the state of Maine when I came into the darkness of the tunnel in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1984," Samuelson said, referring to the Olympic women's marathon. "I thought, 'If I'm going to win this thing, I've got to do something with that.'
"I didn't know what that was going to look like exactly."
Gradually the plan formed. Take the best qualities of her favorite races and create her own. Make it a 10-kilometer race, because that distance is accessible and could pull "people in from the sideline," as Samuelson puts it, so running novices could realize the benefits of training and reaching a goal. Give them the experience of being in the same field as some of the top runners from around the world. And, most of all, hold the race in Cape Elizabeth, her hometown.
"So much of my training leading up to the Olympics was in Cape Elizabeth where I grew up and I really thought, with all the racing I'd done, Cape had some of the most beautiful roads to run on," Samuelson said.
When the idea became reality in 1998, with the support of primary sponsor Peoples Heritage Bank, the running community in Maine and around the world responded immediately.
The race had immediate credibility because Samuelson was the founder and public face, and Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray led the logistical team.
"The minute I knew it was Joanie and Dave pushing this race, I knew it was going to be big," recalled Bob Winn, 64, of Ogunquit. Winn was the first winner of the Maine men's category and won again in 1999. "The Beach to Beacon is an icon for the state of Maine."
The 6.2-mile course, with its views of the Atlantic Ocean and a finish in Fort Williams Park near the base of Portland Head Light, was a star in its own right.
"A perfect day and a gorgeous course," said Libbie Hickman of Colorado after finishing runner-up in the 1998 women's race. "This is a race that people will want to come to."
Twenty-five years later, the TD Beach to Beacon 10K is still going strong, still offering Samuelson's vision of providing recreational runners the chance to "step on the road in Cape Elizabeth and run with the best runners in the world."
Here's a look at some of the people who have helped make the first Saturday in August an annual celebration, and some of the event's most memorable moments.
LEGENDS
Some of the biggest stars in distance running history have graced the event, as competitors or special guests.
That list starts with Samuelson, the hometown girl, Bowdoin College graduate and indomitable competitor. In addition to her triumph in the first Olympic women's marathon, she won the 1979 and 1983 Boston Marathons, and the 1985 Chicago Marathon in a world-record time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 21 seconds.
Except for the four times she's run the race herself — and even then after she finished — Samuelson is right at the finish line, congratulating runners fast and not-so-fast for their accomplishments.
Since the race's inception, Larry Barthlow has served as the race's elite athlete coordinator. His job is to get commitments from top runners from around the world. Barthlow said Beach to Beacon organizers were "always trying to make the race better."
Catherine "the Great" Ndereba of Kenya, a four-time Boston Marathon winner and two-time Olympic silver medalist, won the first four women's races and five of the first six. Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, the Olympic 10,0000-meter champion in both 1992 and 2000, finished fifth in 1999. Mary Keitany of Kenya, who won four New York City marathons and three more in London, was the Beach to Beacon champ in 2016 and 2017. This year, reigning Boston Marathon champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya, the only woman to win world championships outdoors, indoors and in cross country, is expected to compete.
The race has also drawn significant special guests. Johnny Kelley, who ran the Boston Marathon 61 times, winning in 1935 and 1945, was at the start line encouraging wheelchair athletes in 2000. A year later, Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to break the 4-minute mile barrier, attended, dressed nattily in tie, jacket and a sharp summer hat. In 2012, in honor of the 15th event, Samuelson ran the course with fellow marathon legends Bill Rodgers (four-time Boston winner) and Frank Shorter (1972 Olympic champ).
A RACE FOR MAINERS
While the race has always featured a professional component, it has also awarded prize money ($1,000 to win) and prestige to the top male and female runners from Maine. That was a purposeful decision from the start.
"I just thought the people of Maine should be treated to some of the best road racing available," Samuelson said. "To understand that people don't just run down the roads, they have goals and aspirations as well."
Winn, who was just shy of his 40th birthday, said he was so intent on winning the first Maine men's race he couldn't sleep the night before.
"I remember getting up at 3 a.m., jogging down to Perkins Cove (in Ogunquit) and just watching the sun come up and thinking about it. You want to win," Winn said. "Every year, I think about it. It was a very intense time."
The Maine races have produced two of the most indelible moments in Beach to Beacon history.
In 2003, Eric Giddings, a 16-year-old sophomore at South Portland High, was the first Maine finisher, but no one knew it initially. Two-time winner Andy Spaulding of Freeport was declared the Maine men's winner by the race announcer.
Race president David Weatherbie, on a motorcycle, had ridden by Spaulding, Winn and Ethan Hemphill of Portland around the 3-mile mark to try to alert them that Giddings was in the Maine race, and leading, but his words were drowned out by the motorcycle's engine. Giddings got to the finish line 11 seconds ahead of Spaulding, but it was Spaulding who received the congratulatory hug from Samuelson, only to learn that he actually finished second.
Two years later, Giddings showed his first win was no fluke, establishing a Maine-record time of 30:34, which stood until Ben True's 29:10 in 2009.
