CAPE ELIZABETH — The weather forecast for the 19th running of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K on Saturday is a bit unsettled. A predawn shower? A late-morning thunderstorm? High humidity?
None of it matters to Ben True, the North Yarmouth native and former Greely High standout who received sustained applause Friday morning at a gathering to introduce the elite athletes in this year’s B2B field.
“The reality,” he said, “is that the rest of this year is just going to be a cloud.”
Like many of those who were seated around him, True would rather be in Rio de Janeiro preparing for the Olympics. Instead, he fell short of earning one of the coveted three berths in both the 10,000 meters and his preferred 5,000 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials a month ago in Eugene, Oregon.
Seeded fourth in the longer race, True faded to 11th on a hot and muggy evening.
“I didn’t foresee having that reaction to the heat and dehydration,” True said Friday morning on a lawn adjacent to Inn by the Sea. “So there’s really nothing I could have done differently. That was not indicative of my fitness or my form in any regards. Probably the only thing I could have done (differently) was drop out of the race, but whether or not that would have even helped, who knows, because the 5K final was a week later and that was plenty of time to recover.”
Indeed, True entered the 5,000 as the second seed and, in a tactical race with a relatively slow early pace, put himself in position to qualify entering the bell lap.
“That sort of race has benefited me many times in the past, so I thought I was perfectly fine,” he said. “I knew where I had to be with 400 meters to go and I was right where I wanted to be. I just didn’t have that extra little bit to close, and four other guys did.”
True placed fifth, within a second of winner Bernard Lagat and a half-second of Paul Chelimo, the final qualifier. Eric Jenkins of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was fourth and is also racing at B2B.
“Sure, I could say I could have gone (out harder) earlier, but then there’s a million other things that could have played out,” True said.
He laughed, but not in a way that invites others to join in. There is undeniable pain in his laughter.
He missed the 2012 Olympics, as symptoms of Lyme disease cropped up leading into the trials. He still went to London to cheer on Sarah Groff, a triathlete who finished fourth and is now his wife of two years. On Sunday, he will fly to Arizona to join her for a week before they fly to Rio where, once again, he will play a supporting role.
“Every time that you have a goal, and it’s something you’ve been working for for many years and you don’t achieve it, of course you’re going to feel terrible,” said True, who called the recent trials “my largest running failure to date. If it didn’t destroy you, then you didn’t really care or you didn’t really think you could make the team.”
Saturday will be True’s second race since the trials. He placed sixth in a Diamond League 5,000 in London, and likely will return to Europe for a few more track races after the Olympics.
The last time True ran in Cape Elizabeth, in 2014, he placed third overall in a time (27:50) that would have won 10 other editions of the race. Kenyans William Malel Sitonik and Micah Kogo, and Ethiopians Tariku Bekele and Markos Geneti, will try to extend the 18-year streak of African men finishing first. Another top Kenyan, Patrick Makau, dropped out after missing his flight to Boston.
Now that prize money for the top American finishers was added last year, True and defending champ Jenkins have plenty of top-shelf competition for that title, including four-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, Dathan Ritzenhein, Sam Chelanga and Veazie native Riley Masters, who is now based in Seattle.
“These guys can run with anybody in the world at any time,” said Larry Barthlow, who assembles the elite field for the race and saved True’s introduction for last. “There’s no difference between what you’re going to see in Rio and what you’re going to see (Saturday morning).”
Both True (twice) and Masters are former winners of the Maine men’s category, which seems likely to produce a new champ for the seventh straight year. Moninda Marube of Auburn is the top seed, but Rob Gomez of Windham, Spencer McElwain of Portland, Syracuse University senior Robert Hall of Scarborough and 2014 UMaine grad Alex Moser, who ran for York High, are all possible contenders.
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