2019 Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon
A Maine Track Club Event
Marathon, Half Marathon, Relay | Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 7:45 a.m. | Portland, Maine
2019 Recap
Three Ethiopian runners based in New York City joined a top local runner as the overall winners of the 28th Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon and Half Marathon, on a day when both course records for the half marathon were broken.
Last-minute entry Kemal Birhanu, 33, got the day off to a rousing start by lowering the half marathon record to 1 hour, 5 minutes and 59 seconds — 34 seconds faster than the mark set a year earlier by Stephen Njoroge of Mexico. Less 10 minutes later, fellow Ethiopian Hirut Guangul shaved almost a full minute off the women’s record, as she finished in 1:15:32. The previous standard was 1:16:23 by Cynthia Jerob in 2012.
It was more of the same in the marathon, as Ethiopians took three of the top four places, led by 22-year-old Abdulmenan Kasim (2:23:08) in his marathon debut. Bryan Morseman, 34, of Bath, N.Y., was the runner-up for the second straight year (2:25:45).
The women’s division was won by Erica Jesseman, 30, of Scarborough, who snuck under the 3-hour mark with a time of 2:59:33. Defending champion Christine Hein, 44, of North Yarmouth was second this time in 3:02:04, but again earned extra prize money as the first master finisher.
The marathon relay, meanwhile, had a record 181 teams. While most of the relay teams had four runners, first-place overall went to a two-person female masters team — Sheri Piers of Falmouth and Kristin Barry of Scarborough. Their team — Thing 1 and Thing 2 — finished in 2:47:23, nearly 14 minutes ahead of the top men’s team, SE Tech Yes (3:01:16).
Race photos
Race photos will be uploaded soon after the race at MaineRunningPhotos.com. Photos also will be available later in the week at RunSignUp.com, searchable by name or bib number and linked to each participant’s personal results page.
Save the date—the 29th running of the Maine Marathon will be October 4, 2020!
