Mount Desert Island Marathon Race Report and Video and Acadia National Park - October 2019

Holly’s Report

This was the Maine marathon I wanted to do for my 50 State Challenge, but it never worked into our travel/work schedule.   This would finally be the year.   The course pictures always looked great.   I was always scared by the hills, but figured I would give it a go.   The Mount Desert Island course is a point to point course that starts in Bar Harbor and ends in Southwest Harbor.  You wind your way along the course and through the edges of Acadia National Park.  We were staying a short walk away from the start and got there about 7:30 for the 8:00am start.   Enough time for one more bathroom break and then got in the corrals.    Pretty soon we were off on a nice downhill start.  Unfortunately that didn’t last long.   The first hill was crazy and long.   I was mildly concerned.  (Ok,  majorly concerned).   I decided to just enjoy the scenery and whatever happened, happened.  

The scenery was amazing.  Beautiful fall foliage, rocky coastlines and cute harbors.   No boring sections on this course.   Dave wasn’t sure how he would be able to get around, but he did fine and saw me several times (starting at mile 7).    I kept running up those hills (walking some of the steep sections) and was doing well.   I started to tire in the last miles, but I’m happy with how I did.   The camber of the road was tough as we were mainly running facing traffic on open roads.  That would be my only real complaint.

The finish was great and I got my name announced which is always fun.   I got a really cute lobster claw medal, a few snacks, and then we hightailed it out of there.  

Race video

I was motivated to finish quickly and get back to the hotel because we had a reservation at the Jordan Pond House for their famous popovers.   That was their last day of the season, so it would be our only chance.    Dave did a stellar job of parking the car close to the finish.   We made it back to our hotel, showered, and made it to Jordan Pond with 35 minutes to spare!   The popovers were worth every hill I climbed.   I highly recommend this race.

Dave’s Race Chasing notes

The race materials cautioned to only spectate at several locations and made it very clear you couldn’t follow the course easily.   I figured out some back roads to get to mile 7, which ended up being a very isolated section of the course.   After seeing Holly I was able to follow the course until mile 14.   I connected backup with the course at mile 17 and followed until 21.  After that, I took the long way around to get to the finish area.  

Bar Harbor and Acadia

First the positives:   The area is very pretty, especially with the foliage this time of year.   The town of Bar Harbor was really cute and everyone we encountered in shops, restaurants, and bars were very friendly.   Bar Harbor is a town of about 5,000 residents that shuts down by November.   The business district is 2 blocks x 4 blocks and it’s filled with bars, restaurants, and lots of shops.  This is a great launch point for Acadia National Park touring, whale watching and puffin sighting tours, and lobster boat rides.

Now for the negative:  This small town is a popular cruise ship port.   Some days the cruisers outnumber the population.   Driving in town is difficult when ships are in because the cruisers do things like stand in the middle of the road, don’t look before crossing streets, and block narrow sidewalks with their indecisions on what shop to go into.   The grocery store parking lot is a nightmare!  Our hotel, The Harborside, was next to one of the cruise ship tender docks which provided us some entertainment.  

Some highlights of town were Atlantic Brewing, Finback’s, Side Street Cafe, and our favorite was Cottage Street Pub.

Our time in the Park was fun.   We started at the Visitor Center to figure out what to do.   We ended up driving to Cadillac Mountain observation for a panoramic view of the island.  Next we took the Gotham Mountain Trail to its summit for some pretty views.   That picture by the summit marker was taken ten seconds before Dave had the rocks slip from underneath him and he fell hard.  The camera and Dave are both fine.  

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon Ace Report and Video - October 2019

My marathon for the year is the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Maine.   I have been training all summer for it and my motivation was not there.   The training was a grind mentally.   I had a 50 State hangover!  I had one more long run before the Maine Marathon and was dreading one more boring 20 mile run by myself in the neighborhood or on the treadmill.   I saw that the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon was the same weekend.   I had wanted to do this one some day so now seemed as good as any.   I would get a supported long run and hopefully it wouldn’t be boring.   

