AUBURN – Carlton Mendell hardly looked winded as he jogged up to the makeshift podium outside the Rollodrome in Auburn to collect his prize from race director Mike Lecompte.
Mendell finished the seventh annual L/A 5K Bridge Run Sunday morning in 38 minutes and 16 seconds, one day after finishing a 10K race in New Hampshire. Mendell also completed his 28th Boston Marathon this year, as well as a marathon in Ottawa, and he plans to run in the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington, Va., at the end of October. Last year at that race, Mendell finished ahead of 301 other men.
Did anyone happen to mention that Mendell is 83-years-old?
“I really started running back in 1972,” said Mendell, of Windham. “I was really overweight and I needed a way to stay in shape.”
These days, though, Mendell, who received his prize Sunday as the race’s oldest entrant, competes in more than 70 races each year, and he takes pride in his ability not only to start long distance races, but to finish each one, too.
“I’ve finished every time in Boston,” said Mendell, who was also the oldest runner to finish in the 2005 race.
Mendell was just one of 293 participants in this year’s edition of the L/A 5K Bridge Run, proceeds from which benefit the L/A Trails organization.
“It’s really not the numbers that matter so much in this race for us,” said Lecompte, the race director. “We just really want people to come out here and have a good time, help support L/A Trails and try to promote fitness in our community. Running is a good way for people to stay healthy, and that’s also what we’re trying to promote.”
Lewiston runner Chase Pray, 61, finished first in his age group. Pray, an employee at Bates College, has been running for years. Slowing down is part of aging, he said, but there are ways around it.
“I finished in 21:43 or so today,” said Pray. “I’d like to be able to get faster again, to get into the 20-minute range somewhere. As you get older, though, leg speed gets slower, so you have to be creative on how you do it, either losing weight or changing your diet.”
And while the course was friendly for Mendell and Pray, the younger set was also out in force. The youngest runner in the 5K field was 9, and several high school teams ran together. One of them, the Lewiston High School girls’ soccer team, used the race as this week’s training run.
“Now we don’t have to run for the rest of the week,” said team member Kelsey Rodrigue. “This whole thing was supposed to be a team bonding event, but so many people couldn’t show up.”
Seven girls in all ran, along with assistant coach Kevin Bennett.
“Last time we ran as a team for three miles, we did it in 42 minutes,” said Allie Morin. “This time, we’re all just excited that we did it better.”
Cross country teams from Leavitt High School and Elan school in Poland also ran, as did Tyler Jasud, a senior at Mountain Valley High School and one of the top high school cross country runners in the state.
“I was a bit disappointed at the time,” said Jasud, “but it’s good. I needed something to kick off the season a bit, to get me back into racing.”
More than 60 volunteers assisted Lecompte in preparing the course, setting up food tables for race participants following the race and awarding door prizes.
Overall, Ethan Hemphill, a highly-ranked New England runner who won the Maine division of the 2004 Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth, won with a time of 15:50. Kelly Brown, wife of course record-holder Scott Brown, captured the women’s crown in 19:29. Scott Brown’s record of 15:44 and Tina Meserve’s women’s record of 17:36 were never in danger Sunday.
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