CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — While runners will not be lining up together on Saturday for the start of the 23rd TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race, race organizers are working to bring racers, sponsors, volunteers and fans together to celebrate the event.
The TD Beach to Beach to Beacon 10K has partnered with Outside Interactive to provide a simulation of the entire racecourse that will be available for free download to compatible cardio equipment. The simulator is embedded with technology that will automatically adjust the machine’s incline to emulate the terrain of the course at the viewer’s own pace, providing the closest thing to the actual race day experience.
"The TD Beach to Beacon 10K was the very first race we ever worked with and is one of our best race day simulations to date," said Gary McNamee, Outside Interactive's president and founder. "While virtual races have become a mainstay during COVID-19, Outside Interactive is upping the ante as the only company to bring the actual racecourse to the runner through its treadmill simulation app, with cheering spectators, rolling hills, even the Portland Head Light.”
To download the TD Beach to Beacon 10K simulation app, click here.
This app is only available for tablets.
For those not familiar with the course:
- Mile 1 has runners traverse a flat section of Bowery Beach Road (Route 77) through the northern edge of the park to the Inn by the Sea
- Mile 2 continues on the same road. Runners get a taste for the crowds of motivating fans ahead as they pass by several local businesses and the gateway to Two Lights State Park.
- Mile 3 is all Old Ocean Road — a pleasant, narrow loop off Ocean House Road consisting of homes, farmland and cool forest shade. Homeowners along the way typically play music and even get the garden hoses out for hot, humid mornings.
- Next, it's back onto Ocean House Road for a stroll through the center of town.
- Mile 4 takes runners underneath a giant American hung over the road by two ladders from the Cape Elizabeth Fire Department. Hundreds of roaring fans outside the town offices and library direct competitors onto Shore Road — their final turn before an ascent to the beacon.
- Mile 5, similar to Mile 3, takes runners past homes with driveways of support. Runners begin to feel a sense of closure arriving as they approach Pond Cove, envisioning the finish line and calibrating their final bursts of energy.
- But for those who rush reality, a painful consequence awaits in Mile 6…
- HILLS! Don't forget the hills. As runners make their way past Robinson Park, Chimney Rock and Delano Park, incline steepens, imposing an unavoidable challenge for those who neglect to leave some in the tank.
- A final hill awaits runners at Fort William Park's southwest entrance, the Old Gate, and then, for the last 200 meters, runners enter a chute taking them around the old bunkers and soccer fields, flanked on both sides by an exuberant crowd, passionately inspiring a strong finish.
- The finish: an iconic view of Portland Head Light.
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