MILLINOCKET, Maine – An 83-year-old Hodgdon man crossed the Millinocket Half Marathon finish line in three hours and 26 minutes on Saturday.
Clinton Cushman, the oldest registered runner in the 13.1 mile race, beat his 2021 time by three minutes. And after his wife Lorinda Cushman posted a picture of him at the finish line he received 1,300 likes, he said.
Cushman said he runs the half marathon because there is so much support along the route and Mt. Katahdin is directly ahead along the Golden Road portion of the race and it’s absolutely beautiful.
“The people beside the road along the Golden Road are cheering you on,” he said. “Just the number of people in Millinocket encouraging and ringing bells, it’s just unbelievable.”
Cushman’s daughter, Daphne Nason of Linneus, also raced on Saturday. She walked two miles back from the finish line to complete the last two miles with her father, he said.
The Millinocket Marathon and Half was started in 2015 by marathon runner Gary Allen after he heard stories about Millinocket after the paper mill closed. Allen said in a documentary about the race that he wanted to bring something to the town. Some competitors run the full marathon of 26.2 miles while others run the half marathon on the same course.
That first year, there were 52 runners and in this year’s event there were more than 2,300 entrants from all 50 states.
Cushman, a retired Houlton and Hodgdon shop teacher, said he’s mostly a paddle sport person.
Although he did not mention it, Cushman, mostly with his racing partner, Peter Blood, has 57 first-place finishes in Maine down river and sprint canoe races from 1986 to 2022. The paddling duo won first place in the 1996 Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization Down River Point Series with 35 points. They also won first place in the Canadian Nationals in the 1990s. A few of his first-place finishes were with his granddaughter Crystal Nasan Schuurman and son Kenny Cushman, who also has a long list of first place finishes.
According to wife Lorinda, Cushman has also run in three full marathons and some triathlons with son, Kenny. .
A bout with COPD and asthma kept him from training for a time, but in March he began walking to get ready for the half marathon, he said.
“Since March, when I could walk again, I have walked 584 miles,” he said.
Cushman is already getting ready to start training for next year. And Maine winters will not stop his routine. Cushman plans to keep walking all winter.
“We don’t have bad weather, just bad clothing,” he said.
