CAPE ELIZABETH – Catherine Ndereba knows she made a mistake last year.

But that’s not what drove her to return for her sixth Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K and what she’s hoping will be her fifth crown.

“It’s a big thing for me,” Ndereba said Friday after a press conference at the Inn by the Sea here. “I love this race very much. I feel like it’s a part of me, and that’s why I’m here. I always feel like I just want to see the people from Beach to Beacon, like Joan Benoit. She’s such a friend.”

Ndereba was the only woman’s champion – she won it four straight years – until Adriana Fernandez of Mexico won the race in 2002, with Ndereba finishing a disappointing third.

Fernandez won’t be back this year, but defending men’s champion James Koskei will, as the two favorites and 4,998 other runners from around the world, across the country, and down the block will take off Saturday at about 8 a.m. from near Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth.

The 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) course winds along Route 77 and Old Ocean House Road, to Shore Road until the finish at Fort Williams. There are 5,000 runners entered in the race, including 3,500 from Maine.

Ndereba and Koskei were two of about 30 elite runners who met with the media and race officials Friday morning. Race founder Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic gold medal winner in the marathon and a Cape Elizabeth resident, was also on hand.

Ndereba, a 31-year-old native of Kenya who now lives in Philadelphia, is ranked seventh in the world among road racers, according to Running Times magazine. She is coming off wins at the Sapporo Half Marathon in July and the Quad City Bix 7-Miler last weekend. She is a two-time winner of the Boston Marathon.

Not everything went well for Ndereba in last year’s Beach to Beacon, but she said what happened wasn’t a surprise.

“I knew it was all my fault,” she said. “I had done a very high mileage that week. So I knew it was going to make my speed go down a little bit. I was kind of exhausted but I had to do the race so I knew it was something I expecting. [This year] I’m looking ahead to run the world championship marathon so I’m going to try to balance everything.”

Ndereba should be pushed by Romania’s Constantina Tomescu-Dita, who won the Steamboat 4-miler in June and placed fourth in the Peachtree 10K, and 18th-ranked Luminita Talpos of Romania, who was second to Ndereba at the Bix. Rahab Ndungu, also a Kenyan, won the Greater Clarksburg 10K in West Virginia last weekend. Jennifer Rhines of Villanova, Pa., is one of the top U.S. hopes.

Koskei will certainly be tested by several of his countrymen.

John Korir, the top-ranked road racer, has logged four wins in races of at least seven kilometers this year. He was fifth at last year’s Beach to Beacon. Linus Maiyo has put up this year’s fastest 8K and 10K times in the world. Gilbert Okari is ranked eighth after winning the Nairobi 10K in July. Paul Koetch’s best 10K time of 26:36.26 makes him the fastest man in the race. That’s the third-fastest time ever run.

“I believe on the men’s side we actually have for our top five the fastest group of men we’ve ever had at the Beach to Beacon,” said Larry Barthlow, the elite athlete director.

Susannah Beck, a 35-year-old Yarmouth native and two-time Maine high school champion while at Waynflete of Portland, said the women’s elite field will be a big challenge, too.

“I’m completely outclassed,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t ask for a faster field. In fact, they’re so much faster that I probably won’t be able to make much use of them.”

Beck, who doesn’t count in the race as a Mainer because she is in the process of moving from Eugene, Ore., to Halifax, Nova Scotia, is known as a top marathoner, but said she’s now running more 10K races. She was seventh among the women in last year’s Beach to Beacon.

Defending Maine champions Christine Snow-Reaser of Dayton and Andy Spaulding of Freeport are back in the field this year.

Top local runners entered in the race include Judson Cake of Bar Harbor, Belfast’s Levi Miller, Joey Luchini of Ellsworth, and Suzanne Hussey of Old Town. There are 520 runners entered from Cape Elizabeth, which means one out of every 10 competitors is from the host town.

Gov. John Baldacci is expected to run the race, making him the first Maine governor to participate.

Two female elites, Sally Barososio of Kenya and Elana Meyer of South Africa, have dropped out of the field.

Peter De La Cerda of Alamoso, Colo., has been added to the men’s elites. De La Cerda finished second in the 2000 Olympic Trials marathon.

Several Kenyans spent Thursday at the Seeds of Peace camp in Otisfield working with young runners. Seeds of Peace, which is the beneficiary of this year’s Beach to Beacon, brings together youth from troubled areas of the world for a conflict-resolution program.

“The Kenyans made these kids feel really special,” said Seeds of Peace president Aaron Miller. “… I tried to tell the kids yesterday that long distance running is essentially a lot like pursuing peace. The road is never easy, it is always long, it requires tremendous courage and remarkable determination.”

Race president Dave Weatherbie announced that Peoples Heritage Bank has agreed to sponsor the Beach to Beacon for the next five years.