3K runners may make a fast buck

When area runners Giles Norton and Peter Millard offered up $100 in a gimmick to spice up an already unique road race last year, a handful of the area’s fastest runners laced up their shoes and took aim on the magical four-minute barrier for the first mile of the Bangor Fourth of July 3K.

Nobody came close.

But when the pack starts down Wilson Street in Brewer at 10:45 a.m. today, one thing is almost certain. Norton and Millard are pretty much assured that they’ll be $100 poorer by the time the leaders hit the Joshua Chamberlain bridge.

That, according to race director Dave Torrey, is his own fault.

The flier for the 1.86 mile race was supposed to say that the first man faster than four minutes and the first woman faster than 4:30 would win $100. When the flier came out, it offered the money to the fastest man under 4:30 and woman under 5:00. That could spell easy money for a lucky, and fast, early leader.

“It was a mistake on my part when I generated the flier,” Torrey said. “I talked with Giles and Peter, and we’re going to honor that. But Tim Wakeland and Jeff Young are still planning to try to go sub-4.”

Young, of Orono, and five-time winner Wakeland, of East Holden, along with Class C girls’ state mile and two mile champ Gladys Ganiel of Narraguagus should challenge the barriers in the third race of the Bangor Daily News Charities Road Race Series.

“Tim and I just ran a race (Saturday), and we’re planning to see how we’ve recovered from it,” said Young, who has run a 4:13 mile on the track.

Young said he had no doubt that someone would break 4:30, though.

“Tim ran 4:07 when he set the course record (8:10 in 1987) here,” he said.

Still, Young said he’ll place more emphasis on winning than running the first mile fast.

“I always go into it looking to win the race, regardless of the prize money,” he said. “I would much rather win the race than get prizes. But the $100 is definitely an incentive.”

Registration will start at 9 a.m. at the Brewer Auditorium, and the race’s mostly downhill course will follow the parade route across the Joshua Chamberlain bridge, right onto Main Street, onto Exchange Street, and will finish on the foot bridge across Kenduskeag Stream. Entry fee is $6.