CAPE ELIZABETH — Micah Kogo would have been fine with the heat.

The humidity, he could have done without.

After setting a blistering pace through the first four-mile splits — well ahead of a course-record pace at each checkpoint — the rolling hills and increasingly stuffy air caught up with the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.

But none of that prevented the star distance runner from adding the TD Bank Beach to Beacon to his list of triumphs. Kogo crossed the finish line at Fort Williams Park on Saturday in 27:46.9, nearly 20 seconds slower than record pace but still a full nine seconds better than Lucas Rotich, another Kenyan who took second place at the prestigious Maine race.

“When I heard the people cheering me the whole way (at the finish), I was thinking he might be catching me,” Kogo said. “I was a little bit nervous. But when I saw the finish line, I felt I was going to win the race.”

Kogo didn’t take any chances, either. He bolted to the front early, and pulled a few other elite runners with him. Early on, it developed into a two-man race, with Rotich at Kogo’s side.

“I normally like a fast race, because when the race goes slower, during the finish, I’m not very good at finishing with a big kick,” Kogo said.

Just past the midway point of the 6.2-mile course, Kogo swerved from one side of the road to the other, attempting to shake he fellow countryman.

“It’s a kind of tactical race,” Kogo said. “You don’t feel confident with somebody following on your back strides.”

The final two miles of the course are the hilliest, and that’s where Kogo began to separate from Rotich, who was running a road race for only the second time.

“I do not run down the hills well,” Rotich said. “In the end, I tried to catch up, but he ran the hills better.”

The weather, Kogo said, ultimately derailed his shot at a course record, which has been in place since 2003.

“The humidity, the weather, when I really started to feel tired was at five kilometers, seven kilometers,” Kogo said. “I was trying to push fast. I was thinking in my mind I would get the course record. But when I started to push so hard, I started to feel a little bit tired.”

The elite women’s field, short by one after American marathon and half-marathon record-holder Deena Kastor withdrew due to illness, was also on a quick pace early, but that pace also slowed as the morning fog and clouds gave way to a blistering sun. Ethiopian Aheza Kiros won the top prize in the women’s race with a time of 32:08.7, more than a minute slower than last year’s record-setting time of 30:59 by Lineth Chepkurui.

Perhaps even more affected by the heat and humidity were the elite Maine runners.

“The heat picked up when the sun came out, and it was a little humid today,” Ellsworth’s Louie Luchini said. “The air was a little bit heavy.”

Luchini, a 10-time All-American at Stanford and now a state legislator from Ellsworth, was running in his second Beach to Beacon 10K, though this was the first time he’d run it to win it.

“I kind of ran it in 2002 as a hard workout while I was in college,” Luchini said. “I ran it faster then than I did today, though. That just shows I’m getting a bit older.

But win he did, in a heat-and-humidity-slowed 30:35.5.

“I’ve always wanted to race here, and for whatever reason, it never worked out in my schedule,” Luchini said. “It’s such a great event for the state, and they do such a great job putting it on.”

In what appeared earlier this week to be one of the better races inside the race, Sheri Piers of Falmouth earned the Maine women’s title, finishing in 35:11.2. She and training partner and friend Kristin Barry of Scarborough have traded the title back and forth each of the past four years.

“It was very hot today,” Piers said. “Even though we were training in the heat, that didn’t seem to matter today. I think after so many times running the course, you learn to go out slow, because if you don’t, that last mile is going to get you.”

Erica Jesseman, 22, also of Scarborough and a recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire, set the early pace in the Maine women’s race. But as Piers caught her, passed her and tried to pull Jesseman along with her, Jesseman started to fall back.

“I caught Erica at mile four, and I waved her to come on,” Piers said. “It would have been really nice to have her at the end, but then it was just survival mode. I didn’t care what happened, as long as I finished.”

“I felt terrible,” Jesseman said. “It was way too hot.”

Jesseman rallied to finish second among Maine women with a time of 35:37.6, but collapsed at the finish and needed medical attention. Eventually, she was fine.

“I went out about where I wanted to go,” Jesseman said. “If I had felt better, I would have been able to maintain it, but it just felt terrible.”

James Koskei of Kenya, a fixture at the Beach to Beacon 10K over the years, again won the men’s masters division, this year in 30:27.5. He holds the distinction of being the only man to win both the open division and the masters division. Nuta Olaru won the women’s masters division, while Piers was second among all masters.