Matt Rand, a Cape Elizabeth native who now lives in Portland, crosses the finish line as the fastest Maine man Saturday at the TD Beach to Beacon 10K. Rand finished in 30 minutes, 41 seconds. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
CAPE ELIZABETH — When Matt Rand saw his time for the TD Beach to Beacon 10K, he knew it was a personal milestone.
“That was the best road 10K of my career. I’m 32 now, and I’ve run a lot of these,” said Rand, a Cape Elizabeth native who now lives in Portland. “I was about 20 seconds faster than I thought I’d be.”
Rand completed the race in 30 minutes, 41 seconds to win the Maine men’s division. His time was 49 seconds better than in 2022, when he placed second among Maine men.
Rand finished 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Grady Satterfield (30:52), a 2022 Mt. Ararat High graduate from Bowdoinham. Ryan Jara of Gorham was third in 30:55.
Aaron Willingham of Portland (31:18) and Ben Lanza of Peaks Island (31:38) rounded out the top five finishers in the Maine men’s race.
“Matt and I are teammates. I’m happy he won it,” said Jara, who trains with Rand in the Portland-based Valor Track Club. “If anybody was going to win it, I’m happy he got it today, being a Cape kid. I tried to hang with him as much as I could. The gap got bigger and bigger. I was able to hold on until that final uphill in the park. Being 36 years old, I used as much speed as I had in me to make it to the finish.”
A 2009 graduate of Cape Elizabeth High who ran collegiately at Tufts, Rand said he was in fifth place among Maine men 2 miles into the race. By the midpoint, Rand and Jara were neck and neck for the lead. That’s when Rand made his move.
“The Maine group was very competitive,” Rand said. “I moved up and was running with Ryan Jara at the fourth mile, but I kind of surged and he couldn’t quite stay with me. I was alone the last mile and finished pretty strong.”
Rand said he hoped to complete the race in around 31 minutes.
“I would’ve been happy running around 20 seconds slower than I did. I just felt really good on the downhills,” he said. “I got back into some 10K training, some hilly 10K workouts to simulate the … course. I knew I was fit, but I still ran faster than I thought I was … I think there were a lot of PRs. I’m just happy I had the best race of my life.”
Satterfield, 19, won Class A state titles in the indoor 2-mile and the outdoor 3,200 meters as a senior at Mt. Ararat. Now a sophomore member of the cross country and track and field teams at Providence College, Satterfield had his best Beach to Beacon finish yet in his third time running the race.
“I just wanted to go out there and give it a good crack and have some fun,” Satterfield said. “I didn’t wake up, figuratively speaking, until about halfway, and I just tried to close.”
While not as warm as it was for last year’s race, when runners contended with temps in the mid-70s and high humidity, Jara said he noticed some humidity as he ran Saturday morning.
“I’m in the middle of marathon training, so I can’t really complain a whole lot. It was humid, but I didn’t mind it a whole lot. It was warm,” Jara said. “I think the way the weather was going as the week went on, a lot of people thought there’d be no humidity. I kind of felt it at the start. I like to grind races out, so I’ll take the humidity all day.”
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