Wakeland takes 5-mile win in stride> Hodges easy victor in women’s division

BANGOR – It was a race until they turned onto Railroad Street.

Then Tim Wakeland took his 20-yard lead and did his imitation of the late 1970s action figure Stretch Armstrong as he stretched and stretched and stretched without ever breaking his stride in the 33rd annual Bangor Labor Day Road Race Monday morning.

His lead by the Harlow Street-State Street intersection was 30 yards. By Kenduskeag Avenue it was 50 yards, and coming down mile four on Buck Street, Wakeland had stretched his lead to a good 125 yards, without ever looking back or breaking his rhythm.

He did break a sweat, however, in running down a winning time of 26:30, 31 seconds faster than Bangor’s Michael Gaige.

Hampden’s Sheila Hodges won the overall women’s division, with a time of 33:12. Nichi Farnham of Bangor finished at 35:00 and 16-year-old Deri-Ann White of Dover-Foxcroft took third with 35:14.

Hodges and Wakeland were off the record-holding paces of previous years. Bucksport native Gerry Clapper set the men’s record in 1988 at 24:22, and a year later, Julia Kirtland of Orono set the women’s mark at 29:12.

Under a cool, sunny sky, 99 racers took to the streets for the race, run by the Bangor Parks and Recreation Department.

Wakeland of Holden broke out early from the starting line at Bass Park’s grandstand, taking the lead coming out and adding to it as he waited to see if Gaige, or third-place finisher Patrick Sullivan, would give chase.

Gaige, who Sunday had predicted Wakeland would win the five-mile race, and Sullivan pushed each other throughout the race. But neither ever seriously threatened Wakeland, particularly after a brutal assault on the 14th Street Extension hill.

“I wanted to go out five minutes a mile and just see what I could do and get ready for the second and third mile,” he said. “I just wanted to consistently run the hills and that’s where I really tried to focus and tried to maintain.

“After the hills I was just on the survival mode,” Wakeland said.

Three-time winner Gaige, 43, had no problem in conceding the race to Wakeland. Gaige just wanted to stay ahead of training partner Sullivan, Bangor High’s cross country coach.

“I knew wanted to run about a five-minute mile and I wanted to run about a 5:10 mile and we both were like five seconds fast,” Gaige said. “Pat and I train well together, and I just wanted to try and beat him today. He won last week, and it was my turn this week.”

There was no such alternating spirit on the women’s side where Hodges continued her local racing dominance, beating Farnham by nearly two minutes, as preparation for Saturday’s 12th Terry Fox 5K and the Women’s Festival race in Portland the following weekend.

“I just went out strong and stayed that way,” Hodges shrugged. “…I would have liked to have done about 30 seconds faster. But when I came into it today, I’m looking at two weeks from now.

“I don’t know if I’m being conservative and next weekend will tell me, when I run Terry Fox,” she continued. “If I can race 35s, I’ll take it.”