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V O L . X X I X N O. X I X 92 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine P H OTO E S S AY HITTING THE CAPE TAPE: Elite runners sprint, and lesser athletes trot or jog, to Cape Elizabeth every summer for the Beach to Beacon 10-kilometer road race. Attracting the fleet of foot to coastal Maine since 1998, the race was founded by Joan Benoit Samuelson, a Cape Elizabeth native who triumphed in the Olympic and Boston marathons in the 1980s. Here, the winner of the 2022 women's division, Fentyea Belayneh of Ethiopia, crosses the finish line with a time of 32:06. HOOFBEATS: The Cumberland track, now in its 154th season at a fairground 20 minutes north of Portland, became southern Maine's only regular harness racing venue when Scarborough Downs closed after 70 years in 2020 and was turned into a residential and commercial property development. Times have gotten faster since Single G's era, with one-mile races routinely run in under two minutes and the state record for pacers down to 1:51.2, but the dedication of the four-legged athletes and their human connections remains unwavering. DOWN THE STRETCH: Now a niche sport, harness racing once thrived in Maine, with tracks in upwards of 100 towns hosting standout performers like Single G, a pacing champion in the 1920s. (Single G won $100 in gold for running a two-turn mile in 2:03 ¾ in 1923, breaking the state record, according to the Lost Trotting Parks Heritage Center.) Today, regular racing — with the added lure of remote betting on the ponies at bigger-name tracks elsewhere — is confined to Hollywood Casino Bangor and First Tracks Cumberland (shown here). SILVER SKATES: Affiliated with two sets of Bruins — the National Hockey League team in Boston and American Hockey League team in Providence — the revived Mariners took the ice in 2018, competing in the ECHL. (EC originally stood for "East Coast," but when teams as far away as Idaho joined, the league switched to using the abbreviation.) In the short life of the reborn Mariners, eight players have also skated in the NHL. Here, Mariners defender Andrew Peski clears the puck in a game against the Tulsa Oilers.