![\"Rob](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2017\/08\/ACK_0768-Gomez-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Rob Gomez ’05 speaks to the Maine media after the Beach to Beacon on Aug. 5, 2017. (Photograph by Ann Kaplan)<\/p><\/div>\n
The win was Orach\u2019s second straight in the Maine division. For Gomez, who lives in Windham, the runner-up Maine finish was his best in 10 tries.<\/p>\n
For helping the fallen runner, Gomez is being widely praised as a standup guy, and his deed \u2014 call it smart sportsmanship \u2014 has sizzled through social media and the news media.<\/p>\n
The post about it on the Beach to Beacon Facebook page<\/a> has been shared 643 times, prompting 5,895 likes\/loves\/wows and attracting 229 comments. An Associated Press story has run in all 50 U.S. states and been seen by millions of readers.<\/p>\n Context matters, and this wasn\u2019t your typical community road race filled with baby strollers and dogs. Founded by Olympic-gold marathoner Joan Benoit Samuelson, the Beach to Beacon attracts 6,800-plus runners each year, including Olympians and world champions who headline the 35-runner professional field.<\/p>\n \u201cRob respects and honors his sport,\u201d Fereshetian says. \u201cHe knows exactly who he’s racing against.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And Gomez and Orach, both native Mainers, weren\u2019t chugging along in 4,001st and 4002nd place, either.<\/p>\n Orach, a 2017 graduate of the University of Maine, was one of New England\u2019s best college runners, and Gomez has been a top Maine road racer in recent years. He won the 2013 Maine Marathon and has two top-40 finishes at the Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n \u201cRob was running very, very well,\u201d says Fereshetian. \u201cHis time, 31:31, is very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming around a final bend before the home stretch, Gomez only had a second or two to see that it was Orach on the ground and even less time to decide to pull him up. Still, his decision was an informed one.<\/p>\n\t\n\t Stopping just short of the finish line, Gomez releases Orach. (Photograph by Ann Kaplan)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t The pair nears the finish line, Gomez grimacing as he guides Orach. (Photograph by Ann Kaplan)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t Rob Gomez '05 (right) helps a faltering Jesse Orach as they near the finish line of the Beach to Beacon on Aug. 5. (Photograph by Ann Kaplan)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t Orach tumbles over the finish line to capture first place in the Maine-resident division of the race. (Photograph by Ann Kaplan)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t \u201cRob respects and honors his sport,\u201d Fereshetian says. \u201cHe knows exactly who he’s racing against. He and Jesse had just met the day before, but Rob knows exactly who Jesse is, and he know Jesse\u2019s not just some guy he\u2019s running next to.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many great competitors, Gomez is a student of his sport. \u201cGoing into the race, you understand the runner\u2019s body of work. You understand what he\u2019s done,\u201d Gomez says. \u201cJesse had a very good spring track year at UMaine. He was the favorite, and I was maybe his best competition.\u201d<\/p>\n The race played out that way. \u201cThe first mile, I stuck with him,\u201d Gomez says. \u201cThen he pulled away. As a runner, I\u2019ve done enough of these to know that it wasn\u2019t going to be my day.\u201d<\/p>\n Gomez looks at it this way. \u201cJesse\u2019s performance needed to get the respect that it deserved.\u201d Had Gomez passed Orach by, the result would \u201chave been a hollow victory. I would have lamented the fact that I had won; it would have left a bad taste had I won in that manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Saturday, Gomez has played out other scenarios in his mind. Of course, he\u2019d have \u201cno problem beating the pants off him in normal fashion.\u201d And if the two had been neck and neck, \u201cif I had fought to be that close, and if it was my race to win, I would have won it\u201d and let Orach fall by the wayside.<\/p>\n \u201cBut within 100 yards from the finish [helping him] was the only thing to do. Because I believed, and still believe, that he had won the race.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRob deserves a medal for what he did, but knowing Rob, he\u2019d never wear it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gomez has downplayed what he did, telling WCSH-TV that \u201cI\u2019m just a normal representative of what the Maine running community is all about,\u201d and telling the Portland Press Herald<\/em> that \u201cmaybe they don\u2019t carry someone, but everyone wants others to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he professes normalcy, Gomez does run to the beat of a different drummer, and he\u2019s well-known for his distinctively generous, intense, and modest demeanor. As Samuelson told me, \u201cRob deserves a medal for what he did, but knowing Rob, he\u2019d never wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very intense and focused about everything, and he was also one of the biggest supporters and cheerleaders for everyone on our team,\u201d says Mike Downing \u201905, a fellow runner at Bates who now owns Mount Chase Lodge<\/a> on Maine\u2019s Upper Shin Pond.<\/p>\n And while generous acts like Gomez\u2019s occur on occasion in road races, \u201cit\u2019s not going to happen in most running races,\u201d Fereshetian says. When it does happen, \u201cit\u2019s usually the result of the people and personalities involved,\u201d Fereshetian suggests.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t