If the calendar says October, it must be time for Leah Frost to Smash the Patriarchy.
At least, that was the message on the back of her shirt when she won her second consecutive Maine Marathon last fall in the fastest time since Emily LeVan set a course record 10 years earlier.
MAINE MARATHON, RELAY & HALF MARATHON
WHAT: 24th Maine Marathon
WHERE: Out-and-back 26.2-mile course from Baxter Boulevard in Portland to Route 88 and Prince’s Point in Yarmouth.
WHEN: 7:45 a.m. Sunday
What else: Half marathon turns around in Falmouth
Registration: Still available for marathon and half at race expo Saturday at USM’s Sullivan Gym
charity: Robbie Foundation
Frost is a native of Round Pond – a coastal village near Damariscotta – who attended high school in Switzerland, ran one year at Wesleyan University and now works in northeastern Vermont, helping migrant farm workers gain access to health care. And she runs to the beat of her own drumer.
It’s safe to assume she’s the only entrant in Sunday morning’s field – about 1,000 for the marathon and 2,200 for the half marathon – who helped build a giant dust mite, now on display at the Museum of Everyday Life in a barn in Glover, Vermont.
The barn belongs to a friend and contains an apartment where Frost, 32, once lived. She studied sculpture at Wesleyan and during a two-year fellowship at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Recent featured objects at the museum – displayed prominently on the front of Frost’s shirt last fall – include the pencil, the safety pin and the toothbrush. This year’s big attraction: dust.
“It’s been very popular,” Frost said. “It’s in a barn so there’s a lot of dust around. But some of the dust is under glass.”
Although she learned a lot about dust and remains disgusted by the dust mite, Frost said her newfound knowledge hasn’t changed her domestic habits.
“You can’t avoid it,” she said. “I’m not going to be one of those plastic couch-cover people.”
After nearly a decade away from competitive running, Frost regained the racing bug when she was teaching science and English in Oaxaca, Mexico, thanks to a friend who enticed her with speed work and detailed training. Her first official marathon was the 2013 Maine Marathon, which she won in just over three hours, and she followed it two weeks later by winning the Mt. Desert Island Marathon.
She doubled up again last year, winning Maine (2 hours, 51 minutes and 53 seconds) and placing second at MDI. Sunday’s race will be her third marathon of the year. She placed third at Vermont City in late May and set a course record at the Mad Marathon (in the Mad River Valley of Vermont) in July. She plans on returning to Bar Harbor later this month to run MDI once more.
“This may be the last year I do both,” Frost said. “It’s beautiful up there, really pretty, but they’re two weeks apart.”
Qualifying standards for the women’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials are 2:43 and, for funding support, 2:37. Two Mainers met the ‘B’ standard – Erica Jesseman of Scarborough and Sheri Piers of Falmouth. One Mainer has met the ‘A’ standard – Michelle Lilienthal of Portland.
Frost won’t count on joining them in February in Los Angeles. “I would love to but I don’t know if it’s realistic to get my time down that far,” she said. “The best thing for me to do is just run at my pace.”
The only former winner in the men’s marathon field is Evan Graves, 34, of Caribou. An elementary school physical education teacher who won a rainy 2011 race in 2:36:53, Graves returns after a three-year absence.
“My kids are getting a little older and I figured I could get in a little training,” said Graves, whose daughter, Emma, is 4 and son, Ethan, is 21 months. “I wouldn’t say it’s been great but it’s been all right.”
An ingrown toenail set him back a few days a month ago but seems fully healed. He ran Beach to Beacon in early August but went out too fast and was 23rd among Mainers in 34:39. He placed fifth in the 2012 and 2013 MDI Marathons, and won Sugarloaf in 2012.
“The winning time is usually around a 6-minute (mile) pace,” he said. “I think if I go out conservative, I might be able to dip under that.”
Race director Howard Spear said he’s keeping a close eye on the weather, particularly with Hurricane Joaquin moving up the Atlantic coast.
“Right now it doesn’t look like it’s going to affect anything,” Spear said. “If it comes inland, New York won’t get any (rain) until Tuesday.”
Spear said he has received calls from runners who planned to attend a half marathon in Virginia that was canceled because of Joaquin. The Maine race, which closed online registration Sunday night, will accept in-person registrations for the half or full marathon (the relay is full) during Saturday’s prerace expo at Sullivan Gym on the Portland campus of the University of Southern Maine between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
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