MEDIA KIT - Variety of Materials for 2004 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race

Contents: Fact Sheet, 2003 Results, Past Champions, Race Beneficiaries, Joan Benoit Samuelson Bio, Dave McGillivray Bio

7th ANNUAL PEOPLES BEACH TO BEACON 10K ROAD RACE
FACT SHEET

Date of Race: Sunday, August 1, 2004

Title Sponsor: Peoples Heritage Bank

Distance: 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)

Size of Field: 5,000

Mission of Race: “Peoples Promise: Shining the Light for Maine Youth” is part of the bank’s pledge to support and benefit young people in Maine. Peoples, through the Banknorth Charitable Foundation, provides a cash donation of $30,000 to a different children’s charity each year. Seeds of Peace was the 2003 beneficiary.

2004 Youth
Beneficiary: Riding To The Top (RTT) provides therapeutic horseback riding services to children and adults with physical, emotional and/or learning disabilities. With locations in Windham and at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, the non-profit organization serves more than 200 children with disabilities from more than 40 towns throughout Maine.

History: Peoples Heritage Bank and Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of Olympic gold in the marathon in 1984 and Maine’s most recognizable athlete, founded the race in 1998 as a way to support Maine children by creating a world-class event for the state. The race draws elite athletes from all over the world, as well as top Maine and New England runners. About 700 local volunteers help run the race, and more than 10,000 spectators line the course.

Races: 10K Wheelchair division at 8 a.m.; runners at 8:05 a.m.; and children’s 1K race begins at 10 a.m.

Purse: More than $50,000 in prize money

Race Director: Dave McGillivray, Sports Enterprises, Inc. (DMSE)

Start/Finish: Picturesque 6.2-mile course from Crescent Beach to the lighthouse at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth.

Registration: Online registration – www.beach2beacon.org. Printed applications will be available in April at any Peoples Heritage Bank branch in Maine.



PEOPLES BEACH TO BEACON 10K ROAD RACE
2003 RESULTS


2003 TOP MALE FINISHER:
Gilbert Okari of Kenya, 27:28 (course record)

2003 TOP FEMALE FINISHER:
Catherine Ndereba of Kenya , 31:53

2003 TOP MALE MASTERS FINISHER:
Andrew Masai of Kenya, 29:24

2003 TOP FEMALE MASTERS FINISHER:
Carmen Ayala-Troncoso of Austin, Texas, 35:11

2003 TOP MALE MAINE FINISHER:
Eric Giddings of South Portland, 31:18

2003 TOP FEMALE MAINE FINISHER:
Maggie Hanson of Bowdoinham, 35:47

2003 TOP MALE WHEELCHAIR FINISHER:
Kamel Ayari of New Rochelle, N.Y., 25:00

2003 TOP FEMALE WHEELCHAIR FINISHER:
April Coughlin of Syracuse, N.Y., 33:32



PEOPLES BEACH TO BEACON 10K ROAD RACE
PAST CHAMPIONS

2003
Elite Male: Gilbert Okari of Kenya, 27:28 (course record)
Elite Female: Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, 31:53
Masters Male: Andrew Masai of Kenya, 29:24
Master Female: Carmen Ayala-Troncoso of Austin, Texas, 35:11
Maine Male: Eric Giddings of South Portland, 31:18
Maine Female: Maggie Hanson of Bowdoinham, 35:47
Male Wheelchair: Kamel Ayari of New Rochelle, N.Y., 25:00
Female Wheelchair: April Coughlin of Syracuse, N.Y., 33:32

2002
Elite Male: James Koskei of Kenya, 28:11
Elite Female: Adriana Fernandez of Mexico, 31:56
Masters Male: Eddy Hellybuck of New Mexico, 29:49
Master Female: Elana Fidatof of Romania, 34:14
Maine Male: Andy Spaulding of Freeport, 31:26
Maine Female: Christine Snow-Reaser of Dayton, 36:30
Male Wheelchair: Tony Nogueira of New Jersey, 24:12 (course record)
Female Wheelchair: Laurie Stephens of Massachusetts, 33:11

2001
Elite Male: Evans Rutto of Kenya, 28:30
Elite Female: Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, 31:34 (course record)
Masters Male: Andrew Masai of Kenya, 29:37
Master Female: Judy St. Hilaire of Massachusetts, 33:53
Maine Male: Andy Spaulding of Freeport, 31:29
Maine Female: Christine Snow-Reaser of Dayton, 36:13
Male Wheelchair: Tony Nogueira of New Jersey, 24:59
Female Wheelchair: Laurie Stephens of Massachusetts, 30:51

