Heslam still racing, but now as distance runner Mount View alum brings team for hill training

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ORONO – Back in her college days, Bethany Heslam was a coach’s dream. She was fast, strong, and versatile, and used those talents to win a New England pentathlon title and set a 200-meter record (25.58 seconds) that still stands.

Today, Heslam is a bit different. She’s still strong. She’s still versatile. But the 1982 Mount View of Thorndike grad wasn’t in Orono to relive old glories earlier this week.

Heslam, a 1986 UMaine grad who was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame in 1998, is now a distance runner. And make no mistake about it: She was training. … With some help.

Heslam, a math and computer science teacher at Port Charlotte (Fla.) High School, spent much of the summer in Maine, including nine days with five members of the Pirates’ cross country team.

On Monday, that meant the girls ran a 3-mile warmup, a 31/2-mile cooldown, and whichever of Heslam’s track reps they felt they wanted to try.

“I ran 1,600, 800, 600, 400, 200, and my 200 was 31 [seconds],” she pointed out to her UMaine track coach, Jim Ballinger. “That’s not too bad, considering everything else I did before that.”

Ballinger agreed.

For the past nine years, Heslam has turned a trip to New England into a training and team-bonding week for her team.

“My parents have a house in New Hampshire and we have a camp on Lake St. George in Liberty, so we just stay with my family or at our family places,” Heslam said. “So it really doesn’t cost [the girls] any more than airfare.”

In addition to daily runs that take advantage of something Maine has that Florida lacks – hills – Heslam’s Port Charlotte girls also fit in races in Portsmouth, Rockland, and Cape Elizabeth.

Heslam, who has run marathons and has set a goal of 18 minutes for a 5K by the end of the year, has also run sub-39 for 10K in the past two years.

Heslam said another of her specialties – the hurdles – is a distant memory.

“My legs, my hamstrings, don’t have any snap in them to hurdle any more,” she said. “I still do some sprinting, and I work out on the track, but mostly, I race 5K and up.”

She dropped by Orono to show her runners her old college haunts, and figured she’d stop in and visit Ballinger at his Orono home.

“I said, ‘If he’s there, we visit. If he’s not, we pick tomatoes,'” she said.

Even at 37, Heslam still has plenty of speed. Last year, she ran a 5:19 mile on the track. And coaching eager young athletes keeps her fresh and competitive, she said.

“That’s my goal: I can still beat all the kids,” she said with a laugh.

Terry Fox movie showing set

For the past several years, race director Ed Rice has shown the popular “Terry Fox: I Had a Dream” documentary to promote the Bangor Terry Fox Run.

This year, Rice won’t show that film. Instead, the 20th annual celebration will include the 45-minute, “The Life and Times of Terry Fox,” to be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22, at Eastern Maine Medical Center’s Mason Auditorium.

While the previous film dealt with Fox’s Marathon of Hope, Rice said via e-mail that the new film arose when Canadians were voting for their nation’s top 10 heroes of all time.

Fox was voted an overwhelming winner, and the film looks at his entire life. Interesting, Rice said, are portions of the film during which people who have been shown interacting with Fox recall their connection to Fox 20 years after the fact.

Rice said screenings like this will provide the only opportunity for people to see “The Life and Times of Terry Fox,” because it can’t be shown on TV. Instead, it is available only to promote a Terry Fox Run.

For the record, this year’s Terry Fox Run is set for Sunday, Sept. 8, at 11:30 a.m. It will start at the Best Western White House Inn in Hampden.

Finishing kick: Want to race this weekend? You’ve got plenty of choices, including a rare Friday night offering.

Today, runners can head to Portland for the St. Peter’s Church 4-miler at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, the Calais Recreation Department’s 23rd annual Johnson’s True Value 5-miler is set for 9 a.m. In Houlton, the County Open Half Marathon and Relay is scheduled for an 8 a.m. start.

And on Sunday, The Alvin Sproul Samoset 10K begins at Bristol Consolidated School at 9:15 a.m. The three-event set might want to check out the Mountain to Sea Triathlon in Blue Hill. The race – a 10K run, 16K bike, and 4K paddle – begins at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds at 9 a.m.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.