In three years at the Maine Marathon, Leah Frost, a native of the coastal Maine town of Round Pond, has cut her winning time by 9 minutes and 4 minutes.

Sunday’s clocking of 2:47:34 was the fastest for a woman in this race since Emily LeVan set the course record of 2:39:54 in 2004. If Frost can cut another 4 1/2 minutes by the middle of January, she would achieve the U.S. Olympic trials qualifying standard of 2:43 and race in Los Angeles in February.

“I feel like it might be reachable,” said Frost, 32, who is scheduled to run the Mt. Desert Island Marathon in two weeks and has designs on the California International Marathon in Sacramento in early December. “I’d have six weeks after the MDI to train for it. We’ll see. It’s supposed to be pretty speedy.”

As she did last October, Frost sported a favorite hand-painted shirt that reads “Smash the Patriarchy” on the back and “Museum of Everyday Life” on the front. The museum resides in a barn in Glover, Vermont, where she lives and works as an advocate for migrant farm workers, and helps coach the local cross country team at North Country Union High.

She also wore a nose ring in her right nostril, a white glove on her left hand and a black glove on her right.

“No, that is not a statement,” she said with a laugh. “That’s just what was in the closet. It could get tossed now; they’re so disgusting.”

Turns out Frost had a banana problem Sunday morning. Her parents and her partner Katherine had planned on delivering food and drink in plastic bags at various points on the course, but the bags leaked so they doubled-bagged them, and then Frost had trouble getting at the banana-water mixture inside.

“I lived in Mexico,” Frost said, “and the races there, instead of giving you cups, they give you little plastic bags that are tied and filled with Gatorade or water, which is awesome, right, because you just bite it off.”

The water is to help digest the banana while running, but Frost couldn’t get at the first delivery, so she finally gave up and tossed the whole package.

“I thought I’d have an energy bonk because I didn’t have any fuel,” said Frost, who finally received rather messy banana boosts at Miles 14 and 18. “I don’t like to drink a lot of Gatorade because it hurts my stomach.”

Mary Pardi, 45, of Falmouth and Rachel Coogan, 24, of Allston, Massachusetts, were withing striking distance of Frost at the point in Mile 7 where those running the Half Marathon turn around on Route 88 in Falmouth and return to Portland. Coogan, who rowed crew in college, kept Frost in sight until faltering at about 20 miles. Pardi dropped back because of a stitch in her side from Mile 9 to 11.

Pardi’s original plan was to run the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota on Sunday with fellow masters Kristin Barry of Scarborough and Sheri Piers of Falmouth. A planned protest by Black Lives Matter that threatened to disrupt the race – it didn’t, after all – prompted Pardi to run in Portland instead.

That allowed her to travel Saturday to Belfast to watch her daughter Gina, a senior at Falmouth High, run in the cross country Festival of Champions.

“It was tough out there,” Pardi said of running solo into a headwind Sunday instead of alongside 11,000 runners in Minnesota, which doubled as the masters national championship. “But I got to see my daughter in Belfast and it was a PR for her, so it was worth staying back.”

Men’s marathon winner Evan Graves also spent a good chunk of Saturday at the all-day event in Belfast because he coaches cross country at Presque Isle, although he left a little early.

“It was a hard call,” he said, “but I signed up for this (marathon) before I took that job, so I wanted to make sure I got here on time and wasn’t too stressed.”

Barry and Piers finished third and fourth among Masters women in 2:50 and 2:52 in Minnesota.

With a race temperature that began at 41 and climbed to 52 at the four-hour mark, the medical tent was not a busy place.

“This is perfect marathon weather,” said Dr. Ria Isacke, a sports medicine fellow at Maine Medical Center and co-medical director for the marathon.

The 4 Horsemen won the Marathon Relay by 15 minutes in 2:32:04 with Alan Groudle, 31, of Winslow running the 6-mile first leg, Dave Kerschner, 29, of Oakland running the 8.8-mile second leg, Wes Danforth, 30, of Winthrop running the 6.2-mile third leg and Andrew Kephart, 30, of Hancock the final 5.2 miles.

“I’ve never run behind a race vehicle before,” said Danforth of the police escort.

 

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