Paul Bunyan Marathon won’t return this year Race director cites family issues for cancellation

The Paul Bunyan Marathon, which local runner Phil LeBreton brought back to Bangor last summer after being on hiatus for more than 20 years, will not be held this summer.

The race, which was scheduled for July 15, was cancelled by race director LeBreton last week.

A total of 260 runners finished the 2006 marathon, and 97 more completed the 15-kilometer race held in conjunction with the 26.2-mile main event.

LeBreton cited the need to take a year off and spend time with his family as the main reason for canceling the race.

“I think I need a year off to focus on my family, my wife and four kids,” he explained. “I just need some time to relax and enjoy my married life,” added LeBreton, who will celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary with wife Tennille later this spring.

The couple have four sons, ages 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Another reason was that while LeBreton wanted to keep the race low-key, people in the area wanted to see a larger field, which was a tall task for LeBreton to take on without a lot of help.

“The second time around, everyone wanted it to be bigger,” LeBreton said. “I wanted to keep it simple and down to earth, and now it seems like too much for one person to take on without 10 or 20 committee members.

“If you can’t do it right and succeed and make it pristine, [have] everything the runners need and stuff, if you can’t guarantee that, it just shouldn’t [happen,]” he added.

The challenge of directing a marathon, LeBreton says, was “pretty overwhelming.”

“Last year it was a challenge to bring it back,” he said. “I made certain sacrifices and committed myself to putting it on. It did happen, and we had pretty good success.”

One sacrifice LeBreton made while working on bringing back the Bunyan was not being able to train and run many area road races, something he has done a lot of over the years. However, he did enjoy bringing the race back.

“It was an awesome experience, I had a great time doing it,” LeBreton said. “I got to meet runners from around the world, and talk to some elite runners and world-record holders.”

Right from the beginning, however, LeBreton knew he had a lot on his plate, particularly answering phone calls from runners on holidays such as Christmas and New Years.

“I knew I had my hands full,” he said. “I had to open up my phone line and personal life and all that stuff. I had people from Japan calling, [and] every holiday people were calling about this race.”

Fourteen people were registered for the 2007 race, LeBreton said, and he is in the process of notifying them of his decision not to hold the event this summer.

“We’re sending e-mails out to them to let them know,” he said.

The 15K event that accompanied last year’s race was not going to be included in the event this year, and the course was re-designed slightly to keep most of the race in Bangor.

The course would have started at Bass Park and finished at the Bangor waterfront, which could have led to congestion with the construction of the slots casino and hotel on Main Street, as well as having to block many busy intersections in downtown Bangor.

“The way the course lined up, there had to be traffic control at certain spots to guarantee the safety of the runners,” LeBreton said.

“I think after a year off, we’ll see how it goes,” he added, referring to the race’s possible 2008 return.

LeBreton is already at work to find a sponsor for the 2008 race.

“We have a sponsor in the works for the 2008 event, Yamaha Motorsports,” LeBreton said.

Chuck Engle, an elite runner from Columbus, Ohio, won the event last year in 2 hours, 41 minutes, 39 seconds while Tami Martin of Kansas City won the women’s division in 3:43.20.

Winners of the 15K were Adam Goode and Cassie Hintz.