TIME IS AN ALLY FOR FALMOUTH, BEACH TO BEACON RACES

BOSTON HERALD

While the Boston Marathon has been postponed, big later-in-the-summer races are in a holding, and hoping pattern

Since he established DMSE Sports back in 1981, race director nonpareil Dave McGillivray has easily overseen 1,000 road race and charity walk events across the United States. Those races run the gamut from the Boston Marathon, to Maine’s Beach to Beacon and the ever-popular Falmouth Road Race. Like most sports events these days, most have fallen victim to either postponement or cancellation due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

While the 124th Boston Marathon has already announced a shift from its scheduled April 20 date to Sept. 14, time appears to be the best ally for popular road races like the Beach to Beacon, set for 8 a.m., on Aug. 1, and Falmouth, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Aug. 16. That extended time period is a crucial ally with 122 days until Beach to Beacon and 153 days until Falmouth.

“The watch word in the industry is monitoring,” McGillivray said this week with regard to both the August events “How can you postpone those events? Maybe we should contact Don Facey, the race director of the 41st annual Falmouth in the fall event and make it a new type of Falmouth in the fall.”

It should be noted that Facey, the venerable race director and a former member of the Greater Boston Track Club, has long held a participant limit of 600 runners for his event, which is annually conducted on the first Sunday in November (Nov. 1 this year).

McGillivray’s efficient and experienced group of workers provide all sorts of services from communications, course layout, equipment, and prerace and race day planning. He and the heads of many professional, college and Olympic sports are in a holding pattern as health experts try to deal with the ever-expanding coronavirus.

Last year, the TD Bank Beach to Beacon event, which was founded by 1984 Olympic Marathon champion Joan Benoit Samuelson in 1998, featured a field of 6,500 runners. The 10K (6.2 miles) race, which finishes at Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, had a prize purse of $90,000 split among Elite, American, Masters, and wheelchair category athletes and raised $30,000 for the TD Charitable Foundation.

In an announcement on the event’s website, David Backer, president of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K, wrote, “The health and well-being of our community, runners, volunteers and sponsors, are of paramount concern as we evaluate and exercise precautions in response to the coronavirus. With the race scheduled for August 1, we are currently proceeding as planned while carefully monitoring the most recent information and guidance available from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), local public safety and public health officials. If circumstances dictate changes to TDB2B10K-related events, we will make public announcements as soon as possible.”

Last year’s top finishers in the men’s and open divisions at Beach to Beacon were Alex Korio, 28, of Eldoret, Kenya, in a time of 27:34 and Joyciline Jepkosgei, 25, of Nairobi, Kenya, in a time of 31:05. Korio won by over a minute over countryman Jainus Kipchoge-Birich, 26, of Kenya, who finished in 28:28. The top American male was Scott Fauble, 27, of Flagstaff, Ariz., in a time of 28:59. Top Maine finishers were Dan Curts, 23, of Ellsworth, in 12th place (29:26) and 16-year-old Sophie Matson of Falmouth in a time of 36:02.

“We opened registration for Cape Elizabeth entrants last Wednesday and it filled up in five minutes. Then we opened it up to the general field and it filled up in 17 minutes,” McGillivray said. “We had wondered whether some runners would back off because of the coronavirus but, no, they were running. Maybe by August this will have gone away.”

Falmouth, a 7-mile race that began on the 40th birthday of late bartender and raconteur Tommy Leonard in 1973, had 11,404 finishers, including 6,389 women, last year. The average finishing time was 1:13:25 (73:25). The event carries a total prize package of $107,305 provided by principle sponsor New Balance and includes prize awards of $10,000 to the men’s and women’s open division champions and $3,000 to the top American and wheelchair finishers. Race organizers presented donations to a variety of charitable organizations during a Jan.29 ceremony held at Falmouth Public Library.

Last year’s open division winners included U.S. Olympian Leonard Korir, 32, formerly of Kenya, who clocked 32:11, after pulling away from Stephen Sambu, a former University of Arizona star originally from Kenya, who sped 32:29 and ex-University of Oregon standout Edward Cheserek, who was born in Kenya and grew up in New Jersey. Cheserek took third place in 32:30 in his inaugural road race appearance. Mason Ferlic of Ann Arbor, Mich., was top American in fourth place (32:54). On the women’s side, Kenya Sharon Lokedi, a former University of Kansas star, covered the distance in a time of 36:29 to finish five seconds in front of American Sara Hall (36:34).