Yesterday morning was the Mid-Winter Classic, a 10 mile road race that turned into an impromptu warm-up for the women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. The first four women to cross the line will all be competing in April.

Sheri Piers led the ladies, and her marathon training was very evident this year as Sheri’s winning time of 58:25 beat her last year’s winning performance by over 4 minutes. Unlike last year, she had competition this time around. Kasie Enman was only 4 seconds behind her, finishing in 58:29. Kristin Barry ran about half a minute behind them in 59:07. Emily LeVan rounded out the top 4, coming through in 1:01:58.

Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry both qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials this past Autumn at the Philadelphia Marathon, finishing together in 2:45:37. They both race for Dirigo R.C. here in Southern Maine, and finished the race off by getting a small crowd together to run the course backwards as a cool down.

Emily LeVan runs for the Boston Athletic Association and trains in mid-coast Maine. She treated the race as a tempo run, using it as the middle miles of a sustained effort with a 5 mile warm up and a 3 mile cool down. She is the 14^th fastest marathoner in the country, gaining her qualifying time of 2:37:01 when she was the first American across the line in the 2006 Boston Marathon. She is 1 of only 19 women to make the “A” qualifying standard for the Olympic Trials.

Kasie Enman also runs for the B.A.A. and trains in Vermont. She qualified for the trials with a 2:44:06 race at Grandma’s Marathon in 2006. She is coached by Jeff Staab.

Related Links:

• Full results at the Maine Track Club
• Race Description at Run to Win (includes links to all photo collections)