Shortly before 7:45 Sunday morning, Tanya Holbrook of Portland stepped onto the street in front of a horde of eager runners as well as a green inflatable arch and delivered a soaring rendition of the national anthem.

Moments later, race director Bob Dunfey’s air horn (the one he initially left behind in his car and beat a hasty retreat to fetch) blasted those runners into action, accompanied by a bagpiper band at the corner of Baxter Boulevard and Preble Street.

The 28th edition of the Gorham Savings Bank Marathon, Half Marathon and Marathon Relay was underway.

Nearly 4,000 runners encountered conditions close to ideal. The temperature rose gradually from 40 to 60 degrees, sunshine abounded in the early going but gave way to overcast skies. Bands or piped-in music seemed to appear every quarter mile or so, along with plenty of water stations.

“There was not one thing I could complain about,” said Christine Hein of North Yarmouth, the women’s marathon runner-up. “It was just beautiful. On the way back, it was a little windy, but not bad.”

Hein, who won the women’s marathon a year ago, earned $250 for winning the masters (she’s 44) and another $800 as runner-up to Erica Jesseman. Hein and her husband make a habit of immediately leaving on vacation after this race. A few years ago, their destination was Turkey. This week, they’ll be in Fort Lauderdale.

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“Florida is a lot closer,” Hein said. “They have this beautiful boardwalk down there. You can do some really nice relaxing runs and recover.”

Hirut Guangul, 27, of Ethiopia is a five-time winner of the Quad Cities Marathon in Moline, Illinois. Her first visit to Maine resulted in a course record of 1 hour, 15 minutes, 32 seconds to win Sunday’s half marathon by nearly nine minutes.

Runner-up Lauren Tilton of Windham, New Hampshire was second in 1:24:15. The old record was 1:16:23 set in 2012 by Cynthia Jerob.

“The course is good, not too much hills,” said Guangul, between bites of an apple while seated on the grass of Pedro Field awaiting an awards ceremony. “A little bit hill and a little bit down, but I like it. Maybe next year I come back.”

Guangul earned $500 for her victory and a $250 bonus for her course record.

Guangul accompanied five male Ethiopian training partners to Sunday’s races. Birhanu Kemal also earned $750 for setting a course record while winning the men’s half marathon event. His time of 1:05:59 was more than half a minute better than the mark set last year by Stephen Njoroge of Kenya (1:06:33).

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Runner-up Aduna Gemechu edged Alexis Lavoie-Gilbert of Quebec by three seconds in 1:07:34. Jonny Wilson of Falmouth, who set a course record in 2016 and won again in 2017, was fourth in 1:09:43.

Hein and Robert Ashby, 51, of Brunswick made the marathon masters division a Maine-dominated affair. Ashby placed sixth overall (just out of the money) and earned $250 by winning the men’s masters by more than 16 minutes over runner-up Tim Mosbacher, 53, of Missoula, Montana, in 2:39:24.

“Other than the wind, it was good,” Ashby said. “Temperature-wise, it was perfect.”

The third-place masters runner, Rob Collier, is from Devon, England. He knelt to kiss the pavement after crossing the finish and then pointed to the sky and clasped his hands over his heart.

Collier was running in memory of his friend’s wife, Susan Randall, a native of Old Orchard Beach who died of ovarian cancer two months ago at the age of 49.

“We came back for a memorial,” Collier said. “I had to come back and run this one because this is where she’s from.”

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A total of 185 relay teams entered the race, with up to four runners each taking a segment of the course. Or, in the case of Falmouth’s Sheri Piers and Scarborough’s Kristin Barry, taking two segments each.

Each a former Beach to Beacon Maine champion, Barry (first and third) and Piers (second and fourth) wore match red T-shirts proclaiming them Thing 1 and Thing 2 of Seussian Cat in the Hat fame.

They also bested all relay teams, regardless of gender, age or number, with a combined time of 2:47:23.

Spectators often confuse the two good friends for each other, so they figured why not muddle the waters even more. Next time, however, they figure they ought to stack the legs rather than stiffen up and have to run again after a break.

“It was too hard stopping,” Piers said. “We used to love that.”

“But at this age and stage of my life,” Barry said, “I have no business doing this, starting up again.”

Yasir Salem, the New York City man attempting to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 weeks to honor his late wife, wrapped up a busy weekend with a 4:37:38 finish. On Saturday in he ran a 4:29:44 in Bristol, New Hampshire.

Salem is up to 46 and plans to run two more marathons next weekend, in Hartford and Chicago.

Finally, of all the bands along the course — and there were many — the most endearing had to be FLUKE, the Falmouth Library Ukulele Ensemble. Performing in front of the Town Landing Market (Fresh Native Ice Cubes) in Falmouth, the 15-member orchestra plucked their small instruments and sang along to the delight of runners and spectators alike.

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