Beauschesne wins his 3rd Cape Cod Marathon; Caron wins in women’s division

In the women’s race, Nina Caron of Andover, Mass., won a tight race just two weeks after running the Chicago Marathon and gaining a qualifying time for the 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon.

Caron and Beauschesne’s victory’s highlighted the 26th running of the Cape Cod Marathon, which drew 970 marathon entrants and 170 teams for the simultaneous Dunkin’ Donuts Relay.

Beauschesne, 33, won in 2:29:24 to become the first man to win the race three times. The second-place finisher, Craig Fram, 45, of Plaistow, N.H., also had won the race twice before and dueled Beauschesne to see who would become the first three-time winner. Fram finished in 2:32:05, winning the master’s division for runners 40 and over.

“I felt great except the last few miles when somebody said I had a 2-minute lead,” Beauschesne said moments after finishing.

A member of the Greater Lowell Road Runners, Beauschesne said the windy conditions this year made for the toughest of his three victories, but he felt confident when he took the lead around 20 miles in the hilliest portion of the course.

“I love that hilly area,” said Beauschesne. If he runs well there, he said, “That’s the race.”

For Caron, her Cape Cod Marathon victory comes one year after making her marathon debut at the race last year, when she finished in seventh place. The win also follows her Oct. 12 Chicago Marathon performance of 2:45:03, a personal-best time that qualified her for the next Olympic Trials marathon.

“I can’t believe how great I felt today,” Caron, 43, and also the first women’s master, said after her win in 2:57:26. Unsure how she would feel just two weeks after running another marathon, Caron said she ran conservatively over the first half of the Cape Cod Marathon course and then started picking up the pace.

The Merrimack Valley Striders runner took the lead around mile 22 after chasing down several women in front of her, but she could not relax. Second-place finisher Simonetta Piergentili, who runs for the Whirlaway Racing Team, stayed close behind Caron over the last several miles and tried to close the gap over the last few hundred yards with a sprint down Falmouth’s Main Street.

Piergentili finished just 7 seconds behind Caron in 2:57:33, in her personal-best time.

In the simultaneous Dunkin’ Donuts Relay, the Runnin’ Rebels team of Walpole, Mass., won the men’s race in a time of 2:46:35 and the Heartbreak Hill Striders team of Jamaica Plain, Mass., won the women’s division in a time 3:04:34.

Full results to come.

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