Mount Desert Island 10-15-06

Why do we keep going back to these coastal marathons? Is it because of the incredible beauty? Or is it because we love hill repeats so much? This one had large quantities of both!

Simple course. Start in Bar Harbor, run around the edges of the island, run through Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor and finish at Southwest Harbor. Should be beautiful views of the water, dazzling fall colors from the foliage, and a nice flat course (because down South when you run by the water it's flat). Right? Well, two out of three ain't bad...

A crisp morning in Bar Harbor - 35 degrees at the 8am start. Nearly 200 walkers had gone off at 7am. The rest of us milled around the beautiful town square, looking for pockets of sunshine to keep warm.

I lined up near the back of the pack - my home turf

Even from the back it wasn't far to the front!

The gun fires and everyone is across in about 20 seconds.

Looking back in the first couple of miles, we've already started the hill climbs

In all fairness, there were a few downhills. They just always seem to be outnumbered by the uphills, though mathematically the ratio has to be close to 1:1

Still uphill at mile 3

These early miles were away from the coast, but the fall colors were in full display

At mile 5, Ron Paquette (on the left) from Albion, Maine runs with Steven Kaplow from Falls Church, VA. Ron is 65 years old and this was his 120th marathon.

Great fish arch at an aid station manned by the local Acadia Runners. Aid stations were every 2 miles, all manned by very encouraging and enthusiastic workers - THANKS!!

Ron (on the right) runs most of his marathons with his buddy Mike Brooks (yellow hat on left). I thought that's pretty cool - that there is another "Mike and Ron" around, since Mike (Griffin) is one of my favorite running buddies back in NC. Mike (Brooks) is 60 and has over 100 marathons to his credit. Mike also had the talent of surrounding himself with the distaff cadre of participants. Just like Mike back home!

This little stretch was on a narrow road through a beautiful wooded area.

Our first glimpse of water came just past mile 7. What a perfect day.