PORTLAND, Maine — For the second time in five years, Caribou’s Evan Graves is the champion of the Maine Marathon.
Graves, who teaches in Caribou and coaches the Presque Isle varsity boys’ cross country team, took the lead on the 12th mile and never was seriously challenged from that point on, finishing Sunday’s 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 34 minutes and 59 seconds.
“I noticed the guy ahead me start to fall apart formwise and I plugged away, still running my race for three miles until I caught him,” Graves said. “From that point on, I continued to be pretty consistent running 5:55 miles and dropping a couple of 5:40s, which felt good.”
The 34-year-old Graves, a standout cross country runner at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in the late-1990s and early 2000s and member of the Owls’ Athletic Hall of Fame, had last won the event in 2011.
He said it was a near ideal day to run “with great temperatures, a light wind and no rain.” The race featured 850 competitors.
“I stuck to my plan, went out on pace and I felt good,” Graves said. “I dipped under to 5:55s pretty consistently after eight miles and it turned out to work in my favor. As I get older, I need to run smarter and that worked on Sunday.”
He credited his wife, Erin, for her advice of “being patient and going out slow.”
Graves had spent the previous day in Belfast, coaching his Wildcat team at the Festival of Champions, and said he was also motivated by his athletes.
“They ran great and it is fun watching them continue to improve,” he said. “Having talked to them a little about the marathon and about realistic goals and working to reach it Sunday was motivation to keep pushing through the race.”
He said he entered the race with a realistic goal of 2:36, which is just under a six-minute pace.
“It’s been a few years since I put some quality time in for a marathon, but I stuck to my plan, went out on pace and I felt good,” Graves said.
A half marathon was also run that day, with Gabrielle Wheeler of New Sweden the third fastest female in 1:23.06. Several other Aroostook County athletes competed in one of the events.
