Cheruiyot wins wet, windy marathon Graves tops Maine runners

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The classic Bob Seger hit “Running Against the Wind” fittingly describes the conditions a contingent of Maine athletes were facing in Monday’s 111th running of the Boston Marathon.

One hundred forty-five Pine Tree State runners completed the 26.2-mile race from Hopkinton, Mass., to Boston, weathering rainy, chilly, and yes, very windy conditions on this Patriot’s Day.

Maine’s top finisher was Evan Graves of Presque Isle, who teaches physical education and coaches girls soccer and basketball at Easton High School.

Graves, a 25-year-old Bar Harbor native, finished 41st overall, clocking in at 2 hours, 28 minutes, 4 seconds, averaging a solid 5:39 pace per mile.

Adam Goode of Orono, making his Boston debut and running in memory of friend and University of Maine teammate Jim Hegedus, finished 15th among Mainers and 708th overall in 2:57:19.

Goode admitted he started a little too quickly, going through the 5-kilometer mark in 18:30 and the 10K in 37:08.

“I went out pretty fast. I definitely felt it in the last couple miles,” he said. “I went from running 6:10 miles to a 9-minute mile. That was the big difference.”

The first 17 miles are flat and downhill, particularly the first few miles through Hopkinton and Ashland.

The first major hills don’t come into play until Newton in the 18th mile, where some runners pay for being too aggressive at the start.

“If you start out too fast, you pay for it,” Goode said. “It was mostly downhill the first 14-15 miles. It’s a big change to running up hills at [miles] 17, 18, 19.”

Goode ran with Ellsworth High School running coach Andy Beardsley of Surry for most of the early miles, which he admitted he shouldn’t have done.

“I kind of told myself I shouldn’t run faster with him at the beginning,” Goode said.

He added that he ran the remainder of the race with Mike Downing of Gorham.

Goode acknowledged the weather conditions didn’t affect him too much.

“It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting,” he said. “It was not as bad as people were anticipating.”

The University of Maine singlet the 23-year-old Goode wore in the race got a lot of attention.

“I got of lot of yells from people in the streets saying ‘Go Maine,’ which was kind of cool,” he said.

The support of fellow Mainers who weren’t running was great, he added.

“A lot of different people went down to watch. Brian Hubbel [of Bar Harbor] went down, I saw [Andy] Goupee at mile 22,” Goode said. “I stayed with Jeff Caron, down in Medford.”

Goode enjoyed the experience of the marathon, saying, “I’m definitely glad I did it,” but he added he likely won’t be doing another one for a while.

“I’ll probably take some time off, then at the beginning of the summer start training more for 10Ks and half-[marathons],” he explained.

Byrne Decker of Yarmouth was the second Maine finisher at 2:35:35, 81st overall, followed by Luke Wood of Saco (137th overall, 2:41:15), Christian Muentener of Yarmouth (160th, 2:42:59), and Peter Sedgwick of South Portland (210th, 2:45:22).

Sheri Piers of Falmouth was the top Maine female finisher, coming in 101st in the women’s division in 3:09:00.

Beardsley turned in a solid 2:52:21 effort. Gary Allen of Cranberry Isles, the Mount Desert Island Marathon race director, posted a 2:55:16.

Roughly 30 places behind Allen was Austin Townsend Jr. of Perry, who came in at 2:55:57, while the next Mainer was Vladimir Suchan of Fort Kent, running a 2:56:02.

Ryan King of Bangor and Chris Almy of Charleston, who both run many local road races, came in at 3:17:07 and 3:34:36, respectively.

Kate Goupee, a running coach at MDI High School, finished in 3:40:28 in her Boston debut.

Monday’s conditions were not kind to other Patriot’s Day races.

With the wind and rain worse in the Portland area, the Portland Boys and Girls Club’s annual Patriot’s Day 5-mile road race was canceled.

Multiple road closures in Portland also forced the Maine Track Club to call off the race.