KINGFIELD – Judson Cake had planned to compete in what for him is a middle-distance race Sunday, just 9.3 miles.

But the early morning weather in the western mountains was pleasant, and the 30-year-old Bar Harbor runner was feeling physically fit – so why not try something longer, like a marathon.

It proved to be a competitively sound decision, as Cake not only ran a personal-best time for the 26.2-mile distance, he also posted the third-fastest winning time in race history while taking the overall title in the 26th annual Sugarloaf Marathon.

Cake won the race for the fourth time in the last five years with a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 29.3 seconds. That was well ahead of his previous best, 2:24:07 while winning here in 2007, and trailed only the course record of 2:18:38 set by the late Bruce Ellis in 1986 and Ellis’ 2:22:21 finish in 1987.

“I had in mind to run the 15K,” said Cake. “I signed up for both, but I woke up and felt good and it was a nice morning so I figured I’d run the marathon and give it a shot.”

Amy Chekos-Sedgwick of North Yarmouth was the women’s winner in 3:12:02, while Ethan Hemphill of Freeport won the accompanying Sugarloaf 15K for the fourth time in five years in 48:53.2 and Jeanne Hackett of Scarborough won the women’s 15K in 1:01:00.2.

Running alone throughout the marathon from its start at Cathedral Pines Campground in Eustis down State Route 27 to Kingfield, Cake was able to increase his pace as the race continued and temperatures grew warmer.

“I think I went through halfway about 30 seconds slower than I did last year, and then I started cranking out sub-5:10s for a while there, which was probably a bit too much,” he said. “By the end I was hurting. Anytime I’d hit a small bump there was nothing left in the legs, but I was still clicking off 5:20s, sub-5:20s at the end, so there’s no complaints.”

Peter Sedgwick, 37, of North Yarmouth finished second in 2:44:49.5, just a minute off his personal best set in Burlington, Vt., three years ago.

“I was hoping for anywhere from 2:50 to 3 hours, so I was real happy I ducked in under 2:45,” he said. “My wife and I are training for an Ironman [triathlon] at the end of July in Lake Placid, and this was supposed to be a training run. But there’s no such thing as a training run when you duck into second place, because once I got there I really felt like I had to hold onto that.”

Joseph Donnelly (2:48.07.1) of Dracut, Mass., Jarod Hayes of Dover-Foxcroft (2:51.00.2) and Patrick Chartebois (2:51:21.8) of Trois Rivieres, Quebec, rounded out the top five of 183 finishers.

While Sedgwick was second overall, he also had to settle for second in the family as his wife won the women’s division by more than four minutes.

“I went out real easy the first half, but I felt pretty good so I picked it up a notch,” said Chekos-Sedgwick, 35. “It’s my first marathon since I had my baby about a year ago, so that’s cool. It felt good to be back out there doing a big, long race.”

Annie Howley (3:16:02) of Wilton, Kyna Squarey (3:22:56) of Moncton, New Brunswick, Merrily Welch (3:24:00) of Temple and Kate Buzzell (3:27:56) of Scarborough rounded out the top five women’s finishers.

In the 15K, Hemphill didn’t threaten his personal best of 47:23.9 set here last year, but he quickly pulled away from the field.

“It’s definitely significantly off where I’ve been the last couple years,” he said, “but I’m getting older and still having fun with it.”

Adam Goode, 24, of Bangor pulled away from Jeff Sprague, 25, of Wiscasset over the final two miles to place second among the 205 15K finishers in 49:25.8.

“The course is really downhill so it’s fast and you know that from the beginning so you want to shoot for 10 seconds a mile faster than what your normal pace would be,” he said. Pretty early on Ethan took off and I knew I probably wasn’t going to be able to hang with him.

“I was ahead of Jeff for the first three miles and then he took the lead for three miles, and from seven on we kind of raced, which is really fun.”

Sprague was third in 49:44.3, followed by Steve McCarthy of Greene (50:47.6), Ryan Prescott of Standish (51:38.2) and Robert Gomez of Orono (52:52.8).

Hackett, 49, won the women’s division in her first Sugarloaf race since the early 1990s.

“I’m surprised, it’s great fun to win a race,” she said. “It’s a lonely race. I ran with two guys for a while, and then we split the difference, one went up and one fell back, and I was alone again.”

“But I run downhills pretty well, and I felt pretty good, pretty steady.”

Elena Yates of St. Louis, Mo., was second in 1:04:14; followed by Alyie Dorko of Skowhegan (1:05:50.0), Maureen Sproul of New Gloucester (1:06:32) and Angela Ewings of Littleton (1:06:39).

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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