The 35-year-old Old Town man clocked the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 36 minutes, 5.6 seconds. His time was nearly five minutes faster than runner-up Evan Graves of Caribou, who came in at 2:41:03.
He and Graves were stride for stride at the midway point and beyond, but McCarthy was able to create some separation at the 15-mile mark to take control.
“It was tough and there were a lot of good hills in there,” said McCarthy, whose previous best time for a marathon was 2:38, “but I’ve been putting in the work and it was nice to see it pay off.”
McCarthy said the enthusiastic crowd throughout the downtown portion provided a boost.
“The crowd in Caribou is great and it made it fun,” he added.
Graves said he was going for the win, and even though he was disappointed he couldn’t pull it off, was glad to be a part of an event that he feels “is the start of something good for years to come.”
“I feel that I’ve let people down in some ways and it would have been nice to be on the podium in first, but personally my main goal was just to finish after having to drop out of the Boston Marathon this spring,” he said. “I only decided a couple weeks ago to go ahead and try to race. It’s in my backyard and I can sleep in my own bed and a lot of people worked hard to put this on, so I said I had to do it.”
The women’s winner was Tracy Guerrette of Bangor, a 35-year-old St. Agatha native who conquered the course in 3:03:24.6. She was third overall behind McCarthy and Graves.
“I knew it was going to be challenging with a lot of hills, but living up here in northern Maine, I enjoy the hills,” the former Wisdom High School and University of Maine Black Bears basketball standout said.
“Any time you get two loops for a marathon, it mentally is very challenging, but the course is beautiful and I really enjoyed it,” she added.
The remainder of the overall top 10 included: Joey Bard of Caribou, 3:11:27; Jennifer St. Amand of Dexter, Minnesota, 3:24:46; Keith Lind of Augusta, 3:29:32; Jonathan Hogue of Ellsworth, 3:30:35; Audrey Machowski of Wales, 3:31:26; Alex Praschma of Cambridge, Mass., 3:36:03; and Rebecca Geib of Bar Harbor, 3:37:21.
The race served as a qualifier for next April’s Boston Marathon.
In the half-marathon, Curtis Wheeler of New Sweden was the winner in 1:19:30.3. He was followed by Justin Fereshetian of Mars Hill in 1:23:38 and Caleb Chapman of Mapleton in 1:28:19.5.
The first woman to finish was Presque Isle’s Stephanie Graves, whose time was 1:40:33.5. The runner-up was Kimberley Wright of Mapleton in 1:41:04.7 and third was Louise Connely of Edmundston, New Brunswick, in 1:43:25.6.
Jessica Libby and Kasey Murray, both of Mapleton and forming the Log Road Runners, took first place in the half marathon relay. Taking second was Team Nevermet, made up of Lisa Ellis of Burlington, Wash. and Glenney Mahan of Mars Hill. In third place was Running on Empty, consisting of Wanda and Mitch Guiggey of Mapleton.
For the marathon relay, the trio of Adam Goode of Bangor, Matt Homich of Bar Harbor and Spencer McElwain of Arundel took the top spot.
McElwain, a Caribou native, said he enjoyed being able to run in his hometown. He had registered for the Maine Marathon, which will be held Oct. 2 in Portland, and that prevented him from being able to do the full marathon Sunday. But he felt it was important to make the trip up and be a part of it in some way.
“I wanted to support this and I convinced some friends to come up to join me on a team,” McElwain said. “It’s a tough course, it’s honest, but I had a lot of people cheering for me on the course and I had a blast.”
GHCA Eagles XC, a six-person team made up of Wesley Ganglfinger, Grace Graham, Isaac Potter, Taylor-Jo Quint, Alex Walker and Cole Winslow, all from the Houlton area, was second and in third was Team Poland, consisting of Dan and James McManus of Livermore.
Two individuals competed in the hand cycle division. Tammy Landeen of Caribou did the half marathon in 1:25:35 and Edmund Pires of Bristol, R.I. did the full marathon in 2:08:50.
A kids’ race also took place that morning. The brother-sister combination of Daniel and Tatiana Arce of Woodland were victorious. Daniel finished in 7:09.8 and Tatiana in 7:30.3.
Capturing the third position was Isaac Drayton of New Sweden with a time of 7:32. Kayley Bell of Caribou was fourth in 7:34.5 and George Ferland of Stockholm fifth in 7:48.5.
Next year’s marathon has been slated for Sept. 17, 2017.
