In his two years as director of Maine’s second-oldest road race, Mike Lucas has seen one constant: It’s been a rainy reign.

When runners toe the starting line in front of the Bangor Parks and Recreation building on Main Street Monday, Lucas is hoping Mother Nature leaves the 37th edition of the Bangor Labor Day 5-Miler alone for a change.

“We’d like to have somewhere between 100 and 150 [runners],” said Lucas. “And we’re supposed to have good weather.”

Race day registration begins at 8 a.m., the race starts at 9 a.m., and all runners – preregistered as well as race-day entrants – will pay an $8 fee. The race flier advertised the race-day entry fee as $15, but race officials clarified on Thursday that all runners will pay the same fee.

In 1997 Lucas took the helm of a race that local runners had largely snubbed in the recent past. Since then he has watched as the effort of his department and the Sub 5 Track Club have paid off.

“The first year I asked [Sub 5’s] Dave Jeffrey what was wrong with the race and he said, `It’s a dangerous race with no water stops,’ ” Lucas said.

“And I said, `Hey. Those are things I could change.’ ”

Those changes are ongoing, Lucas said, as the entire Bangor Parks and Rec staff have embraced the race. Meanwhile, he points out, the nuts and bolts business of actually managing a top-notch race have been left to the experts.

“Sub 5 does the hard work,” Lucas said.

The result is a race that has rebounded nicely, he said.

“Everyone who’s run it in the last two years I think won’t have a negative thing to say,” Lucas said.

This year’s race will honor Robin Emery Rappa, who ruled Maine’s roads in the 1970s and ’80s and has won the women’s division of the race a staggering 15 times beginning in 1972.

From 1972 until 1988 Rappa won 14 times in 17 years. Her Labor Day streaks included seven in a row from 1980-86 and four in a row from 1972-75. She surprised the field with her 17th victory last year at the age of 51. She set her fifth course record in 1985 at 30 minutes, 12 seconds.

The race will start and finish on Main Street. The final portion of the course is fast and downhill, and Lucas points out that the traditional course, which finished on Bass Park’s harness racing oval, was abandoned two years ago to widespread appeal.

The Labor Day race is just one of several high-profile races scheduled in the Bangor area over the next several weeks.

On Sunday, Sept. 12 the 17th Terry Fox 5K will be held beginning at 11:30 a.m. The popular race raises money to support breast cancer research and will start at the Best Western White House in Hampden.

And on Sunday, Sept. 19, the Bangor waterfront will be the site of Race for the Cure, a 5K run and walk that supports the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with a fun run at 10:15 a.m. and the race at 11 a.m.