When Bethanie Brown finished her college athletic career at Iowa State, she was ready for a break from running.

“I took seven years off from running, at least training,” Brown said. “I’d run sometimes, but then there would be a couple months when I wouldn’t run at all, I was just going out for a walk, or a hike, and keeping general fitness but not racing shape, for sure.”

Brown, who turned 31 on Tuesday, made her return to competitive running this spring. Now living in Saco, she has already won several well-regarded road races in Maine.

On Saturday, she’ll run her first TD Beach to Beacon 10K, Maine’s largest road race, with a field of about 6,500 runners. The race was founded by 1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson. This will be the 27th edition of the race.

“I’ve never been in such a big race. It’s probably the highest caliber race I’ve been in since a Division I national race,” said Brown, who finished her collegiate career in 2017.

Less than a year after resuming dedicated training, Brown is already back to the winning ways she showed while racking up 17 Maine high school state championships at Waterville.

Brown looks to challenge 2023 Maine champion Ruth White of Orono, defending champion Veronica Graziano of Falmouth and several other strong runners for the $1,000 cash prize as Maine’s fastest woman. Prize money is awarded to the top five Maine finishers.

“There are some really good women in Maine right now. I’ve run with some of them in various races,” Brown said. “On race day, you never know how it’s going to go. You just do your best and have fun with it regardless of the outcome. That’s my goal, to have fun, celebrate where I’ve gotten, and, sure, I’ll try to be in the top five.”

Matt Rand, a former Maine men’s winner and Beach to Beacon board member, is in charge of finding and inviting the top runners from Maine and the nearby region to run Beach to Beacon.

“Bethanie, she’s been hitting the road race circuit and doing really well,” Rand said. “She won the LL Bean 10K, that was July 4th, and won a 4-mile race in Falmouth in April. She’s running really well. But I don’t think she’s competed head-to-head with Ruth (White) on the roads.”

White, a three-time New England high school cross country champion at Orono High, is coming off a stellar freshman season at the University of New Hampshire, capped by finishing ninth in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA championships with a time of 32 minutes, 20.6 seconds.

White is a good bet to break Michelle Lilienthal’s Maine women’s course record of 33:39, set in 2014. White is expected to be the only Maine woman starting with the professional women, as she did in 2023. The rest of the Beach to Beacon field, including the professional men, begin 12 minutes later.

Before there was Ruth White, Bethanie Brown was Maine’s distance darling.

She still holds Maine’s all-time high school outdoor track bests in the 1,600 (4 minutes, 50.39 seconds) and 3,200 (10:13.90), set as a senior in 2013.

Success continued at Iowa State, as she earned All-America honors in her freshman cross country season. But over her five-year stay in Iowa, Brown had more injuries than victories.

Last fall, Brown realized she missed running and racing and resumed serious training, including weekly workouts with University of Maine runners. In her first race back on March 22, Brown set the women’s record of 1:19:23 at the On the Run Half Marathon in Old Orchard Beach.

“My time away from it helped me understand how much I enjoy the process and just training and feeling fit,” Brown said. “That part of it is worth it to me. I was missing that side of me.”

Other women who should challenge for a top-five position include Graziano, 2024 Maine Marathon half marathon winner Phoebe Oehmig and a new Maine resident, Aisling Cuffe. Cuffe was a Foot Locker cross country champion in high school, won two Pac-12 cross country championships and a Pac-12 track championship at Stanford, and is former pro runner with Saucony who recently moved to South Portland and regained amateur status.

Graziano won the Maine division at last year’s humid and rain-soaked race in 35:51. Second to Brown at the OOB half marathon, Graziano is recovering from a late 2024 injury.

“I’m coming in not as strong, maybe significantly less strong, compared to last year, but that’s OK because there’s three women in the race who should handily beat me,” Graziano said, pointing to White, Brown and Cuffe.

On the men’s side, defending Maine champion Luke Marsanskis of Cumberland and the University of Maine is back. Last year, he won in 29:12, just two seconds off Ben True’s Maine men’s record set in 2009. Marsanskis placed 11th overall.

Marsanskis said he’s planning to repeat his winning strategy.

“Just go out with the leaders, the pros, and try not to die too hard,” Marsanskis said. “Last year, I went out with the pros and all the other Maine guys didn’t, and I ended up winning the Maine race by over two minutes. … This year, I won’t be surprised if one or two of the Maine guys go with me.”

Colin Cernik of Portland, who finished second in the Maine Half Marathon last October, 2024 Maine Marathon winner Ryan Jara, 2022 Beach to Beacon Maine winner Sam Mills, and Alex Troxell of Portland are other top runners.

Recent Lake Region High graduate Sam Laverdiere will be making his 10K debut. The New England high school champion at 1,600 meters recently ran a 14:54 5,000 meters on the track. A home-schooled student still finishing up his high school requirements, Laverdiere will also be competing Friday in the Beach to Beacon High School Mile.

Laverdiere said he’s not sure if he’ll try to stick with the pros at the start or be more conservative. He said he’d like to run at a 4:50-mile pace and then “clamp down” in the latter stages, “and clamping down might just be holding that pace.”