THREE SUB-28:00 AT BEACH TO BEACON 10-K
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

Once again, there were strong results at the top end of the TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10-K in Cape Elizabeth, Me., as the 11th edition concluded just a few hours ago.

On the men's side, three broke 28 minutes in a very close two-man finish where Kenya's Edward Muge narrowly bested Ethiopia's Terefe Maregu Zewdie, a repeat result of last weekend's Bix 7 in Davenport, Ia. Only six tenths of a second separated the two men; Muge's extended gun time was 27:52.4 and Zewdie's was 27:53.0. The third place finisher was Kenyan Kiplimo Kimutai who was clocked in 27:58.1. Defending champion, Duncan Kibet, finished fourth (28:21.0).

The first Amerian across the line was Ben True from nearby North Yarmouth, Me. True, a Dartmouth College athlete, was 11th overall in 31:01.8.

The top masters finisher was, as a point of fact, a woman! Edith Masai, who won the women's race at the Bix 7 became the first over-40 woman to take the overall title at the Beach to Beacon, clocking 31:55.6. That handily surpassed Priscilla Welch's ARRS world masters record of 32:14 set at the Azalea Trail Run in Mobile, Ala., in 1985. However, the Beach to Beacon course has a 65% start to finish separation, although the elevation loss is less than the allowable 1m/km of race distance. If ARRS does not ratify this as a record, it is still a statistically significant result (Masai already holds the world masters record for 10,000m: 31:31.18).

Russian Liudmila Biktasheva was second overall in the women's race, clocking 32:03.2, while Japan's Yuri Kano finished third in 32:16.7. Kano was also third at last Sunday's NYC Half-Marathon presented by NIKE. The top American woman was Kristin Barry of nearby Scarborough, Me. She clocked 34:37.1 and was the 14th woman overall.

Race founder, Joan Benoit Samuelson, did not appear in the results. However, her daughter Abby, 20, ran 41:03, and husband Scott, 50, clocked 43:37.