For 25 years, the legacy runners have never missed Beach to Beacon

Marji Adams and her daughter, Morgan, have competed in every Beach to Beacon 10K road race since its start in 1998. They are among the 93 Beach to Beacon “legacy runners” who have registered for Saturday’s race and plan to extend their streaks of competing each year. They are standing outside the Joan Benoit Samuelson Track at Freeport High. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Darren Winchenbach can’t imagine what would happen if he stopped running the TD Beach to Beacon 10K. The 42-year-old Saco resident and Waldoboro native have been in every one since the inaugural race in 1998.

“Yes, the streak matters. If it stopped it would be a disservice. It would be a disaster. I feel like it would ruin everything,” Winchenbach said. “I would be less motivated. I’m never going to be as fast as I used to be but I have a Cal Ripken perfect attendance record.”

Winchenbach has numerous running streaks going, including 149 weekly Casco Bay Series 5Ks dating to 2011. But Saturday’s Beach to Beacon is the biggie, the race he first entered as a 17-year-old senior-to-be at Medomak Valley High.

“I did it and 25 years later I’m still doing the same race because I realized that Beach to Beacon is Maine’s super bowl of road running and I get to be part of it. And it feels special.”

Winchenbach is among the youngest of the 93 people who have participated in every Beach to Beacon, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. All of them are registered for Saturday’s race, intending to keep their streaks alive. Seventy-six are listed as being from Maine. Kennebunk’s Daniel Foley, 89, is the oldest man, and Judy Kirchoffer, 86, from Wisconsin, is the oldest woman.

Referred to as legacy runners, they are afforded a guaranteed starting spot with a special registration code. Their ranks shrink a bit each year. In 2017, when Beach to Beacon celebrated its 20th race, 117 legacy runners registered.

Age, injury, significant life events – maybe even a freak occurrence like a flat tire or a delayed plane flight – all are capable of interrupting an athletic streak.

Before the start of Saturday’s race, the legacy runners will gather at the front of the field for a group photo. They were feted Thursday night at a special gathering at Fort Williams Park where the race ends.

Beach to Beacon founder and Maine running legend Joan Benoit Samuelson said, “When you look at these legacy runners, having to be on, and not injured, every year, year after year for 25 years, and being capable of delivering on race day, that’s a remarkable feat.”

Samuelson said she suspects some will be content to stop their streak at the 25-year mark.

NO END IN SIGHT

Others – young and not-so-young – see no end in sight.

Arthur and Carol Viens, both 69, a husband-and-wife team from North Sandwich, New Hampshire, have no intention of quitting.

“Even though I’ve gotten slower I want to run Beach to Beacon for a long time. I’m thinking into my 90s,” Carol Viens said.

Arthur Viens trains seven days a week and expects to finish this year in about 47 minutes. He had one close call in the early days of online registration.

“We only had dial-up (internet) service and you couldn’t enter both of us at the same time,” Arthur said. He got Carol signed up but couldn’t reconnect before entries closed.

Viens managed to get then-race president David Weatherbie’s email and explained his dilemma. Weatherbie made sure Viens got his number.

Marji Adams, 73, of Cumberland had no trouble getting in the first race. An occasional training run partner for Samuelson, Adams was a frequent sounding board when the Beach to Beacon was still in the idea-only stage and an original volunteer.

But that doesn’t mean every race has been easy.

“I don’t run anymore. For the last two years, I have walked and I will walk the race this year. Two hip replacements,” said Adams, who plans to retire from the race’s board of directors and is uncertain about future participation on race day.

Adams’ daughter Morgan Lake Adams, 42, also has run every race and is another current board member. Her first 10K was the 1998 race. She’s run the race twice while pregnant. Perhaps her most memorable Beach to Beacon was the one she ran with her mother.

“It was the year she was going through chemotherapy treatment. She’s a cancer survivor. She won’t say it but I will brag for her,” said Adams, who lives in Falmouth. “She ran all through her treatment.”

WHAT KEEPS THEM COMING BACK

The reasons that the legacy runners keep coming back year after year can vary, but there are common themes: the respect for Samuelson, which drew many to the race in the first place; getting to rub shoulders with some of the best runners in the world; and the festive atmosphere the race fosters.

Cape Elizabeth resident Brent Graham, 53, said the support his hometown shows the race, “makes me proud to live in Cape Elizabeth and to have grown up there and I think it’s remarkable after 25 years that people continue to support the race and the town pretty much shuts down for the morning.”

Graham has run the race with his daughter Susie in the past. His son Matt ran with the Cape Elizabeth football team for one year. He volunteers at race bib pickup night where he can reconnect with old friends and meet first-time Beach to Beacon runners hungry for tidbits of advice.

Cape Elizabeth resident Brent Graham, with his daughter Susie, after they ran the TD Beach to Beacon 10K. Brent Graham is one of the race’s legacy runners. Courtesy of Brent Graham

“People are excited. They’re in a great mood,” Graham said. “The 50th one will be the big one.”

Former Lewiston High and University of Southern Maine standout Kelly Brown, then Kelly Rodrigue, was among the first group of runners from Maine given a special invitation to compete in the inaugural race. Organizers realized they needed the best local runners to bridge the gap between the elites and the recreational runners.

Brown, a 2022 inductee of the Maine Running Hall of Fame, finished third among the Maine women in the first race.

“Eventually they found faster women, but I kept getting invited so I kept running it and running it and eventually I became a legacy runner,” Brown said.

She’s run after the death of her father, Joe Bennett, who was a staple on Maine’s running scene, and after her breast cancer diagnosis. She cut her trip to the 2012 London Olympics short to be back for the Beach to Beacon. She plans to participate in the Beach to Beacon for many years, “even if I have to walk.”

A favorite memory came in 2017. She placed second in the women’s 50-54 age group and found herself on the awards podium alongside Samuelson, who ran the race that year and set the American 60-64 10K record of 39:19.

“I was like, I can’t believe I’m up here with Joanie. … I have pictures of her with my dad from the early ’80s because we kind of idolized her,” Brown said.

Did Brown say anything to Samuelson on the podium?

“Oh, no, I didn’t talk to her. I’m too shy to do that.”