Mt. Desert Island 26.2 Beauty and Ease

Bar Harbor, ME

Mom, Linde, and I arrived in Bar Harbor Friday night.  The drive from Portland to BH was dreary and sometimes raining, but we were excited to begin the week to see the beauty of the fall in the northeast, and I was on a mission to eat as many lobster rolls as possible in 1 week.  Success!

2nd Crow Athletic race (Lobster 10K a few years ago in Southwest Harbor, ME)

Caw! Caw! Caw!  Excellent Job!

My intention for this race was to run it as a training run.  My plan was to train through this race, so when I arrived at the starting line on Sunday, I had 44 miles for the week.  If you look at the elevation chart, you obviously notice that miles 20-25 are uphill on the chart, but you also see the chart shows bumps over the entire course, so I went into this one expecting hills, hills, and more hills.   As we drove the course on Sat., it was really close to what I had suspected, but I had no idea how my body would respond on Sun.  I had run Tupelo 26.2 in Sept. but the hills for MDI would be more challenging.  The only other hilly race that I have run is Boston. My first attempt at "racing" on hills, Boston 2010 - 4:08.

Sunday am, race start at 8:00, I'm in my room at 7:45 because the race is right outside my door.   We stayed at the Villager Motel.  It's NOT fancy, but adequate, and super convenient.  The weather was nice.  The day before, the winds almost blew us off the top of Cadillac Mountain, so I was a little concerned about the wind for the race.  It ended up being wasted worry because the weather was perfect.  We had a little wind, but nothing bad at all.  Whew!

Very early in the race I began chatting with Tim who was running his first marathon.  We ended up running together until somewhere around mile 16.   We chatted about running and training and we quickly realized that we both shared a passion for "the details" of training and data.   I quickly "got lost" in conversation and was amazed how fast the miles were going by.  Let's face it, I'm in Mississippi.  Let's just say.... running is not the number 1 activity in our state.  Yes, I do have running friends, but it's rare to find someone to chat with that enjoys the numbers, details, tough training plans, data, etc.,  like I do.   So Tim, thank you!  I enjoyed the conversation.  Several miles later a couple from Minnesota joined in the conversation.  

Here is a pic of my new friends.  (Tim is on the right - with the red shorts)

This was my first time to take pictures "on the run."  I had purchased a new camera just before this race and was happy with the way the stabilization feature worked. 

coming to the finish.....4:16

Today I felt GREAT the whole way.  I have run other marathons as training runs, but even when running a slower pace, I have always come to a point in the race where I was tired and ready to be DONE.  MDI was different.  I never felt tired.  My goal for the training run was 9:45 pace.  I ran the last 2 miles @ 8:47 and 8:03.  I ended up running 26.38.  I didn't pay much attention to the tangents today because it was a training run.  By the Garmin, for 26.38 miles, my average pace was 9:44.

Stats for MDI

334 / 925

Division - 17 / 69

4:16:36

9:48 avg pace for 26.2 miles

My personal observations after the race:

**This was the hilliest marathon I have run so far out of 21 marathons.

**I did not taper for this run, and in fact, I went into the race with 44 miles to finish the week with 70 miles.

**Even with the 44 miles prior the marathon, this was the easiest marathon I have run, to date.

**This means I'm getting in shape.  

 **MDI is my 2nd favorite out of the 21 marathons that I have completed.  St. George is still number 1 for me.  I'm sure running my PB (personal best) @ SGM has a lot to do with my ranking, but the beauty at St. George, UT is hard to beat.  Had I been racing at MDI, and had I finished with a PR (personal record), I wonder is my ranking would be different.  Possibly????  Both are beautiful courses, and both races are special.  

I was happy to finally meet Bethany & Ryan of Our Love on the Run
 @ MDI.  I have been following their adventures of running for a while.  (Bethany helped me with some of the details of my trip to Boston.)  ......bummed we didn't think to take pictures. 

Today, I'm 6 weeks away from the Baton Rouge marathon, my goal race.  

This week we toured Nova Scotia, and I took a recovery wk.  

I took Mon - Wed. off from running. (walked 30 min - 45 min each day, in various locations of Nova Scotia)

Thurs. - I ran 3 miles easy, in Bangor, ME. 

(we left Nova Scotia Thurs. @  3:30 am CST time, and it was Fri., 2:00 am CST when I climbed into bed at home in MS)

Fri - 5 miles easy and then I did Supreme 90 day - This was the first day,  of round 2,  for S90D.

Sat. - 8 miles easy.  Today, I felt tired.  I think the marathon, the wk of vacation, and the lack of sleep caught up today.  I slowed the pace, and finished the run feeling tired, but ok.  I will take it easy on Sunday.

The upcoming training wk will be back on my regular training program.  I have 70 miles with some quality runs in the mix.  Totally excited about the upcoming training.  

Once again I'm at my HAPPY PLACE.  

Training hard - that's the way I like it!