Hunt 3K road race unveiling new award to honor Pinkham

Last summer, the life of one of Maine’s most well-known runners was cut short at one of the state’s most popular road races.

At Tuesday’s Walter Hunt Memorial 3K Road Race, which starts in Brewer and ends in Pickering Square in Bangor, race director Dave Torrey plans to honor the late Bill Pinkham.

“I am doing a special award for Bill at the awards ceremony,” Torrey said, adding that one of Pinkham’s friends, Robin Emery of Lamoine, will “say a few words about Bill.”

Pinkham collapsed and died after finishing last year’s race. He was 62.

The award that will be given in Pinkham’s honor will go to the first-place male and female finishers in the 60- to 69-year old age group.

“They will receive a special award in Bill’s memory. We’re going to honor Bill that way,” Torrey said.

The fast Brewer-Bangor 3K, which starts at 10:45 a.m. on upper Wilson Street and continues over the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge into downtown Bangor, is one of many holiday races that will be run around the state.

Many of the area’s top runners, such as defending race champions Cassie Hintz and Mike Bunker as well as Jeff Caron, Adam Goode, Judson Cake and Evan Graves, will all be competing.

Hintz is running well so far this summer and could very well challenge Wendy Delan’s course record of 9 minutes, 28 seconds in 1988.

The 18-year old from Stillwater ran a speedy 59:05 at the Tour du Lac 10-miler in Bucksport on June 24, a 5:55 pace per mile.

Tim Wakeland and Gerry Clapper share the men’s course record of 8:10, accomplished by Wakeland in 1987 and Clapper in 1988.

Bunker, Goode, Cake, Graves and Caron all have legitimate chances of coming close to that mark if a smart race is run and if the weather cooperates.

Bunker and Hintz’s winning times from a year ago were 8:35 and 9:42, respectively.

Elsewhere around the state, races that are more challenging with hilly courses and longer distances, such as the L.L. Bean 10K in Freeport and Bridgton Four (miler) on the Fourth will take place.

The 10K in Freeport, which starts on Main Street near the L.L. Bean Factory Store, will go off at 7:30 a.m. It has been a popular destination for runners in past years, as the first 700 to register receive a T-shirt.

The challenging Bridgton event starts at 8 at the town’s memorial school. Many runners from all over New England attend the event every year.

A total of 1,450 competitors finished the race last year.

On Mount Desert Island, the fourth annual Round the Island Relay is an eight-leg, 59.3-mile loop which starts and finishes at the Jack Russell’s Steak House in Bar Harbor. It begins at 7:30 a.m.

Legs vary from 5.4 miles to 9.8 miles.

A little farther down the coast in Deer Isle, the Stonington Six 10K race and 1.4-mile fun run will start at 8 a.m.

Two other Independence Day events include the Goose Rocks Beach Association 5K, starting at 9 a.m. in Kennebunk and the York High School Four (miler) on the Fourth at 8 a.m.