CAPE ELIZABETH — There was a spot along the 6.2-mile Beach to Beacon course that Sam Whitaker looked forward to more than any other step. It’s where he used to watch the race with his grandparents, Norm and Eleanor Whitaker, not far from their home.
“Now that they aren’t with us, I want to run by and give them a wave,” Whitaker said as he stretched at the starting line an hour before the race went off Saturday morning. “What’s a better way to honor them then showing I’m fully committed to my grandparents’ memory than to actual commit to training? The turnaround was two months ago when I said, ‘you know what? I need to start running a little bit.'”
Whitaker finished his first Beach to Beacon 10K in 59 minutes, 22 seconds, creating a new memory of the race to go along with all the others.
With all due respect to the elite world-class runners who visit Maine the first Saturday in August every summer, and the strong Mainers who routinely place themselves near the top of the leaderboard no matter the weather, it’s runners like Whitaker who are the beating heart of the Beach to Beacon 10K. It’s the anonymous thousands who train quietly for months, who ride the school bus shuttles to the start, and who may take up to two hours to get from the starting line to the finish in Fort Williams Park. They’re what makes the Beach to Beacon one of the state’s premier athletic events.
Lindsey Welch of Sidney was running her 15th Beach to Beacon. After completing her college basketball career at the University of Southern Maine years ago, Welch, 40, took up running to feed her competitive fire. It’s the crowds that keep her coming back to the Beach to Beacon.
“There’s 6.2 miles, and they line the whole entire streets. The posters, you never know what you’re going to see on the posters. Kids giving you high-fives. Bacon! Bands playing. It’s just so fun to see everybody that comes out and supports the thing,” Welch said.
In some years, Welch ran with her mother, sister and niece. The three generations together was a highlight. This year, she ran with her friend, Lucy Pelsma of Oakland. Pelsma has six marathons on her resumé, including Boston, New York, San Diego and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., but this was her first Beach to Beacon.
“You know what? As a Mainer, always looking at this race in the summer, all the different weather conditions it’s been (run in), just seeing the energy from afar and watching Lindsey run it, I want in on this,” Pelsma said. “The energy is just as high right now as it is before the start of the Boston Marathon.”
Welch finished in 52 minutes flat. Pelsma went 52:01.
Brothers Payton, 12, and Pierce Gorneault, 14, made the long trip south from Caribou to run in their first Beach to Beacon.
“We’ve been training with the high school team a little bit,” Payton said.
Pierce placed second in the 14-under age group with a time of 38:37. Payton was fourth, in 40:36.
“It’s one of the biggest races in Maine. I think it’d be really cool,” Pierce said.
In the small grandstand set up along the finish line, VIPs cheered for the elite runners and the top Maine finishers. But as 30 minutes became 45, then an hour, then an hour and a half and longer, those VIPs had moved on, and the grandstand was almost vacant. That’s too bad, because while the spectators were off shaking hands or feeling important or doing other VIP things, the soul of the Beach to Beacon crossed the finish line in waves.
It smiled as it crossed the finish, or maybe grimaced. It raised its arms over its head in triumph.
It set a new personal record, or let a knowing look of accomplishment sprint across its face.
It gave high-fives to fellow runners. It found an extra gear it didn’t know it had for the final 50 yards. It celebrated with a group hug.
It wore a T-shirt that read across the chest “I won’t quit but I’ll swear the whole time.”
It ran. It finished by the thousands.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently, runners of Maine. No matter how many elite runners come to Maine to race every year, the Beach to Beacon will always be yours.
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