Maine Marathon winners soak in atmosphere, experience
Mainer claims men’s marathon title, while other race winners hail from New York, Michigan
PORTLAND — Dylan Stoltzfus made a heart shape with his hands as he made his way to the finish line.
It was evident how much winning the 35th annual Maine Community Bank Maine Marathon meant.
“I spent a really long time with an injury in college,” said Stoltzfus, 24, a Portland resident. “I thought I would never run again, never race again. This is the first big race I’ve ever won. It feels like years in the wilderness and this is like coming out.”
Stoltzfus finished with a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, 59 seconds, easily out-distancing runnerup Steven Fritzsche of Kennebunk (2:31.12). Will Faden of Somerville, Massachusetts (2:32.02) placed third.
Betsy Burke, 42, of Rye, New York finished first in the women’s field with a time of 2:54.08.
This was her second time running the race.
“I was really surprised,” Burke said. “It was fun. I had people to run with and felt pretty good until about (mile) 21 and then just tried to turn my brain off.”
Burke’s husband and his family are from Blue Hill, so she visits Maine often.
“I felt really good in the hills, like (miles) 12 to 18, then started feeling much worse,” Burke said, laughing. “But I felt good for a while and was like, ‘this is great,’ and then I knew I could just get to the end.”
Alyssa Carreau of Old Lyme, Connecticut (2:55.39) and Linnea Maynard of Portland (2:57.32) followed in second and third places, respectively.
On the half marathon side, winners JP Flavin and Megan O’Neil broke new ground.
As teammates who train out of Rochester, Michigan, not only was this the pair’s first time in Maine, but they earned course records in the men’s and women’s half marathon races.
“Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous,” O’Neil said said of Maine. “I’m from Michigan. All my friends are super jealous I got to go to Maine in October. … Beautiful day for running, perfect temperature, not too windy.”
O’Neil, 30, finished in 1:14.34. Her time was 32 seconds faster than Cliodhna O’Malley’s record-setting run last year.
Flavin, 28, finished with a time of 1:03.00, beating previous record holder Colin Cernik’s 2025 time by 1:39.
“I’m in the middle of preparing for (the) New York City Marathon, so it’s kind of more of a workout, but it was fun,” Flavin said. “It was (a) good group of guys to work with for 10 miles and I was going to pick it up the last 5K and got rolling down those hills. The crowd was awesome, running past everyone was so much fun, so it was a blast.”
Next to finish were two Massachusetts runners — Cameron Dickson from Jamaica Plain (1:03.30) in second place and Ned Farrington of Cohasset (1:03.48) in third.
Heather Gallant of Wayne (1:15.38) and Isabel Seay of Hanover, New Hampshire (1:16.28) joined O’Neil on the podium in second and third place, respectively.
