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HAMPDEN – As former teammates, Judson Cake and Jerry Johnson know each other’s running style pretty well.
Want the book on Cake? Just ask Johnson.
“Judson went out a little bit faster than I would have liked to go out,” Johnson said after Sunday’s 19th annual Terry Fox Run.
“He usually does that anyway,” Johnson said with a chuckle.
And Johnson? Let’s ask Cake: “He’s a great runner,” the Bar Harbor native said. “Some days he’s off. And some days, he’s like he was today. It’s amazing the things he can do.”
Johnson, a former high school standout at Scarborough and a current UMaine runner, overcame Cake’s fast start, blew the race open on the second mile on the 3.1-mile course, and won comfortably in 16 minutes, 1 second.
Cake took second in 16:35 while Bob Hepler of Machias was third in 16:44. Phil Lebreton of Bangor (16:51) and Joe Dana of Indian Island (16:55) rounded out the top five.
In the women’s race, Angela Ewings of Littleton held off Stillwater’s 13-year-old Cassie Hintz to win in 20:37. Hintz clocked a 20:50 while Katrina Bisheimer of Bangor took third in 20:56. Mary Parsons of Hampden (21:29) and Margaret Jones of Bucksport (21:39) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
In all, 329 runners finished the race on a bright and balmy day.
Among the finishers was 80-year-old Bob Soulas of Bangor, who displayed his loyalty to the race by wearing the original Bangor Terry Fox Run T-shirt, dated May 2, 1982.
“I leave for Florida at the beginning or the middle of September, but this year I stalled it because I wanted to do the Terry Fox Run,” Soulas said.
He finished 293rd in 58:36.
Other notable finishers: The UMaine hockey team, which participated in the run for the sixth straight year. Marty Kariya was the top Black Bear, finishing 57th in 22:22.
In the women’s race, Ewings arrived at the starting line with modest goals that changed as her run progressed.
“Actually, I didn’t think I’d run hard today,” Ewings said. “I ran a race yesterday [in Limestone]. I thought I’d just come here today and do it because it’s for a good cause.
“I started out and felt great, so I said, ‘Well, I’ll just do what I can,'” she said.
Ewings led the race from start to finish, thanks in part to an unplanned opening mile that gave her a 10-second edge over the speedy Hintz.
“The first mile I did a little bit faster than I wanted to, but I felt OK, so I just said, ‘I’ll keep pushing the pace until it doesn’t feel good any more,” Ewings said.
By the time she felt bad – at about 21/2 miles – it was too late to slow down, Ewings said.
In the men’s race, Johnson surged by Cake shortly after the mile mark and cruised to the win.
Among the runners left in Johnson’s wake: Hepler, a 39-year-old who is a member of the U.S. Triathlon team.
Hepler was probably affected a bit less by the oppressive heat than most: He moved to Maine from Ridgecrest, Calif., a town midway between Death Valley and Bakersfield … in the middle of the Mohave Desert.
“Since it’s so difficult to get to triathlons [when you’re living in Maine], I decided to work on running this year,” Hepler said. “I just hang out with the young guys as long as I can and then watch them pull away. That’s my strategy.”
The strategy worked fine for Johnson, a UMaine sophomore who left the pack in his dust after the field turned onto a dirt road.
“I like road races a lot,” Johnson said. “They’re laid back, and you don’t get nervous or anything. Road races are my thing.”
The race was a fund-raiser for a regional breast cancer prevention trial known as the STAR trial.
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