the Way of the Turtle

A TURTLE IN MAINE, Part 2 -
NOT-SO-LONG DISTANCE 2008 - Race #21
MDI YMCA Half Marathon
Saturday, September 20, 2008

2008 MDI YMCA Half Marathon results

The general practice for this race is for runners to pick up their race packets the day before, presumably to prevent huge lines as 400 runners all try to get their stuff the morning of the race. Since I couldn't get there the day before, I'd made arrangements to get my packet this morning... except I had to pick it up before 7:15 AM. So I got to the Bar Harbor YMCA at 7 AM and then had a 90 minute wait until the fun began. One plus - I had no problem finding a place to park!

I decided to walk down Main Street to kill some time, get a look at the waterfront, and get in a little warmup. Saw lots of shops that I decided I might want to check out after the race, and ended up at a very nice little park overlooking the harbor. Lots of boats to see, of all shapes and sizes, including a big cruise ship off in the distance. Took some nifty pictures of boats and birds (mainly gulls, but there was also a loon out on the water) and then headed back to the YMCA to get ready to run.

Last night had been pretty chilly, but my walk convinced me that I'd be fine with a short-sleeved shirt during the race. Changed into my running gear, waited in line at one of the bathrooms and listened to the locals talk about what a tough course it is (great...) and then wandered around outside for a while waiting for things to start. We certainly had a great morning - cool and sunny - and I was really looking forward to getting underway, despite all the hills I'd heard we'd be running up (though I did revise my finishing time estimate to definitely over 2 1/2 hours.) A few minutes before things were scheduled to start we all wandered over to Main Street and clustered behind the starting line. I think the RD may have tried to say something before we started, but I couldn't hear anything over the racket people were making. And then, with the honk of an air horn, we were off and running!

The first part of the run took us down Main Street, retracing my walk from an hour or so previous... at the waterfront we turned and ran out of town, at which point the hills began. I passed the first mile marker in about 11 minutes - not a bad pace, considering that a lot of the first mile was a gradual downhill and I was trying to take it really easy at the start. Leaving town we had a long uphill climb to get to one of the entrance roads to Acadia, at which point we turned into the park and ran mostly uphill to one of the entrance to the carriage road system and (hurray!) left pavement behind for about 8 miles.

The carriage roads we were on were in much better shape than I'd anticipated - they were essentially hard-packed dirt roads and easy running. We ran through woods with some nice views of ponds and wetlands, generally heading uphill, sometimes very gradually and other times a bit more steeply. At a couple of points we had some nice views of mountains off in the distance, too. I continued to maintain about an 11 1/2 minute pace, which felt decent going up the hills... passed a few folks as we made our way around Eagle Lake (unfortunately, we could only really see the lake through the trees) but often was passed in turn when I stopped to snap a photo or grab a sip of water. About 6 miles in came one of the hills I heard about - a decent climb about a mile long, but once we reached the top we had a series of downhill stretches where I started opening up the throttle a bit, both because it was easier to run downhill and because I was feeling good and thought I could pick up the pace for the 2nd half. Started consistently passing more runners and a few walkers (they'd started an hour before us) and worked at pushing a tougher pace as we came around the other side of the lake (which included some great views across the water... unfortunately, clouds had rolled in so it wasn't quite as scenic as it would have been otherwise.)

Sadly, once we had gone all the way around Eagle Lake it was time to say goodbye to the carriage roads and return to pavement... starting with another long climb. But one plus to that was a lot of downhills to run afterwards, where I really tried to push along, especially as the miles ticked down and I got closer to the finish. Passed some more runners and walkers... I think some of them wondered why I was pushing hard, but I really wanted to finish strong and see what I could do time-wise with the energy I had left. Finally got off the main road and took some quieter streets down into town, with volunteers periodically telling me I was almost there... in the end, the finale came quicker than I'd expected (mostly because I hadn't realized what direction we'd be approaching the finish line from) - I took a dirt path through some trees and bushes and found myself running as hard as I could across the athletic fields, to hit the finish at 2 hr 20 min 18 sec - a much better time than I'd expected (I figured I'd have to struggle to break 2 1/2 hours) and a sub-11 min pace, with definite negative splits (I ran the 2nd half faster than the first.)

After that I snagged a snack and staggered around trying to get my breath back and keep my legs from shutting down on me... changed into dry clothes and went into town both to keep moving and to do a little shopping (gifts and lunch.) Then it was back to the motel to pay for my room, eat my lunch, and figure out where in Acadia I wanted to go for the afternoon.

I definitely had a good run today... some of that was probably the conditions (cool weather) and some the fact that the distance wasn't crazy and the course was not that tough compared to the races I've run this summer... what can I say, running/hiking singletrack up the side of a mountain puts courses like this in a certain perspective, which is a good thing. I've had enough miserable races this year that I appreciate the good ones. I was able to run up all the hills and I feel like I ran a smart race that left me with enough energy to run progressively harder in the 2nd half. I don't know that I'll come back to this one next year - it's a nice course but nothing that screams out to me that I have to run it again, and the trip is definitely on the expensive side and more than a little time consuming. But I'm really glad I did it this year, both because I enjoyed the race and because it put me in the position to spend some time exploring a small part of Acadia National Park for the rest of the weekend.

Next up: the Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon. This will be the 8th time I've done one of the variations of the Yellowjacket Racing du course at Mendon... should be fun!

JMH

2008 Event Totals
Run 164.1 mi / 38 hr 18 min
Bike 32.4 mi / 2 hr 19 min
Snowshoe 45.7 mi / 13 hr 19 min

states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, PA, VT