CAPE ELIZABETH — In true grass-is-greener fashion, North Yarmouth native Ben True packed up and followed his dream.

A West Coast mecca for running, Eugene, Oregon beckoned. True hooked up with the prestigious Oregon Track Club’s elite team, and began his professional racing career. In one of his final races as a Maine-based runner, True blew away the Maine field at the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10k last summer, finishing in a Maine course record time of 29:10, just 1:05 off the overall winning time.

It appeared the time had come to stretch his legs at a higher level.

Apparently, though, Oregon wasn’t the place to do it.

Still officially running out of the Oregon club, True is back to run this year’s edition of the Beach to Beacon. He no longer qualifies as a Maine resident, but he won’t be “from” Oregon for much longer, either.

“I was actually pretty lost when I went out there,” True admitted Friday at the Beach to Beacon’s annual media day. “This past year, I’ve been struggling. I never really settled down in Eugene. It was a training environment I didn’t really enjoy, and so I’ve decided to move back east.”

True won’t be back in Maine, officially, but he’ll be close, joining an outfit out of New Hampshire.

“It just formed, this fall will start its inaugural year, out of Lyme, New Hampshire,” True said. “I’m very excited about the move back east. I guess I’m just not a West Coast guy. I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders with the decision to come back east. I’m feeling much more relaxed in my running. I made the decision probably about a month ago, and since then, things have started working a lot better.”

They’ll have to click well for True this weekend. A two-time Maine champion — the first in relative anonymity in 2008 — he’ll now be starting among the elite runners, and will not just be battling the best the state has to offer, but the world’s best, as well.

“I’ll probably go and do my own race strategy at this point,” True said. “This race, it’s more you go big or you go home. There’s more reward for the risk, and I’ll definitely push it a little bit harder at the beginning that I would normally do — just have fun with it.”

True will wear No. 9, and begin among the elite athletes.

Another Maine native, currently running out of Westbrook and a former athlete at Bates College in Lewiston, was humbled to be included among the elite athletes on Friday.

Robert Gomez, 27, is expected to challenge Patrick Tarpy for the Maine men’s title vacated by True.

“I think I had the least on my running resume, by far, of the people up here today,” Gomez said. “To be sitting here, around this kind of atmosphere, is really quite the honor.”

With True out of the way, Gomez said not only is being a Maine champion at the prestigious race on his mind, it’s at the top of the thought pile.

“Being the top Mainer here, of not this year then the year after that or whatever, that would be amazing, and that’s what I train for,” Gomez said. “I’ve got lofty goals in mind, but I’m realistic as well, and I know Pat’s going to be tough to beat. I have to go out and run my race and not worry about his, and hopefully that works.”