Sports Reporter
CARIBOU – Jeff Ashby and Marie Strouse took advantage of ideal running conditions and prevailed with ease in their divisions of the annual Caribou Labor Day Road Race, held Monday. The 42-year-old Ashby won the five-mile event, which served as the final race of the County Challenge Racing Series, in a time of 28 minutes and 36 seconds. Despite the smaller-than-usual field of 42 runners, and the absence of local standouts P.J. Gorneault and Evan Graves, Ashby was pleased and proud to come away with the victory.
“It was a great day to run,” said Ashby, noting the sunny skies and 65-degree temperatures which greeted the competitors. “I felt good. I thought my form was really good, so I made up for being tired with good technique.”
Ashby said he caught Al Hanscom, who has served as Ashby’s running partner throughout the summer, about a mile and a half into the race and was able to create separation from that point on, although “it got real hot at around mile three and the final mile was a tough uphill.”
The result was also welcome after Ashby had suffered a calf injury with a mile to go in last year’s race and was unable to finish.
Hanscom was the runner-up with a time of 30:12 – 1:36 behind Ashby.
Strouse, 23, had her way in the women’s division with an impressive seventh-place overall finish. She had a time of 32:27, which fell short of her standards, but she still enjoyed the experience.
“I didn’t run as swiftly as I would have liked, but sometimes your body just doesn’t let you,” she said. “Still, it was nice to win and fun to run with some friends.”
She was 3:20 ahead of the women’s runner-up, Michelle Roy, whose time of 35:47 was good enough for 15th overall.
After moving to Caribou from Ohio last September, Strouse has since relocated to the Orono area to serve as a graduate assistant at the University of Maine. However, after competing in several of the Challenge Series races throughout the summer, she made it a priority to travel north to compete in the final race.
“I love the concept of the Challenge Series as it is a great way to showcase some of the different communities up here,” Strouse said. “I would even like to see the organizers expand it to include some of the other towns in the County.”
The rest of the top-10 from Monday’s race included Timothy Freme, third, 30:34; Thomas Beckum, fourth, 30:46; Jacob Michaud, fifth, 31:19; Brian Powers, sixth, 32:21; Leo Kashian, eighth, 32:57; Steve Desmond, ninth, 33:22; and Jeff Irving, 10th, 33:41.
Age group winners were: 14 and under female, Ashley Richards; 14 and under male, Trevor Levesque; 15-18 female, Lily Sund; 15-18 male, Freme; 19-29 female, Nicole Porter; 19-29 male, Powers; 30-39 female, Michelle Roy; 30-39 male, Hanscom; 40-49 female, Angela Ewings; 40-49 male, Irving; 50-59 male, Kashian; 60 and older male, Waldo Libby.
The final County Challenge Series standings will be released this week, and the year-end banquet is Oct. 18 at the Nordic Heritage Sports Club.