The marathon is a point to point and starts north in Grafton, WI and ends at the Milwaukee Summerfest grounds.  With the race on Sunday we dropped Dave’s car off in a garage in Milwaukee since he’d leave for work from the city on Monday morning.  We stayed at a B&B in Cedarburg, WI since it was close to the start and we had heard it was a cute town.   It is a cute town, but not that much to do.   An afternoon was perfect.   Touring included Fermentorium Brewery, lunch at , chocolate shopping at , bourbon tasting (for Dave) at Handon Distillery.  The town was also hosting Oktoberfest this weekend so we made a stop in for a beer.  Dinner was Holly’s traditional spaghetti and meatballs at Tomaso’s.

We got to Grafton High School early and there were a lot of people.  It was nice that they let us in the school, so you could use a real bathroom.   Long lines though!   Soon we had a Disney race day like walk to the start corrals.   The course is flat with more uphill sections than I thought there would be.   It was a beautiful day for a marathon.  

The course had some boring parts in the beginning as you ran through farmland.  Then you started going through some beautiful neighborhoods by the lake.   I was feeling good and having fun.    I did have a volunteer tell me to stop walking and get to running.   I admit I yelled at him.   Not cool dude.   He obviously doesn’t know the Galloway Run/Walk/Run method.   I may have said, I have run 60 of these, I think I know what I’m doing.  

My only other complaint was the water on course.  Every stop but two of them used a garden hose hooked up to people’s houses.   I don’t know if it was the hose or Milwaukee’s water, but the smell and taste were awful.   Thank goodness for Dave to fill up my bottle.

The finish area was great.   You were immediately greeted by a medical person to see if you were ok.  Then got your medal and then they handed you a huge bag of snacks!   Dave had procured me a free beer and we sat and enjoyed that, the snacks, and listened to a great band.   All in all a pretty good day for a last minute “training” run.

Video from the race

After the race we were going to explore the Brady Street section of the city but decided to just hang out by our hotel downtown and hit up some of our favorites.  We hadn’t been in Milwaukee since our Labor Day Disney World trip was cancelled due to the hurricane so there were a few places we missed on that trip that we enjoy.   The burgers at AJ Bombers were excellent as always.    We tried to visit Uncle Buck’s in the new entertainment district by the stadium but it was crazy crowded with people watching the Packers.    We moved over to Ale Asylum Brewery and then Buck Bradley’s (we are done with that place - turned tourist trap).   We discover a new bar (to us) called The Trio with $5 Absolut drinks.  Score!   We had a dinner of Mac and cheese at Water Street Brewery before heading back to our hotel (Saint Kate) bar Giggly for a champagne cocktail nightcap.   It was nice to see Dave’s commute to work from Milwaukee was only 20 minutes longer than it is from home.  

Countdown to Marathon State 50: Favorite and Least Favorite Races

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon is almost here! Today was our first full day in Maui and we celebrated by waking up before 3am to go see sunrise from Haleakala. 

We are continuing our look back on the experience of traveling to 49 states and the races Holly participated in.  Our final video features the best and worst races experienced so far.

Other Videos: Race Medals, Race Swag, Breweries, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Destinations

Countdown to Marathon State 50: Race Destinations

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon is a few days away! We are continuing our look back on the experience of traveling to 49 states and the races Holly participated in.  Look for one more video before Sunday.  

For today’s topic we explore some of our favorite race destinations. This experience has allowed us to see some of the best sites this country has to offer.

Other Videos: Race Medals, Race Swag, Breweries, Spaghetti and Meatballs

Countdown to Marathon State 50: Spaghetti and Meatballs

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon is a week away! We are continuing our look back on the experience of traveling to 49 states and the races Holly participated in.  Look for two more videos over the next few days recapping the experience.  

For today’s topic we explore Holly’s pre-race superstitious meal of spaghetti and meatballs.  Some regions do better than others.

Other Videos: Race Medals, Race Swag, Breweries, Destinations

Countdown to State 50: Best Breweries

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon is 10 days away! We are continuing our look back on the experience of traveling to 49 states and the races Holly participated in.  Look for a few more videos over the next few days recapping the experience.  