2000
Elite Male: Joseph Kimani of Kenya, 28:07
Elite Female: Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, 32:19
Masters Male: Andrew Masai of Kenya, 29:12 (course record)
Master Female: Judy St. Hilaire of Massachusetts, 33:37 (co-course record)
Maine Male: Todd Coffin of Freeport, 31:36
Maine Female: Julia Kirtland of South Harpswell, 35:35
Male Wheelchair: Tony Nogueira of New Jersey, 24:34
Female Wheelchair: Laurie Stephens of Massachusetts, 30:25

1999
Elite Male: Khalid Khannouchi of Morocco, 27:48
Elite Female: Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, 32:05
Masters Male: John Tuttle of Georgia, 30:08
Masters Female: Marina Belyaeva of Russia, 33:37 (co-course record)
Maine Male: Bob Winn of Ogunquit, 31:11
Maine Female: Julia Kirtland of South Harpswell, 35:07
Male Wheelchair: Jason Fowler of Massachusetts, 29:10
Female Wheelchair: Laurie Stephens of Massachusetts, 28:01 (course record)

1998
Elite Male: Johannes Mabilte of South Africa, 28:18
Elite Female: Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, 32:15
Masters Male: Steve Plasencia of Oregon, 29:37
Masters Female: Kim Jones of Washington, 34:35
Maine Male: Bob Winn of Ogunquit, 30:52 (course record)
Maine Female: Julia Kirtland of South Harpswell, 34:56 (course record)
Male Wheelchair: Tony Nogueira of South Harpswell, 24:32
Female Wheelchair: Leann Shannon of Florida, 28:38


PEOPLES BEACH TO BEACON 10K ROAD RACE
HISTORY OF RACE BENEFICIARIES

Each year, Peoples, through the Banknorth Charitable Foundation, provides a cash donation of $30,000 to a charity serving Maine youth. Additionally, the organization selected benefits from fundraising opportunities and publicity valued at $40,000 or more.

2004 Youth Beneficiary – Riding To The Top Therapeutic Riding Center

Riding To The Top (RTT) provides therapeutic horseback riding services to children and adults with physical, emotional and/or learning disabilities. Formed in 1993, the non-profit organization offers programming for clients at its own farm in Windham, located on 50 acres off Land of Nod Road near the Westbrook line, and at the Pineland Farms Equestrian Center in New Gloucester. Riding To The Top serves more than 200 children with disabilities from more than 40 towns throughout Maine. RTT believes that caring for horses and horseback riding are powerful tools for improving the lives of people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, brain injury, developmental delays, autism, and for children deemed “at risk.”

Research and clinical evidence has shown that therapeutic riding contributes to improvements in balance, strength and coordination, along with self-confidence and self-esteem. In addition, therapeutic riding assists in the development of important life skills, including trust, responsibility and commitment. For more information, visit the organization’s web site at www.ridingtothetop.org.

2003 Youth Beneficiary – Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace, founded in 1993 by award-winning author and journalist John Wallach, is recognized as the leading international conflict resolution program for youth. Each summer, hundreds of teens identified as their nation’s best and brightest spend a month at Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine, living side-by-side with people they have been led to hate. The Maine Project, a pilot program designed to address ethnic and racial tensions between diverse communities in the U.S. As immigrant and refugee populations continue to swell in Portland, Lewiston, and in other Maine cities, the Maine Project is a proactive measure to increase understanding, tolerance, and unity throughout the state.

2002 Youth Beneficiary – Opportunity Farm

Opportunity Farm opened in 1910, offering boys a safe home, a good education and hands-on farming skills. Its core mission has remained the same. While its 300 acres still includes a farm, Opportunity Farm has adapted to modern times. The dozens of boys and girls who live at the Farm attend local public schools, participate in extracurricular activities and prepare for many different vocations in life.

Youths, usually between the ages of 10 and 13, enroll at the Farm voluntarily through referrals from school counselors, social service workers and other professionals. Daily life at the Farm follows the Family Teaching Program, modeled after the well-known course at Boys Town. It is a learning environment where skills that are needed for success in the world are taught and strengthened. And the evidence suggests that it works. Every boy who has graduated in the past decade has gone on to further education or to military service.

2001 Youth Beneficiary – Kids First

Founded as a partnership between Resources for Divorced Families and the Junior League of Portland Maine, Inc., the Kids First Center fills a much-needed gap in the social services available to children and parents. Each year, more than 6,000 Mainers – children, parents, professionals – use the range of services provided by the center, located at 222 St. John Street in Portland.

Through support groups for four different age groups, children are provided with a safe and neutral place to share their experiences and talk about what’s happening to their families. Trained facilitators, who are mental help professionals, design activities that focus on helping children build self-confidence. The Kids First Center is also a resource for lawyers, family therapists, clergy and other professionals working with divorcing couples.

