Back in 1998, when the first TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K road race was held in Cape Elizabeth, town manager Mike McGovern was a bit nervous for a couple reasons.

“I said to Joanie [Benoit Samuelson] we’re gonna have to close off 800 homes, and people aren’t gonna be able to get out for 2 or 3 hours,” McGovern said.

Nine years later, this ocean-bordering community of around 9,000 residents comes together to accommodate 5,500 runners and over 10,000 spectators August for Maine’s largest road race, which will be held next Saturday, Aug. 5 at 8 a.m.

McGovern said that the Organizing Committee, consisting of more than 50 town officials, starts meeting in January to prepare for race day.

In fact, Council chairman David Backer has been in charge of the finish line every year, McGovern said.

The Cape Elizabeth police are heavily involved as well, making sure roads around the course are closed to traffic and runners are kept safe, and the volunteer rescue department provides helpful assistance in the medical tent at the finish line.

The rescue department is always prepared in case the always-changing Maine weather turns hot.

“We’ve kept our fingers crossed, so far we’ve been lucky the weather has been reasonably good for the runners,” McGovern said.

A lot of the world’s best runners still return to this small community every August.

“Obviously the chief attraction is the respect they have for Joan Benoit, she’s the icon of women’s marathoning,” McGovern said. “I think it’s the welcome they receive in the community that makes a big difference too.”

And another thing the Beach to Beacon has on its side: One of the world’s top race directors in Dave McGillivray and race president Dave Weatherbie, who runs the race every year and coaches cross country and track at Cape Elizabeth High School.

“It’s unbelievable, the talent they have and the organizing skills they have,” McGovern said. “It’s a pretty classy event.”

Back home again in Cape

A lot of people seem to have a “home away from home.”

For Kenyan running standout and three-time defending Beach to Beacon champion Gilbert Okari, his second home is in Cape Elizabeth.

Okari will return to his second home next weekend in search of his fourth straight Beach to Beacon title, a race where he’s always at the peak of his performance.

“When he comes to this race, he digs a little deeper,” said Larry Barthow, the race’s director of Elite Athletes. “He’s the strong favorite. He has to be.”

That he is. Okari was “third or fourth at the Peachtree [10-miler in Atlanta]” earlier this year, Barthlow said, and also has a victory at the Bloomsday 12K Run in Spokane, Wash., to his credit.

“He’s really rounding into shape,” Barthlow said.

Barthlow said the main thing that keeps the elite athletes coming back to this quiet, coastal community every year is the way Cape Elizabeth makes them feel at home.

“All the athletes get really taken care of, those guys do a great job of making the athletes feel like home,” he said. “Cape Elizabeth really opens up their arms basically. I think it’s so well-run.”

The wide-open women’s field will be headed up by 2004 champ Susan Chepkemei of Kenya, who was second in the New York City Marathon last year.

“She’s always in the hunt, she’s a real sweetheart and a real class person,” said Barthlow, who added that Chepkemei missed last year’s race because of visa problems.

Broadening horizons

Generally, at an everyday small town road race, if a runner is coming from far away, he or she is forced to make hotel arrangements, unless they have friends or family in the area.

The elite runners who compete in the Beach to Beacon don’t have such problems, thanks to Janet McLaughlin of Cape Elizabeth, who arranges for elite runners to stay with host families in Cape.

“We use about 30 families, generally families in Cape, which makes it easier, especially on race morning when we have to get the runner to the starting line,” McLaughlin explained. “We like to have families with children, we want the children to understand people from different cultures.”

One family learned from a Japanese athlete.

“I know one family who had a Japanese runner in the past, and the children learned to converse a few sentences in Japanese,” she said. “Everyone thought that was terrific.

McLaughlin said that elite runners are coming from Kenya, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Romania, Japan, Russia and the Ukraine.

She added that passport and visa problems can be a major challenge.

“A couple years ago, a woman was coming from South Africa, and she was hung up in New York because of her visa,” McLaughlin said.

Even though a lot of the runners that come in are focused on the task at hand, after the race is over, they head for the many tourist attractions within 20 to 30 minutes of Cape Elizabeth.

“We’ve found that a number of those female runners will go to Freeport,” McLaughlin said.

Will they shop til they drop?

“They’ll shop, and they don’t drop,” McLaughlin said, laughing.

McLaughlin recently went on a trip to Kenya with two other host families, which gave her a chance to see how some of the world’s best runners live.

“It was really a trip of a lifetime, we hung out with them to some extent,” she said. “We watched them do track [workouts].”

McLaughlin said that the Kenyans train on a dirt track, and the elevation is as high as 8,000 feet above sea level.