TURNER – Melissa Ossanna of Bar Harbor trotted slowly but steadily toward the aid station at the Androscoggin Riverlands State Park lot about 5:30 Sunday morning. She was shivering slightly, huffing and puffing, but her smile was genuine, and contagious. Race volunteers greeted her with cheers, and the same questions: “What do you need? What can we get you?”
Ossanna had just one request at that moment.
“I need to sit on my ass,” she said, and plopped down in a lawn chair next to a crackling fire.
Ossanna had run all night, and after a 15-minute nap, she was off again. She had completed 80 miles since 6 a.m Saturday, and still had 20 more to go.
The Riverlands 100 race began last year, said race director Valerie Abradi, and this year it attracted more than 50 solo runners and 15 relay teams, made up of three, four or five people. Abradi said one runner had traveled from California to participate.
The race began at 6 a.m. Saturday and consisted of five 20-mile loops throughout the state park. Solo runners ran the entire 100 miles, and relay runners completed one to three loops, depending on their team size.
Not all of the solo runners finished, such as Amy Mosca of Newburyport, Massachusetts, but she was still proud of what she had accomplished — 50 miles total, and she ran all day long Saturday.
“The sun was setting just as I got to the aid station. It was so pretty,” said Mosca, who decided to end her race then. “I had trouble getting out of my own head. The trail was trickier than I had imagined, and I was nervous about the dark.”
She still stayed at the finish line all night, waiting for her brother, Andrew Mosca, who completed his 100-mile run at 5:47 on Sunday morning, after not having run for a month due to an injury.
Sophie Roblin of Hartford and Tristan Cray of Portland were part of the relay team “On-On,” a reference to their other running group, the Portland Hashers, characterized as “a group of drinkers with a running problem.”
Roblin ran two loops, a total of 40 miles, and said it was a good amount — not too much, not too little — and it thrilled her to “run with the other nut jobs.”
“It just seemed like a wacky idea, and I’ve wanted to do a longer-distance run,” she said, “but I wasn’t quite ready for 50 miles.”
The winners of the race this year were the same as last year: Beau Langevin of Biddeford was the first male runner to cross the finish line at 1:02 a.m Sunday.
Laura Perry of Ontario, Canada was the first female to cross the finish line at 5:16 a.m.
Runners are required to complete the race within 32 hours.
emarquis@sunmediagroup.net
Stephanie LeBlanc of Madison is surrounded by steam coming off her body and from her breath Sunday morning at the finish of the Riverlands 100 & Relay at Riverlands State Park in Turner. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Mandy Hufslader of Dresden keeps bundled up and watches for a teammate to finish the 100 mile race at Riverlands State Park in Turner at daybreak Sunday morning. Mandy ran one of the 20-mile legs of the relay section of the race. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Michael Wade of Ellsworth paces Teresa Berna of New Hampshire as she finishes her fourth lap of the 20-mile course at Riverlands State Park in Turner on Sunday morning. After a brief rest and tending to her blistered feet, Berna headed back out for her final lap. (Russ Dillingjham/Sun Journal)
Andres Fleury, who traveled from North Carolina to race, celebrates Sunday morning as he crosses the finish line of the Riverlands 100 race at Riverlands State Park in Turner. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Melissa Ossanna of Bar Harbor takes a 15-minute nap Sunday morning in the Androscoggin Riverlands State Park lot after running all day Saturday and through the night in the second Riverlands 100 race in Turner. (Liz Marquis/Sun Journal)
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