n-fptrace1-070909.JPGNearly 900 runners participated in the annual July 4th L.L Bean 10K road race in Freeport, but one of the best moments happened when Olympic champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, wearing No. 1, gently pushed Kristin Barry of Scarborough across the finish line for second place while Samuelson finished third. Barry was in second when she said her legs “shut down” at the five-mile mark and she started to walk. Samuelson caught up to her and urged her on, and they ran the rest of the race together. Falmouth’s Sheri Piers was first for the women and tied the race record with a time of 35 minutes, 12 seconds. Ryan Woods of Boone, N.C., set a new race record in coming in first overall, running through the mist and fog of Freeport in a time of 32 minutes 1 second. 

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