2000 Youth Beneficiary – Turning Point Farm

Set on an idyllic 12-acre, 16-room farmhouse off Route 100 in New Gloucester, Turning Point Farm is for young boys and girls who have been abused or neglected and are in the care of the Maine Department of Human Services. The program is designed to allow for healing and growth while nurturing attachments with others, including animals. It is a long-term home for the children, who spend their days feeding and grooming cows, goats and sheep, collecting eggs, exercising animals and tending a garden as well as attending school and counseling sessions.

1999 Youth Beneficiary – Camp Sunshine

Camp Sunshine supports critically ill children and their families. The camp has the distinction of being the only program in the nation whose mission is to address the impact of a critical illness on every member of the immediate family—the ill child, the parents, and the siblings. Since its inception, Camp Sunshine has provided a haven for over 3,400 families from diverse cultural backgrounds.

1998 Youth Beneficiary – Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters has been the nation's preeminent youth-service organization for nearly a century. The service is based on volunteers, and has been a proven success in creating and nurturing relationships between adults and children.

BIOS

JOAN BENOIT SAMUELSON, RACE FOUNDER

Joan Benoit Samuelson, Maine’s most recognizable athlete who continues to serve as an inspiration for women runners around the world, founded the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race in 1998 to benefit children’s charities in Maine.

With the help of Peoples Heritage Bank, Joan’s efforts quickly elevated the annual race to world-class status. Today, the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K is a ‘must’ event on the calendars of elite runners around the globe as well as recreational runners throughout New England.

Joan ran the same ocean-side roads while growing up in Cape Elizabeth, just setting out on her path to history. While a senior at Bowdoin College, Benoit entered the 1979 Boston Marathon as a virtual unknown and won, setting a record for American women. Following surgery on her Achilles tendons, she again won the Boston Marathon in 1983. In Los Angeles in 1984, the eyes of the world were watching Joan when she won the first ever women's Olympic Marathon. She has remained a dominant figure and a role model in the running world and women’s athletics ever since.

Below is more specific information about Joan’s athletic achievements and civic involvement:

MAJOR ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS

1972-75 All American Honors at Cape Elizabeth (Maine) H.S.
1975 Wins the regional Junior Olympic mile championship in 5:03.8
1976 Wins the Portland Boys Club 5-mile race
1976 Wins prestigious, 7.1-mile Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod
1978 Sets world record in Boston’s Bonne Belle 10K race (33:16)
1979 Boston Marathon winner, World Best, (2:35:15)
1983 Boston Marathon winner, New World Best, (2:22:43)
1984 Wins the first U.S. women’s Olympic Marathon trials
1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in Los Angeles — First Women’s Olympic
Marathon, still an Olympic record (2:24:32)
1984 Philadelphia Half Marathon winner
1984 Jesse Owens Award recipient
1984 Inductee, Maine Sports Hall of Fame
1985 Chicago Marathon winner, time still stands as an American
record (2:21:21)
1985 Receives Sullivan Award as country’s Top Amateur Athlete
1987 Honorary Degree Recipient, Williams College
1988 Tufts Jumbo Award recipient
1990 Kiputh Award, Yale University
1990 Honorary Degree recipient, Colby-Sawyer College
1990 Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary Club International
1992 Wins the Columbus (Ohio) Marathon
1993 Sara Orne Jewett Award, Maine Women’s Fund
1994 New England Women’s Leadership Award recipient
1994 First woman inducted into the National Alumni Hall of Fame of the Boys and Girls Club of America
1995 Honorary Degree recipient, Mount Ida College
1996 Finishes 13th in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
1997 Creates the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race in Cape Elizabeth, Maine
1998 Wins the USA Track and Field Master’s national championship for women
40-and-over in the 5K
1998 Inductee, National Distance Running Hall of Fame
1998 Presides over the first Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K, a road race branded one of the
world’s best by runners
1998 Road Runner’s Club of America, Women’s Master Runner of the Year
1998 Qualifies for U.S. 2000 Olympic Marathon trials at New York Marathon
1999 Honorary Degree recipient, Thomas College
1999 Inductee, International Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame
1999 Inductee, International Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame
1999 Presides over the second Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K. With a field of 4,000,
including many of the world’s best distance runners, it eclipses the first
2000 Finishes 9th in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
2000 Presides over the third Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K
2001 Presides over the fourth Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K
2001 Qualifies for U.S. 2004 Olympic Marathon trials at New York Marathon
2002 For the first time, runs in the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K
2002 Sets national 45-49 age group record – 2:42.28 – at Chicago Marathon
2004 Competes in U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in St. Louis

