Bunyan races in Bangor Sunday Marathon, 15K draw diverse field

Phil LeBreton has run countless road races, marathons, and distance events over his last 22 years, but until he started planning the rebirth of the Paul Bunyan Marathon, he figured planning a marathon was much easier than running one.

Eight months later, he has changed his mind.

Although he first came up with the idea two years ago and actually started working on a plan last October, Sunday’s Paul Bunyan Marathon has officially been in the making for more than two decades.

“The last year of the race was in 1984, and the interest just kind of fell off so it just kind of ended after 10 years,” said LeBreton. “What inspired me was seeing some of those great races that used to be around here falling between the cracks.

“This basically started out from a desire to give back to the racing community since I’ve been running 20 years and wanted to see about bringing a marathon back to Bangor.”

The Brewer native and Bangor resident not only took this year off from racing for the first time in 20 years, but also from work to organize and run the marathon, something he can’t imagine doing while employed part time, let alone full time.

“One of the guys at Nike, who I test shoes for, is a marathon runner and he said at some point in your life, you should try something you’re not sure you can accomplish and challenge yourself to know what your limits are,” LeBreton said.

And now?

“Well, after doing all this, I think I’ve found my limits,” the 34-year-old father of four said with a chuckle. “I was ready to do this and at a point in my running career where I wanted to give something back to the running community with a piece of Maine running history as part of it.

The 26.2-mile Paul Bunyan Marathon and accompanying 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) race will both start at 6 a.m. Sunday at the corner of Main and Buck Streets in Bangor and end at the Cameron Stadium finish line off Mount Hope Avenue, but the marathon will traverse roads in Bangor, Veazie and Orono in between.

In all, 407 runners will take part with all but 80 of them competing in the marathon. Runners from five Canadian provinces and 39 American states have signed up to compete. One woman who used to live on Kenduskeag Avenue and remembers watching runners from the old Bunyan races trot by her house, is spending $6,000 to come here from California and run.

Only 23 percent (94 runners) of the running field are from Maine.

“I shut the registration off Monday,” said LeBreton. “I could have 3,000 or 4,000 runners right now if I wanted to, but I wanted to make it as runner-friendly as possible and keep it in a context with the history of running in Maine, so I kept the entry fee reasonable [$40] and capped the field at 400 runners.”

What’s creating such allure for the Bunyan?

“I think it’s a mixture of three things: The uniqueness of hosting a summer marathon in New England, which isn’t as hot as other venues this time of year; the rich history of the Paul Bunyan is another; and the third thing is the networking possibilities for the runners and the organizers,” LeBreton explained.

The first person signed up for the race back in November and the interest has been on the increase ever since.

“My advertising cost was zero, and people wondered how I could do this without a big financial backer, but I started this with negative $16 in my bank account,” LeBreton said.

LeBreton advertised the race on all schedules and message boards for running clubs, running Web sites, and running-specific sites and publications and the response was sudden and dramatic.

“Within the first eight weeks of the race, I could have had Dick Beardsley signed up as a guest speaker along with Alberto Salazar. I also had coaches wanting to fly elite athletes in for the race,” he said. “It was really tempting to open this up a lot more than it is in terms of the field, but I really wanted to make this a personal venture and not open it up so much I need a committee to run it.”

That’s not to say LeBreton is against the idea of the event growing bigger in the future.

“This shows what one person can do in a year, so if other individuals and businesses can step up and get involved, we can really make a premier event,” he said. “Some people were already calling this the premier U.S. summer nationally and one of the goals was to get it USATF certified, but we wanted to start off more simple and basic in this first year of doing it.”

The races continue from the starts down Main Street past the Bank of America to Valley Avenue and over to Strickland on to the Burleigh Road. From there, the courses split with the marathoners going left to Essex Street and the 15K runners going right to Essex and then Stillwater. The 15K course continues on to Garland Street and loops left around Abraham Lincoln School, back to Garland, and finishing at Cameron Stadium.

The marathon course continues from Essex to Forest Avenue and on to Chase and Bennoch Roads. After the intersection at Stillwater Avenue, runners go right onto College Avenue in Orono past the University of Maine and onto Route 2 going through downtown Orono and Veazie. The course continues on Route 2 (State Street) in Bangor to Summit Drive near Eastern Maine Medical Center, and on to Garland Street past the Cohen School to the Cameron Stadium finish line.

LeBreton has enlisted Dirigo Search and Rescue members to provide medical support and minor traffic control with additional help from Bangor and Orono police officers. He also has 20 volunteers to man the 13 water stations located two miles apart along the routes, but needs about 20 more. People can call him at 947-4007 or sign up via the Internet at www.paulbunyanmarathon.com.