For today’s topic Dave goes on-and-on about some of our favorite brewery experiences during race weekends.

Other Videos: Race Medals, Race Swag, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Destinations

Countdown to State 50: Race Swag

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon is two weeks away! We are continuing our look back on the experience of traveling to 49 states and the races Holly participated in.  Look for a few more videos over the next two weeks recapping the experience.  

Our next topic covers race swag - the other included trinkets beyond the official race shirt and medal. Holly has earned some interesting items at races.

Other Videos: Race Medals, Breweries, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Destinations

2018 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Race Report and Video - November 2018

Here is Holly’s report from the 2018 Monumental Marathon.  Following her report is a short video and comments by Dave.

This race was going to be my Fall marathon for 2018.   I wanted to do an actual road marathon in Indiana since my marathon for Indiana was that crazy indoor one.    If you are following along, you know I got talked into doing the Detroit Marathon two weeks before this one.   It did not go well and I was a little worried that this would be a slug fest as well.   The race weather looked similar, a bit chilly, but it did look like it would be sunny and it was supposed to get a bit warmer than Detroit.    I was bundled up at the start and this was another large race with big corrals.   Soon enough we were off and running.   

This was another relatively flat course and it took you through a bunch of nice neighborhoods and parks.   I was feeling good early on and was hoping it would continue.    Navigating this course was again a challenge for Dave but he did a good job and saw me a bunch of times.  I was doing this one solo and it was nice to see his smiling face several times.    

The sun did indeed come out and the weather was pretty much perfect for the entire race.    The race had some dead zones along a river trail and that was towards the end of the race where you are getting tired but the race tried it’s best to keep us entertained with trivia signs along the way.   

The spectators and volunteers were all great and I had fun interacting with them.   I remembered that this was supposed to be fun and fun is what I had!   I did have one issue at mile 7.  My hydration belt broke/malfunctioned.   I could not get it to clip back together.   I had to tie it in a knot around my waist, which was not comfortable at all and it kept sliding up towards my chest.   It was such a good look,  not!   I did start to get tired around mile 20 and had to walk a bit more but still kept a pretty good pace the rest of the way in.    

The finish line was fun, but I totally missed Dave, oops!   You got a medal and nice winter hat at the finish.    This time we slowly walked back to the hotel and took our time getting ready, because we were staying over.   We had a fun night bar hopping and then had a great steak dinner at the famous St. Elmo    It was a great day.   I’m glad I had a good race and now the big one is up next.   

Maui Oceanfront Marathon in January to get my 50th state.  I can’t wait!

 

Dave’s Comments

The day before the race and had to run out of a meeting to meet Holly in the parking lot so we could get to Indy before President Trump and the related traffic.  Fortunately it was only a little more than 3 hours from my office and we beat POTUS to town.  Unfortunately the best find I had near the hotel for pasta was Buca Di Beppo.  Yuck!  What made it even worse was the hostess stand was actually in the kitchen.  

The next morning I had to move the car out of the hotel so I wasn’t blocked in by the 5k.   The full course would have been manageable but the half and 5k ran on other downtown roads creating too many choke points for me.   After I saw Holly at Mile 2 I decided to take the long way to try to get to 5.5. It got a bit difficult navigating where I could cross the course and highway and I ran up to my planned point just as Holly showed up.   The rest of the course was not too hard to navigate and I got lucky with the ability to cross the course at several points.  I ended up at the finish line with enough time to have a beer at the well-placed finish line bar.  

Snacking was pretty good because I parked near a Whole Foods where I picked up coffee and baked goods.  I may have been a jerk at Mile ten and let the runners see me eating a darn good pecan tart. 

After the race we kept bar-hopping within walking distance to the hotel since dinner was only a few blocks away.   We ate lunch at The Tap - an extension of a brewery in Bloomington.  Even though nothing was brewed on-premise they had a great selection of their items and others on tap with some decent food. 

Afterwards we went to Rebar where they had self-serve beer taps, craft cocktails, and a nice whiskey collection.   After dinner at St. Elmo it was back to bed.  The next morning we left town and headed to get one of Holly’s favorite breakfasts: