CAPE ELIZABETH – At the Bix 7 road race last week, Ethiopian runner Terefe Maregu led the field toward the finish, threw his hands into the air to acknowledge the cheering crowd, smiled and slowed his pace to a walk.

Problem was, Maregu, the No. 1-ranked road racer in the world, hadn’t yet crossed the finish line.

“I thought the race was over,” Maregu said. “I was confused at the end.”

Seizing the opportunity, Ed Muge of Kenya zipped past Maregu and earned the victory, crossing the line in 32:16, nine seconds ahead of Maregu.

Both runners arrived in Cape Elizabeth this week for the Beach to Beacon 10K, both feeling like they have something to prove. For Muge, it’s a chance to prove his victory wasn’t a fluke, and for Maregu, who has also won the Peachtree 10K and the Boilermaker 15K this year, a chance at redemption.

“I have already been to the finish line here (in Cape Elizabeth),” Maregu said with a wide smile. “I’ve even been two or three times, to make sure.”

Both runners will have to unseat defending champion Duncan Kibet, who will wear bib No. 1 as the defending race champion.

“It’s a big defense (Saturday),” Kibet said. “Because it’s a very strong field, I need to be a little bit tricky, and if it gets to be that there are many of us together near the finish, it will be a test to see who is the strongest sprinter at the end.”

Kibet won last year’s Beach to Beacon with a time of 27:57.1, the sixth-fastest 10K road time in the world. But he has slipped to No. 90 this year, though he finished fourth at the Bix 7 in Davenport, Iowa, last week.

Muge is the Kenyan national 10K champion, but missed qualifying for the Olympics because of an illness.

On the women’s side, Edith Masai, 41, came seemingly from nowhere last week to win the Bix 7. She became the oldest woman and the first masters runner (over 40) to win the Bix 7. A 2004 Olympian, Masai is a three-time world cross country champion since 2002.

“It was very challenging to face these ladies,” Masai said. “I saw, though, that I am still strong enough to run with them last week.”

Top contenders for the women’s crown, being vacated this year by absent Romanian runner Luminita Talpos, include Kenyans Millicent Gathoni, Rose Koskei and Lineth Chepkurui, Russian Marina Ivanova and Elva Dryer of the United States.

The Beach to Beacon 10K, which turns 11 years old this summer, was founded by Olympian Joan Benoit Samuelson, who used to train along these same roads in Cape Elizabeth. Since the first race in 1998, the race has grown from having fewer than 3,000 runners cross the finish line to a race capped at 5,500 entrants, 4,839 of which crossed the finish line last year.

In addition to the running, the race continues its tradition of donating money raised to a worthy race beneficiary. This year, the race will donate money to the Susan L. Curtis Foundation, formed in 1971 after the death of Susan, the 11-year-old daughter of former Maine Governor Kenneth and First Lady Pauline Curtis. Since 1974, the foundation has operated Camp Susan Curtis, the mission of which is to lift Maine children out of the cycle of poverty with strengths-based experiential outdoor education and a culture designed to discover and develop each child’s individual talents.