Olympic Trials icing for Cake

When Judson Cake last ran a marathon, he did it for the benefit of others and still won.

But when the Bar Harbor native lines up for Sunday’s 25th Sugarloaf Marathon, the ambitions are more personal – earning a trip to November’s U.S. Olympic men’s marathon trials in New York City.

Cake needs to run the Olympic “B” qualifying standard of 2 hours, 22 minutes to qualify, and the combination of a fast course and a runner nearing his prime suggests the 2001 University of Maine graduate is poised to achieve that goal.

Sugarloaf’s course south along Route 27 from Eustis to Kingfield is a near-steady descent that has produced personal-best times for hundreds of participants over the years.

“It’s not as easy as a lot of people think,” said Cake, a two-time Sugarloaf champ who ran his personal course best of 2:31:25 in 2004. “But if you train the right way for it and race the right way, more than likely you’ll run a PR.”

Such an effort could enable Cake to challenge other milestones, the Olympic “A” standard of 2:20 and the Sugarloaf record of 2:18:38 set by the late Bruce Ellis in 1986.

“My major goal is to qualify for the Olympic trials,” said the 29-year-old Cake. “The [“B”] standard is 2:22, so I’m probably going to go out at that pace for 15 miles, and if I’m really feeling comfortable then we’ll see what happens.”

Should Cake, who won the accompanying Sugarloaf 15K last year, achieve his Olympic trials objective, it would represent a satisfying conclusion to a tumultuous few months.

The highlights include a victory Feb. 4 at the Tallahassee Marathon, a race he wasn’t even supposed to finish. Cake was hired to pace a group of world-class runners for the first 15 miles and ran a blistering 2:18 pace, “but the Kenyans didn’t show up,” he said.

“I had planned to stop at 15 miles,” said Cake, “but I was running by myself, so I talked to my coach and we decided I might as well jog in.”

Cake, whose marathon PR is 2:24:45 last October in Chicago, slowed his pace considerably, but still won in 2:28:14 while setting personal bests for 20 kilometers, half-marathon and 25K along the way.

That victory was followed by various injuries, fatigue, subsequent blood tests and ultimately a diagnosis of thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder.

“It’s similar to being anemic,” said Cake. “I would have tremendous ups and downs. One race I would run with some of the better marathoners, and the next race I’d be running with guys I should have been beating by a minute or more.”

The diagnosis was addressed through diet adjustments to include more whole wheats, red meat and folic acid, and to eliminate sugar. Cake wasn’t able to run this year’s Boston Marathon, but now says he feels much better.

“The weather at Boston slowed everybody down anyway, so it was best for me that I didn’t run there,” he said.

Cake has been training this year at ZAP Fitness, the Blowing Rock, N.C., facility for post-collegiate runners founded in 2001 by the late Andy Palmer, a former running standout from Madawaska, and his wife Zika.

By mid-Sunday morning, Cake hopes his future training in the western Carolina mountains will be focused on an Olympic-level debut.

“I’m not expecting anyone to run with me for more than a couple of miles,” said Cake of Sunday’s Sugarloaf race. “I’m all for it if someone else does, but I plan to run my own pace.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net.