Rick Krause
Turkey Day, the Striders, and Maine Runner

Rick Krause competed in long distance running from 1968 through 1984 and was named Maine Runner of the Year in 1976. He was founder of the Central Maine Striders, as well as the founder of the state's first running publication, Maine Runner.

Born March 24, 1946, Krause grew up in Manchester, Connecticut. Beginning in 1927, it had been a tradition in his town each Thanksgiving Day to go up to Main Street and watch the Manchester Thanksgiving Day Road Race. It would be that race which eventually drew him into competitive distance running at the age of 20.

As a youngster, Krause was a tall, skinny kid. In the eighth grade he was 6-foot-1 and only 132 pounds. He was determined to change that. He developed a great appetite for exercise. He bought a set of weights and doubled his strength in just a few months. He had grown up around the water and was an excellent swimmer. As a 15-year-old he set a pool record in the backstroke on his first try. One of his greatest enjoyments was biking. He would take rides of up to 50 miles or more each week exploring many parts of his state.

When he entered the Navy in 1966, he kept in shape riding his bike, swimming, and lifting weights. After his first race, The Turkey Day race at Manchester in 1968, where he quickly found out just how competitive the sport really was, he wanted to run more races. But now based at the Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine, he did not know if there were any. He went to Bowdoin College and met track coach Frank Sabasteanski, who said that Roland Dyer was the man to see about road racing. Krause went to Sears at Cooks Corner, where Dyer worked, and met Maine's pioneer of road racing. Dyer gave him a race schedule which included a 15-miler in Gardiner. In May 1969, Joe's Pizza 15-Mile Road Race became his first race in Maine. Krause developed a great admirat¬ion for Dyer and eventually would write a biography of him in 1988.

Krause won his first road race in 1969 in Sigonella, Sicily, a race that was sponsored by the Navy. It was a 1.5-mile cross-country race on the base's "goat trail" golf course. That year he also won an open tennis tournament on the Navy base. In January 1970, Krause entered the University of Maine at Orono where he studied physical education and ran cross country and track. He was a two-miler in track, and in cross country typically placed among the top four. His best effort at UMaine was in the Yankee Conference Cross Country Championship in 1972, when he finished second for the Black Bears.

Every year Krause made the Manchester Road Race his foremost goal. It became the most important measuring stick of his progress each year. He made his most important lifetime running goal to finish among the top 25 (prize winners) at his hometown race. Although he never accomplished it, he came close in 1976, placing 29th in 24:40 for the 4.77 miles.

Krause competed a career total of 184 road races from 1968 through 1984, with 19 victories, 24 second-place finishes and 23 third place finishes. He won his last road race in Sidney in August 1984, at age 38. He was selected Maine Runner of the Year in 1976. In 1978 the Maine Masters presented him with their annual award as the year's "greatest contributor to Maine distance running." He is the only person to win both this award and Maine Runner of the Year. He was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame in 1994.

It was while living in Newport, where he taught physical education and coached cross country, that Krause founded the Central Maine Striders on Dec. 5, 1975. It was the third running club established in Maine, preceded by the Maine Masters in 1969 and the Sunrise County Road Runners in 1970. While developing the Striders’ monthly newsletter, Krause found that he enjoyed writing. He thought how nice it would be if all runners in the state had a race schedule and results available to them, just as the Striders did via his newslet¬ter. He decided to start a publication which he named Maine Runner. It was the first formal publication on road racing in the state, published March 1977 through October 1979. Issues came out every three weeks. The publication launched him into a career in journalism.

In February 1978 he won the Brockton Marathon in 2:36:43, his best of five career marathons. Krause's best career times were: Mile, 4:33, at Bowdoin's old cage, and also at Colby's field house; 5 miles, 26:01, Portland Boys Club 5-Miler 1976; 10-K, 32:24, Great Pumpkin Race, Saco; 9 miles, 47:29, Cape Elizabeth 9-Miler; 15-K, 51:00, Lost Valley 15K, Auburn;10 miles, 53:46, Tour du Lac, Bucksport; 13.1 miles, 1:13:50, Bar Harbor; 20 miles, 1:51:33, Silver Lake Dodge 20-Miler, Newton, Mass.

Over the years Krause served as a volunteer track official at Colby for 17 years. And for 17 years he certified road race courses. He also directed four road races. Since 1978, Krause has been a reporter, sports editor, and free-lance journalist, often writing articles about runners whenever the opportunity was there. Krause also served as Maine correspondent for New England Running of Brattleboro, Vt., through 1984, and later wrote for New England Runner of Boston.

Before and after his induction into the Maine Running Hall of Fame, Krause volunteered to write biographies of the inductees for the MRHF committee. He served on the committee during the late 1990s. He decided to combine the biographies into a book, One Hundred Years of Maine Running, which he published in 2001.