Road Race Stats - Marathons & Other Running Races

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

TD Banknorth Beach To Beacon 10K Road Race

The TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K race was held last Saturday (8/6) at Cape Elizabeth Maine (near Portland). Not too many places in the US are suitable for a running race in August. Being far north and on the coast, Maine is one exception. Portland's August 6th average low is 59°F and average high is 79°F. However, last Saturday was above average. Race time temperature at Portland was 73°F with 57% humidity.

Gilbert Okari won his third straight Beach to Beacon 10K. He's amazingly consistent. His 3 times are all within 10 seconds (27:38 this year, 27:35 last year, and 27:28 in 2003). John Korir finished fourth with a time of 28:21. He didn't run in the Peachtree last month due to visa problems. Good to see he's able to run now.

More highlights from MaineToday.com and The Race's website.

Comparison to the Peachtree

Interesting to see the men's and women's winners were the same winners of Atlanta's July 4th Peachtree 10K. In the Beach to Beacon 10K, Gilbert Okari took first place with a time of 27:39. It was 39 seconds faster than his Peachtree victory. For the women, Lornah Kipligat won the Beach to Beacon with a time of 31:35. She was slower than the Peachtree by 18 seconds.

The temperature at the Peachtree was close to the Beach to Beacon at around 73°F at race time. However, the Peachtree had higher humidity of around 87% compared to 57% at the Beach to Beacon.

I looked at some other of the top runners to see how they compared between these two races. The only other top man I found who ran both was William Chebon who came in 6th at the Beach to Beacon with a time of 28:24 (4 seconds faster than his Peachtree time). There were 4 top-10 women who had also run the Peachtree. Interestingly, all 4 of them ran slower in the Beach to Beacon. In addition to Kipligat's 18 seconds slowdown, Sally Barososio ran 34 seconds slower, Lunmita Talpos ran 50 seconds slower, and Nicole Aish ran one second slower (now that's consistency!).

The Glenn Close Story

There was an interesting story about Glenn Close in this race. She had registered to run. It turns out that she was on vacation in Maine visiting a friend. According to her publicist, Glenn came down with a cold and didn't run. Amusingly, she gave her number and timing chip to a friend who ended up winning the women's 55-to-59-year-old division. I hope her friend did fit in this division. If too many people do this, there goes my stats...

In the next couple of days I'll try to put together some of the detailed stats from this race.

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