My husband and I just got back last night from a weekend in Mount Desert Island in Maine. We were calling this our 20th anniversary trip — our actual 20th wedding anniversary was back in early September, but we decided to both run the Run MDI half-marathon and make a weekend out of it.
We flew to Bangor, Maine on Friday afternoon, rented a car and drove to Bar Harbor. We stayed at the same Yellow House Inn that kid #2 and I stayed at during our Acadia trip in June 2023 (different room though). It’s a very cute historic home and centrally located, and it has good snacks and an espresso machine guests can access 24 hours a day, so hey!
After dropping off our stuff, we got our race bibs at the local YMCA, and got dinner at a tapas place on the main street. We ate outside, which was fine at the beginning with nearby heat lamps…but was a little chilly by the end! We both crashed quite early — I guess having no kids around provides an opportunity to get caught up on sleep.
On Saturday we were a bit more ambitious. After eating breakfast at the hotel we drove over to Acadia National Park, got our pass, then parked by Sand Beach.
While a lot of Maine is past peak now, Acadia is out on the ocean and a bit more temperate, so there was a ton of fall color. And a ton of leap peepers! The place was pretty much packed. But as with a lot of national parks, once you get slightly off the main drag, it’s less crowded. We walked down along the ocean trail, then did the Gorham Mountain trail — a family favorite. We have pictures of us doing this with our two very little boys (and me 7.5 months pregnant with kid #3) in 2011. I’m not sure if hiking up steep stony paths is a recommended day-before-a-half-marathon activity, but oh well. It was pretty. We took the Bowl Trail down and looked up at the lines of people waiting to go on the Beehive climb. You have to climb up ladders on that one so on a busy day it gets to be backed-up, so that was a big no thank you from us.
I hadn’t planned on getting a Cadillac Mountain summit reservation (I hadn’t planned much of anything…) but when we got to the park, we decided to see if any were available, and lo and behold, a few still were for the middle of the day. So after our hike we drove over to the entrance and drove up. Many pretty views from up there too. We then wound up eating at lobster pounds for a late lunch and a not-so-late dinner. The latter one – C-Ray lobster – was kind of fun for being very authentic. Just a kitchen on the side of the road with a heated tent covering picnic tables. We drove up and wondered if this was the place but within a few minutes there was a line — it had one of the highest ratings on the island and my lobster roll was indeed good. And we saw a big orange moon on the horizon on the way back!
The next morning was the race. I must admit, I had a reasonable amount of anxiety over this whole thing — both the running and the logistics. Longtime readers know that I had a back issue in January that left me unable to walk for a week and I didn’t run for about 2 months. I’ve been slowly coming back but it’s a process. I worried about being cold at the start and the end. Then there was the getting around. We needed to make a flight at 3:50 p.m. out of Bangor, which is about an hour and 15 minutes from Bar Harbor. The race was a one-direction one, with the half-marathon starting in Northeast Harbor (the marathon began in Bar Harbor) and going to Southwest Harbor. The buses ran to the half marathon start from the Village Green in Bar Harbor from 6:15-7:15 a.m., with a starting time of 8:30 a.m.. Then we’d run to the finish line festival where buses started running at 12 p.m., but on a vague-ish schedule (“when they fill.”). So we really needed to be on one of the first buses to get back to Bar Harbor, and get our car, to leave the island no later than about 1:30 to be at the airport an hour before the flight.
Fortunately they had a warm place for us all to wait the hour at the half marathon start, so that was nice. The race itself was…long. I ran the whole thing but not with a ton of pep. It was a lot hillier than I’d really planned on (the route went by the coast but there are a lot of rolling hills). There were some beautiful views, especially during the first few miles along the water. But then to make the route work we wound up running a lot of the route on a fairly busy road that was open to local traffic, with only occasional views of the water. Too bad. I think the marathon route got some more views as they went through Acadia (the marathon route met up with the half-marathon route right at the 13.1 mile mark and since they started 30 minutes before us, the winners passed us a few miles in). I survived and finished, so yay for that.
We got our snacks and finishers’ medals but didn’t linger long at the finish because of the bus issue. But by hanging out at the bus stop from 11:40 a.m. or so we did indeed make the first bus. We got back to Bar Harbor and our car at approximately 12:50, so ahead of schedule. Which turned out to be a good thing as the TSA line at Bangor was nuts. In a small airport, Pre-check doesn’t always help much. But we made our flight, and made it to Philly, in time to deal with the evening, get everyone to bed and plunge back into Monday.
Anyway, I’m a bit stiff this morning, though my back is functional, which is good. I’m not thrilled with my time but I am happy I crossed the finish line. I don’t plan on running another half marathon any time soon though. Probably some 5-10ks might be more my style for a while… And hey, the leaves were pretty!