November 22, 2024
ROAD RACING

Relaxed Cake wins Labor Day 5-miler Hintz sets women’s course record

BANGOR – Running a 31-mile race one day and a 5-miler the next is not an easy task.

Don’t tell that to Judson Cake of Bar Harbor, though.

“Anyone who can run a 50 [kilometer] on a Sunday and then run a tactically smart race on Monday and win deserves it,” said Phil LeBreton of Bangor, who finished second to Cake on Monday in the 42nd annual Bangor Labor Day 5-miler.

Cake ran conservatively in the early going and eventually cruised home in 26 minutes, 24 seconds to earn the victory by 42 seconds.

LeBreton, who had won the race the past three years, finished in 27:06. Third was Tim Wakeland of Dedham (27:34), followed by Tommy McWalters of Thorndike (28:18) and Phil LeBreton’s brother, Perry LeBreton (28:54), also of Bangor.

Old Town High School junior Cassie Hintz won the women’s race for the second year in a row, setting her second course record in three days with a 29:39 clocking. She broke the Ellsworth Invitational course record at a meet Saturday with a time of 15:45 over a 2.75-mile course.

Hintz trimmed almost two minutes off her winning time at last year’s Labor Day race when she finished in 31:33.

Kathleen Bell of Orono took second Monday in 31:49 and Margaret Jones of Bucksport finished third at 35:44.

Now that the high school cross country season is under way, Hintz isn’t running as hard as she did in races earlier this summer.

“I just wanted to take it easy and not push it to hard,” she said.

However, her average mile was 5:53, and she hit the 3-mile mark in a blazing 17:40.

Cake, who ran the 50K as part of his marathon training, was running the Bangor Labor Day race for the first time, but was pretty familiar with the course, as he and LeBreton have trained on it.

“Phil and I ran it together,” he said.

LeBreton’s first mile was a speedy 4:59, and Cake just relaxed, which proved to be crucial. Cake’s last mile was 5:03. He overtook LeBreton between the second and third miles, and continued to widen the lead throughout the race.

“The downhills actually hurt a little bit,” he said referring to the all-downhill final two miles. “I’m still pretty sore from the Acadia Trail Blazer 50K.”

Cake’s racing and training have gone very well this summer, and it will all lead up to one big race coming up next month. He’s logging about 110 miles per week to prepare.

“I’m hoping to win the MDI Marathon,” he said.

He did not compete in the marathon a year ago.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like