CAPE ELIZABETH

New for 2016, outdoor retailer L.L. Bean will provide a $10 gift card to all TD Beach to Beacon runners during the bib and T-shirt pickup at the pre-race expo, race officials recently announced.

L.L. Bean has since the inception of the race in 1998 sponsored the race awards, providing gift cards and special gifts to age-group and other category winners. This year for the first time, the company will expand its gift-card generosity to the entire race field.

In addition, Dunkin’ Donuts, in partnership with their local franchise owners, announced that it would return as a race sponsor and again provide the prize money for the American-only runner category, which debuted in 2015. The lure of a $23,000 purse last year attracted many of the top American distance runners to the international road race. Dunkin’ Donuts also will provide $3 gift cards to all volunteers and registered runners this year.

L.L. Bean and Dunkin’ Donuts are part of a group of corporate partners responsible for the ongoing success of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K, which is set for Saturday, Aug. 6, along the shoreline roads of Cape Elizabeth.

Corporate partners who have been with the TD Beach to Beacon over its entire 19-year history include title sponsor TD Bank, as well as Nike, Hannaford, Poland Spring and Maine- Health. Other longtime corporate partners include IDEXX, WCSH6, Northeast Delta Dental and Olympia Sports.

“We are so grateful to these companies and to all our sponsors who together really make the race what it is,” said Joan Benoit Samuelson, the Olympic Gold Medalist who founded the TD Beach to Beacon. “Like the world-class runners we attract each year, our sponsors include some of the most recognizable and trusted names in Maine, the region and around the world. The stature of our race would not be maintained without the continued support we receive from each one of them. We can’t thank them enough.”

The TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race, a celebration of health, fitness and giving back, attracts a large contingent of worldclass athletes in the U.S. and around the world as well as top runners in Maine and New England. In 2015, a record-setting 6,602 runners from 15 countries, 41 states and more than 265 Maine cities and towns finished the winding, rolling, often breathtaking 6.2-mile coastal course.