Chebeague Island 4th of July Road Race

Th 26th Annual 4th of July Road Race was dedicated to the late Rob Craig of Cumberland. Rob won the race in 1997 and 1999. We will miss him.

This year's race was run on a longer course. It started and finished at the new Museum of Chebeague History. The course is more strenuous and 4.6 miles long compared to the former 4.2 mile course.

Chris Towle set the record for the new course when he finished first in 26 minutes 44 seconds. Sara Dimick set the course record for women with a 36 minute 38 second finish.
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Following Chris Towle was last year's winner, Scott McGovern, who finished second out of the 41 runners. His time was 29 minutes 29 seconds. Ty Thurlow finished third at 30:11.

Carolyn MacNeill was the second fastest woman at 36 minutes and 38 seconds. Susan Marshall was third at 36:53.

In the 1.3 mile Fun Run both the first place finishers repeated last year's victories. Will Poell for the boys in 9minutes and 7 seconds and Kathleen Ragen in 9 minutes, 15 seconds for the Girls. They are both 12 years old.

Other 4.6 mile road race winners:
Men 1st under 14 Terrance Tyler (age 11) in his first run 43:37.
Men 1st over 40 Scott McGovern 29:29.
Men 1st over 50 Bob Halpin, 40:16.
Men 1st over 60 Ray Shevnell, 34:03.
Men 1st over 70 Donald Graves, 43:37
Women 1st over 40 Nancy Earnest 37:46.

This year marked Ray Shevnell's 24th consecutive year completing the race.

The race is run under the auspices of the Chebeague Island Council. Beth and Michael Grunko would like to thank the Chebeague Island Historical Society, Jeannette and Ken Hamilton and the Bisharat family for providing water for the runners. We are very grateful to members of the McCullough family and a host of would-be spectators for volunteering to help.

Veteran runners who offered comments said the reconfigured course is more of a "runner course".

We are always hoping to improve the race. We welcome any comments and/or suggestions. They can be e-mailed to

Michael Grunko at grunkom@yahoo.com.