enlarge Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Jacqui Kapinowski, the only female in the wheelchair division, got stuck in the grass on a hill near the finish but managed to complete the race.

CAPE ELIZABETH — Three years. Three wins.

Patrick Doak remained undefeated in the wheelchair division at the TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K, taking the 2008 title in 23 minutes, 35 seconds.

Doak, 40, finished more than a minute-and-a-half ahead of Tony Nogueira, 40, of New Jersey, the winningest racer in the history of this event with six titles. But Doak, of Concord, Mass., now is the dominant force.

Doak set the course record of 23:27 last year and said he thought he was going to break it again this year.

"I felt fast when I was out there and when I was watching the clock," he said.

But he was so far ahead near the end of the race, losing sight of Nogueira completely at the midway point, his mind started to wander.

"When you don't feel somebody pushing you, you do kind of lose focus a little bit. You start thinking, 'Oh, that's pretty there,' and not focusing anymore. I found myself doing that a couple times."

The fact Doak has been able to dominate the race so quickly isn't a huge surprise. The Beach to Beacon course fits his style better than it does Nogueira's. And those styles are influenced heavily by their injuries and the amount of mobility they have.

Nogueira has movement from about the rib cage and above. He has strong hands and shoulders, which give him the speed and quickness to excel on flat parts of the course.

Doak has slightly more mobility, from about the waist up. With the extra movement, he can use his abdominals and back muscles for the strength he needs to get up the hills.

"Patrick is a great racer," said Nogueira, "and I know he's stronger than me on the hills. I think that's the reason he beats me here. There's a lot of rolling hills.

"Every hill that came up, he just kept gaining ground and gaining ground. The flats are not long enough for me to close gaps."

Eight people competed in the wheelchair division, but only four were using racing wheelchairs.

Jacqui Kapinowski was the only female in a racing wheelchair, finishing in 40:29. But that doesn't mean her women's title came easily.

Toward the end of the race, Kapinowski was close behind third-place finisher Michael Mills when she ran into some trouble on the big hill inside the park.

"I started sliding backwards down the hill," said Kapinowski. "One of the volunteers came and put his foot behind me. My front tire was stuck in the grass.

"So, I said, 'Can you just move my tire out for me?' He said, 'No.' Then, he said, 'Are you ready to quit?'

"And I said, 'No. I'll sit here all day.'"

With a little mental toughness and big boost from the crowd, she worked her way out of the grass and over the hill.

"That's what got me up the hill, were the spectators absolutely just screaming for me to get up that hill," said Kapinowski.