Gerhard leaves her mark
Sets course record in Maine event
CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — She’s only been racing for about four years, but Katrina Gerhard feels like it’s been far longer — maybe because she’s covered so much ground.
Yesterday, the former ActonBoxboro High School standout and current University of Illinois athlete added another title to her impressive résumé. In course record-shattering fashion, Gerhard crossed the finish line of the 21st annual Beach to Beacon 10K in 26:49 to earn first place in the women’s wheelchair division on her first attempt at the iconic New England race.
“I have never done this course before, and usually, before a race, I look at elevation maps so I know where the hills are going to be,” Gerhard said catching her breath after the race, “but I didn’t do that for this race, I just went into it blind.”
That might have been smart thinking.
The 21-year-old college senior didn’t have a chance to think too much about the faster-than-normal start, nor the series of undulating hills in the race’s final mileand-a-half. Instead, she shot out of the chute and used familiar tactics.
“I’m usually a marathoner, so I used those same sorts of techniques like coasting down the hills and using that momentum to get into the next hill,” Gerhard said.
“Other wheelchair racers were telling me about it, you know, they said it was a downhill start,” Gerhard added. “They said there was an insanely steep uphill at the end, and that it ends on grass, but that was about all I knew.”
Gerhard, now of Ashburnham, has been living life in a wheelchair since 2011, when a fall during a sword-dancing competition ultimately led her down a four-year medical path to the diagnosis of the rare neurological disorder, demyelinating polyneuropathy. The condition breaks down the myelin sheath, the protective coating around a nerve, progressively diminishing movement in the arms or legs.
During that initial four-year stretch, Gerhard joined her high school’s track and field team, and realized opportunities for wheelchair athletes existed through Adaptive Sports New England, which also partners with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to allow students to compete against each other across the state. From there, Gerhard joined the team at Illinois, where she and her teammates train mostly for marathon-distance races.
“I train for marathons and I’ve done, like, 12 of them in college so it feels like I’ve been doing this forever and ever,” Gerhard said. “I really only have been wheelchair racing for four years.”
In those four years, Gerhard has completed 12 marathons — including a top-10 finish in Boston. Last year, at the vaunted Falmouth Road Race, she placed third. With that same Falmouth race on the horizon again in a couple of weeks, Gerhard has once more added to her accolades.
Now, she’s a course record-holder and Beach to Beacon champion.
Strong showing
New England runners had a good day in the men’s and women’s open divisions. Former Dartmouth standout and Maine native Ben True was the top American finisher in the men’s race, placing third overall behind champion Jake Robertson of New Zealand and Stephen Sambu of Kenya. Robertson nearly toppled the course record, settling for thirdbest ever in a time of 27:37, nine seconds off the record. True won the race a couple of years ago. He finished in 28:29 yesterday. He now calls West Lebanon, N.H., home.
Molly Huddle out of Providence, R.I., placed third overall in the women’s race after leading early. She trailed Sandrafelis Chebet Tuei of Kenya and Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia to the line. Huddle’s time of 31:40 was 19 seconds off Chebet Tuei’s winning mark of 31:21.
Emily Sisson, regarded in running circles as one of the strongest up-and-coming distance runners in the United States, also runs with New Balance backing out of Providence. She placed fifth overall in the women’s race, and that was with a pretty big distraction hanging over her — in two weeks, Sisson is getting married.
“It’s a little different for me this year because we had a couple of races on the track,” Sisson said. “We haven’t had a great buildup into this, but since I’m getting married in two weeks, I wanted to do this, take a break and then do more road races.”
The hills, Sisson said, and running in what she called “no man’s land,” were tough, but she pushed through.
“Those hills, when you do them the day before, they’re deceptive,” Sisson said. “You don’t really know how tired you are at the end of it. I kept thinking I was on the last one, and there were two more. It was a grind, that’s for sure.”
Back home
Emily Durgin won the Beach to Beacon’s Maine women’s division last year after graduating from UConn. The Standish, Maine, native and Cheverus High School grad moved to Brighton since then and is aligned with the New Balance team out of the Boston area. But she had a distinct home-course advantage in running what she estimated was about her 10th race on this course.
“Last year was kind of just doing easy mileage, I’d already been done college season for a few months,” Durgin said. “I wasn’t really in great shape, but I was able to run in the Maine division one last time, and also wear my New Balance jersey for the first time since I had just joined the team.
“This year, my goals were much different. Top 10 overall was a pretty lofty goal considering how deep this field was,” Durgin continued. “I ran about a minute faster than I ran last year, and under these conditions, it was great. Overall, it was a good day. As a distance runner, we all naturally think we could have done better, you know, but given the conditions, it was really good, a great homecoming.”
Durgin finished 10th in the women’s race and sixth among American women in a time of 33:54.