Corporate Challenge Featured for First Time at 5th Annual Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race

Teams of four or more from area corporations can sign up at www.beach2beacon.org

PORTLAND, Maine (April 25, 2002) - Corporations wishing to compete in more than the marketplace can sign up for this year's Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race as part of a corporate challenge introduced for the first time this year.

The challenge, sponsored by UnumProvident, will pit teams of at least four employees from New England corporations and businesses against each other in the popular road race. The teams will be scored using net times and will be adjusted by age and gender under the WAVA (World Association of Veteran Athletes) system.

The Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K will be held August 3 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Online registration opened last month and the race is quickly filling up, despite its expansion to a field size of 5,000 this year. To date, more than 2,000 participants have registered. Registration closes when the field size has been reached, possibly in late May or early June. For additional information on the challenge, go to the race website at www.beach2beacon.org.

Awards for the Corporate Challenge will be presented to the individuals who score for the top three teams in any of the three classifications: men only, women only, and mixed. The winning team in each class will receive a Corporate Challenge Cup for display at their respective organizations. Corporations as well as business partnerships such as LLCs are eligible to participate.

"We're very excited about the Corporate Challenge," said Meg Dempsey, vice president and director of public affairs at Peoples, a Maine-owned bank with more than 60 branches throughout the state. "UnumProvident's generous contribution as the title sponsor has enabled us to make this idea a reality - so it should be yet another exciting part of the race to watch this year."

This is the fifth anniversary of the race, which was founded by Peoples Heritage Bank and Joan Benoit Samuelson, a Maine running legend who has won two Boston Marathons and in 1984 won the gold medal in the first Olympic marathon for women.

The youth organization chosen by the bank to be the 2002 race beneficiary is Opportunity Farm, a long-term, family-style, residential facility in rural New Gloucester for at-risk Maine youth. The farm, serving at-risk boys since 1910, will soon offer its one-of-a-kind, structured program to girls as part of a major expansion that happens to coincide with its selection as the race beneficiary. The beneficiary last year was the Kids First Center. Turning Point Farm, Camp Sunshine and Big Brothers/Big Sisters also were beneficiaries in previous years. As this year's race beneficiary, Opportunity Farm will receive a $30,000 cash donation from Peoples Heritage Bank.

The Peoples Beach to Beacon attracts elite runners from throughout the world as well as top runners from Maine and other New England states. Its race director since its inception, Dave McGillivray, who also directs the Boston Marathon, was recently named the race director for the 2004 Olympic Women's Marathon Trials in St. Louis.

For additional information on the challenge, log on to the race website at www.beach2beacon.org or the bank's web site at www.peoplesheritage.com. To find out more about this and other issues, such as volunteer opportunities, persons also may call the race hotline toll free at (888) 480-6940.

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