They came to Maine to see a significant other for Thanksgiving, and ended up in first place.

The winners of the 32nd Portland Thanksgiving 4-Miler road race Thursday were out-of-towners.

Additional Photos

Wade Meddles, 21, of Richmond, Ky., runs to the finish to become the overall winner of the 4-mile race in 20 minutes, 53 seconds. Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Michelle Lilienthal, 31, of Minneapolis, who placed first among the women in the Thanksgiving Day race, was timed in 22:43. Tim Greenway/Staf Photographer

Wade Meddles, 21, of Richmond, Ky., runs to the finish to become the overall winner of the 4-mile race in 20 minutes, 53 seconds. Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Michelle Lilienthal, 31, of Minneapolis, who placed first among the women in the Thanksgiving Day race, was timed in 22:43. Tim Greenway/Staf Photographer

Wade Meddles, 21, of Richmond, Ky., was the overall winner in 20 minutes, 53 seconds.

Michelle Lilienthal, 31, of Minneapolis placed first among the women in 22:43.

Meddles, a senior at Eastern Kentucky University, drove to Maine with his girlfriend, Kat Pagano of Hollis. Pagano, 25, a 2007 graduate of Bonny Eagle High, finished second in the women’s race in 24:48.

“Not very good,” Pagano said of her time. “So cold. Coming from the south, I’m not acclimated to this.”

Of the record 1,944 registrants, 1,703 finished in the cold, windy conditions. It was 30 degrees at race time with a stinging 25 mph wind that gusted to 35 mph.

“It’s the worse down by the water (on Commercial Street),” said Lilienthal. “It was blowing people sideways. I almost hit a parked car.”

Lilienthal stayed on course though for the easy two-minute margin of victory. Lilienthal first ran in Maine last August when she placed 13th in the Beach to Beach 10K (34:16). There she met a former University of Maine runner, Marc Halverson of Falmouth. She’s been back to Maine a handful of times since. Halverson didn’t run but greeted Lilienthal at the finish line.

That finish on Federal Street was a welcome sight for those grinding through a hilly course.

“My time was about a minute slower than I wanted,” said the men’s third-place finisher, Claton Conrad, 31, a former Greely High runner living in Portland.

“It was windy. Going up the first hill (on Free Street) was like hitting the wall. It was right in our face.”

Conrad finished in 21:30, 15 seconds behind the runner-up, Matthew Mathot, 23, of Portland.

Meddles is an All-American in cross country and track at Eastern Kentucky. He finished 38th in the 2012 NCAA cross country championships and was 74th in the 2013 nationals last Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind.

On Thursday, Meddles got off to a slow start in the conditions.

“It was pretty rough,” he said. “A couple of times the wind picked up and I saw a couple people almost get wiped out.

“Just had to keep pushing through it.”

In fourth place initially, Meddles took the lead about halfway through.

Lilienthal took off from the start and never trailed. She is coming off a personal-best marathon (2:34.50) in the U.S. women’s championships last month in St. Paul, Minn.

Pagano, an Eastern Kentucky graduate (and Ohio Valley Conference female athlete of the year in 2011), is now a graduate student in Richmond. She finished seven seconds ahead of third-place Jodi Theriault, 33, of Portland.

Among the other finishers were former Scarborough High standout Robert Hall, 18, now a freshman at Syracuse. Hall was fourth overall (21:47) and first in his age group.

The top 40-plus runners were Byrne Decker, 46, of Yarmouth (21:50) and Stephanie Atkinson, 42, of Hollis Center (26:04).

John Howe, 78, of Waterford, won his age group with a 35:59 time. Polly Kenniston, 76, of Westbrook, was also an age-group winner (42:18).

Runners not only supplied entry fees but brought in non-perishable foods that were donated to Project Feed.

Kevin Thomas can be reached at 791-6411 or:

kthomas@pressherald.com

Twitter: @KevinThomasPPH

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