PRESQUE ISLE, ME — The 37th annual UMPI Spring Runoff 5K Road Race is set for Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 10 a.m. It begins and ends on the campus of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, with walkers beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The Spring Runoff 5K is the second race in the County Challenge Series. The race is a fund-raising effort for the UM-Presque Isle cross country and track and field programs and is the first such event since the university announced that its club track and field program will move to varsity status for the spring 2018 season.
Registration for the race is held at Wieden Gymnasium beginning at 7:45 a.m. Runners may compete in age-specific women’s and men’s categories as well as in a three-person relay division, which will allow inexperienced and shorter distance racers to participate.
The course records are held by Gabrielle (Cyr) Wheeler at 18:46, set in 2012, and Curtis Wheeler at 15:33, set in 2010.
Grace Graham of Cary and Isaiah Brown of Houlton were the winners of the first series race held in February in Houlton.
Results from the April 8 event will be compiled and added to those from the Katahdin Trust Snow Run held in Houlton on Feb. 5, which kicked off the Aroostook Musterds running club’s series.
Current age group leaders are Mia Henderson and Austin Winslow (14 and under), Graham and Brown (15-18), Chris Rines (19-29), Marie Beckum and Thomas Wire (30-39), Angela Ewings and Dennis Harmon (40-49), Vonnie Gould and Craig Reese (50-59), Rusty Taylor (60-69) and Melanie Reese and David Harbison (walkers).
The remaining seven series races are the S.W. Collins 5K in Caribou, the Musterd Mile in Caribou, The Potato Blossom 5 Miler in Fort Fairfield, the UM5K in Fort Kent, The Caribou Marathon, Half and Relay; the Caribou Labor Day 8K and The Caribou Turkey Trot.
For more information on the upcoming race at UMPI, contact race director Chris Smith by phone at 768-9472 or by email at christopher.smith@maine.edu.