In 2017, the Maine men's race earned national attention when runner-up Rob Gomez was applauded for his sportsmanship in helping defending champion Jesse Orach to his feet about 50 feet from the finish line and then supporting and pushing Orach across the line first. Orach had collapsed twice in the final stretch of the race on a hot, muggy day. Within days, Gomez's selfless act was praised by NBC's "Today" show, ABC News, and Runner's World, among many other outlets. In a special ceremony in Freeport, Gomez was awarded a handcrafted winner's box, made by the Thos. Moser furniture company and given to the winners of the Elite, American and Maine divisions.
"This is perhaps one of the most inspirational stories, if not the most inspirational story, that the Beach to Beacon has told to date, and it happened at the finish line," Samuelson said in 2017.
IT'S TRUE, A MAINE NATIVE WON
Ben True of North Yarmouth first ran Beach to Beacon in 2003, just before his senior year at Greely High, where he excelled as a cross country runner (fifth at the Foot Locker Nationals) and Nordic skier. True placed 35th overall, 18 spots behind Giddings. At Dartmouth College, True was an All-American in cross country, Nordic skiing and track and field. He ran Beach to Beacon a few times with college buddies, but never with serious intent. After college, he won the Maine men's race in 2008 and 2009, setting the still-standing Maine record of 29:10 in 2009 — an effort that foretold True had the goods to become a professional runner.
"I grew up running it and either racing or watching the pros race. It was the first experience I had outside of the Boston Marathon of seeing an elite professional running event," True said.
By 2014, True was among the elite, placing third with a time of 27:50. At that point, it was the top finish by an American man at Beach to Beacon, and True's time was the fastest by an American male in any 10K road race since 1985.
In 2016, after narrowly missing an Olympic berth earlier in the summer, True became the first — and still the only — American to win Beach to Beacon. Three American women have finished second: Hickman in 1998 and 2000, Shalane Flanagan in 2014, and Standish native Emily Durgin in 2022.
"It was great to win," True said. "Going through the ranks of running it in high school and college. Winning the Maine division, and two years before I was third and I remember wishing I could have won it. Falling just shy, and then to win the following time."
In 2017, True was one second shy of making it back-to-back victories, finishing just behind Stephen Kosgei Kibet of Kenya. In 2018, True was third overall, the top American in the race for the fourth time in four consecutive tries.
True, 37, now lives in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, and will not be racing Beach to Beacon this year. He said he's just beginning to ramp up his training after taking an extended break following his 23rd-place finish at the Boston Marathon in April.
"When Ben True comes to a race, he mixes it up," said Barthlow, who travels the globe but at heart is a New England kid from Newmarket, New Hampshire. "I always say kudos to Ben True. When you look at his history at Beach to Beacon, his best race might have been (2014) when there were four of them coming down and they all ran sub-28 (minutes) and after the race, three Kenyans are lying on the ground and Ben's the only guy standing. That was a powerful image."
CHANGES THROUGH THE YEARS
The Maine men's and women's categories, elite fields and wheelchair divisions have been part of the Beach to Beacon from its start. The primary sponsor has remained essentially the same, albeit with name changes, as Peoples Heritage became Banknorth, then TD Banknorth, and now TD Bank. Samuelson noted there are legacy sponsors, volunteers and runners (93 have registered this year) who have been with the race every year since 1998.
Each year, one Maine-based charitable organization is named as the race's primary beneficiary. Race sponsor TD Bank awards that organization $30,000. Valo, a nonprofit organization taking a proactive approach to cultivate emotional well being in Maine teens, is this year's beneficiary.
But the race has not been stagnant. It cultivated its goodwill with the town of Cape Elizabeth and quickly increased its field size from 3,000 to 5,000 in the first five years, with a bump to 5,500 available registrations by 2006. Soon, the number of finishers surpassed 6,000, peaking at 6,885 in 2017, with online registration filling in a matter of minutes. The entry fee also has increased, from $18 in 1998 to $65 this year.
American-only prize money was added in 2015. In 2016, Beach to Beacon introduced a Friday evening High School Mile for Maine runners, with the course running through the finish area.
When the winner of the 2000 women's race was disputed — both Ndereba and Hickman felt they had won, Hickman appeared to break the tape first, but Ndereba's computer timing chip on her shoe was determined to have crossed first — finish line cameras were added the next year.
Drug testing was instated in 2019, a year after Jake Robertson of New Zealand won the men's race by a record margin of 49 seconds with the third-fastest time in race history on a humid day with temperatures near 90.
BACK TO FULL STRENGTH
Like nearly every sporting event, the Beach to Beacon 10K fell prey to the coronavirus pandemic. The race was canceled in 2020, and organizers opted to hold a virtual-only option in 2021.
The race returned in 2022, albeit with a pro field that had few international runners. Plus, registration was still open days before the race.
This year, the race appears to be back at full strength. Registration has sold out. However, the race could still use some more volunteers, Samuelson said, noting volunteers have always been "the backbone of the event."
And, for the first time since 2017, Samuelson is intending to run in her own 6.2-mile race. Samuelson set an American 60-and-over women's road record of 39:19 in 2017 on the 33rd anniversary of her Olympic win.
This year her run is more likely to be ceremonial, possibly with a well-known guest or two alongside, similar to her 2012 trek.
"I'm hoping to run this year. It won't be fast and it won't be pretty."