COMMUNITY AND CIVIC INVOLVEMENT

Committees and Boards:
1985-Present Advisory Board, Gulf of Maine Aquarium
1986-1993 Samantha Smith Center
1985-Present Friends of Casco Bay
1990-1991 Bowdoin College Fund Director - Chair
1990-1997 Honorary Board, Big Sisters Association of Boston
1991-1995 Foundation for the Advancement of Education
1994-1997 Freeport Recreation Committee
1995 Nominating Committee, YWCA of Portland, Maine
1995-Present Advisory Board, Maine’s Women Fund
1995-1996 Co-Chair, Casco Bay Area YMCA Capital Campaign
1995-Present Bowdoin College Board of Trustees
1995-Present Governor’s Council for Physical Education and Sports
1997-Present Governor’s Executive Council, Communities for Children
1997-Present Founder and Chair, Peoples Heritage Bank Beach to Beacon 10K
1999-Present National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Board of Directors
2002 Honorary member American Running Association Gala
2002 Girl Scouts of Kennebec Council Woman of Distinction Award
2003-Present Named Co-Chair of Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, Health & Wellness

Public Service, past and present:
Natural Resources Council of Maine; Maine Lung Association; Alzheimer’s Foundation; M.S. Society; Special Olympics; Freeport Public Schools; Massachusetts Association for the Blind; New England Women’s Leadership Award Nominating Committee; Maine Honorary Chair, March of Dimes Walk America; Maine Amateur Athletic Foundation, Board of Directors; Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute

Joan Benoit Samuelson resides in Freeport, Maine with her husband,
Scott Samuelson, and their children, Abby and Anders.



DAVID MCGILLIVRAY, RACE DIRECTOR

David McGillivray first gained national prominence in 1978 when he ran across the United States to raise money for charity. Since then, McGillivray, 49, has accomplished numerous other exciting and inspirational feats as well as earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest race directors.

In 2000, McGillivray received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Competitor Magazine for his more than 20 years of service to the sport of road racing and triathlons. Later in 2000, he won a prestigious national award from Road Race Management for his direction of the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K. He is also Race Director of the B.A.A Boston Marathon and president of Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises (DMSE, Inc.), a nationally recognized event management company.

Below is more specific info about his athletic achievements and professional accomplishments:

¡ Perhaps best known for his run across the United States in 1978 for the Jimmy Fund, McGillivray ran a total of 3,452 miles in 80 days averaging 45-miles a day.

¡ In May, McGillivray will be running across the country again, this time with nine other veteran marathoners, in relay style, from San Francisco to Boston as part of TREK USA, an event which he founded.

· McGillivray is Race Director of the world’s oldest and most famous road race, the B.A.A. Boston Marathon for which he has worked tirelessly for 17 years.

¡ Personally run 116 marathons including the Boston Marathon for the past 32 consecutive years.

· As a personal challenge at age 12, he began running his age in miles on his birthday each year, never having missed a year in the past 37 years. This year he’ll run 50 miles on his 50th birthday.

¡ Logged more than 120,000 miles in his lifetime (to date).

¡ Directed or consulted on over 700 events.

¡ Given more than 1,400 motivational speeches to audiences throughout the US and the world.

· McGillivray is Owner and President of Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises, Inc. For 25 years, “DMSE,” as its known, has produced mass-participatory athletic events nationally and internationally.



· More than $50 million has been raised for charity through both McGillivray’s personal efforts and by events his company, DMSE, Inc., has managed.

¡ Road Race Management and Running Times Magazine named McGillivray Race Director of the Year in 2000.

¡ Created The DMSE Foundation, a non-profit aimed at ending childhood obesity by funding and creating programs to inspire and cultivate a generation of healthy and successful children.

¡ McGillivray is authoring a book titled, The Last Pick, which chronicles his career while motivating and inspiring the reader to never underestimate their own ability to set goals and achieve what is thought to be the impossible.

Other PERSONAL Highlights:

· Valedictorian – Medford High School ’72.
· Valedictorian – Merrimack College ’76.
¡ Eight-time competitor in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship (personal best finish of 14th overall.)
· Ran up the East Coast of US – 1980.
· Completed a 24-Hour Run – 120 miles.
· Completed a 24-Hour Bike – 385 miles.
· Completed a 24-Hour Swim – 27 miles.
¡ McGillivray lives in North Andover, MA with wife, Katie, and sons, Ryan (13) & Max (10).

Other CAREER Highlights:

· Race Director – 1990 Triathlon World Championships
· Race Director – Monster Challenge: Tri-Boston Triathlon
· Race Director – 2004 US Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials
· Race Director – Marathon of the Palm Beaches, Florida
· Race Director – Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race
· Race Director – Goodwill Games Triathlon -1998 NYC
· Race Consultant – 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games
· Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by Competitor Magazine – 2000


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