Back in… January or February I signed up for the Mount Desert Island Marathon. (Fun fact, most of the times that I type “marathon” I actually type “marathong” and picture runners racing around in thongs… I can’t tell if that would be comfortable or not.)
What happens when you google “Marathong”
I signed up, for a few reasons. 1. I have never been to Acadia and I really wanted to go. This way, I had to! 2. My foresight is not as accurate as my hindsight. 3. I ran a marathon before, why not? 4. I already planned on running a ton of hills this year (Re: Mountain Goat Series) so why not add one more super hilly marathon.
Okay great so I signed up super early, that meant that I had tons of time to train for the race, and arrive to the starting line prepared to run. Again, see aforementioned comment about my foresight. Let me tell you about how I trained for this race in the past few months.
In August, I did some hiking. I played a lot of soccer and tennis. I biked casually and I swam as fast as I could—which is not very fast.
In September I really upped my game and winged a 50k which I’ve already talked about.. that was another race I did not feel overprepared for. After that race, I started running 3 or 4 times a week in the morning with my dog. Dog runs can be anywhere between 8 min miles to 11 min miles depending on how the dog is feeling that morning. Either way, it was not much training. I also did not swim as often as I had in the summer and I stopped playing soccer. I think I went boxing and joined a yoga gym so I dabbled in other methods of cross training, but did I go on a long run? No.
In October I ran 2 to 3 times a week. Mostly it was extended Skyline loops at the Middlesex Fells and those were not very hard runs, I walked a lot more than I had last year doing the same loops. I would run with Bangers on Wednesdays but not more than 4.5 miles each time. I just wasn’t feeling it. I think my biggest weekend of training was 20 miles on a weekend between 2 runs at the Fells.
One thing I did do consistently throughout this whole year of races is strength training. Abs, legs, and arms. This is important and later I’ll tell you why.
So MDI. I was fortunate to have another friend, Jeremy, who was going up to run the race as well. He and a billion of his college friends were all going up to run. This is basically 4 years of college runners who wanted to do a destination race together. They were talking about how they were going to finish sub 3 or run the half with the goal of winning it. Yikes. Anyway, they rented a house near the starting line so I had a place to stay. I opted to sleep on the floor since I know I don’t sleep before races anyway. On Saturday, Jeremy, myself, and 2 of his friends drove up and hung out in Bar Harbor.
Cadillac Mountain (we drove up)
It was kinda stormy all day, and snowing at the top a little.
I had never been to Acadia or Bar Harbor before and Ho-ly crap, is it beautiful! I started to get excited as we drove around the island and up Cadillac Mountain. It was breathtaking and the colors and foliage was out of this world. We drove some of the course and it was quite hilly and the road was kind of crappy. I had no idea how I would fair.
The night before the race, I met everyone… all 25 people. I played with a dog (that did not try to eat other people or dogs) and I ate some pasta and drank a ton of fresh local beer (nice, Atlantic brewing!) but I did not think at all about the race. It felt like being on a big friends vacation and I liked everyone I met. I went to sleep around 10:30pm, woke up a few times in the night but overall I slept really well. I am surprised and happy about this fact!
So the morning of the race, I grumpily got ready and ate a bagel with peanut butter. I packed up a drop bag for the finish and we started walking to the start. As per Seth’s recommendation, I packed a towel and change of clothes to shower at the finish line, since the year he ran it it was rainy and people were quite literally freezing. As we walked to the start, I had my winter coat and hat on and was so, so, so sad to take them off to put in the bag truck. Now, cold and at the start, we had about 30 minutes to the start. It was about 30 degrees at the start, clear and sunny. The high for the day was 42 degrees, so I wasn’t expecting to overheat.. and as you shall soon see– I did not overheat. I was wearing my thin-ass NB WR00’s on, half tights, arm warmers and a short sleeve tech with a long sleeve tech overtop, and glorious gloves. My goal was to run and warm up for the first few miles and then ditch my long sleeve tech.
At the start, I was running easy, easing into the race. I brought my iPod and some gels and salt in case I needed any of that. After 2 miles, I was still cold and it was weird. Usually after a few miles into a race, I am sweating no matter how cold it is outside. I decided to crank a little bit to see if that could warm me up… I left the 2 girls from the house that I was with and pulled ahead and started to feel a little better but I still wasn’t warm! I wasn’t even sweating! Do you have any idea how weird it is for me to be 6 miles into a run and not sweat 1 drop? Something was wrong. Steps started hurting, I kept going. Around mile 11 I took out my iPod and slowed down, I was feeling really cold and crappy. My friends caught and passed me around the halfway mark. By mile 14, I was walking some. I still had on all my clothes and I still hadn’t sweated. I took some water around this point just in case and did a walk-run mix for a while. There was a long section along the fjord that was in the shade, it was beautiful but so cold.
I haven’t run while listening to music in a long time—maybe only twice this whole year. I’m glad I brought it through because it carried me all the way to mile 20 (seriously, who can walk while listening to ‘Party in the USA’). I wanted to keep going but I also wanted to stop and save my feet. At this point, I stopped just to think about my options. If I kept going at that pace, I would’ve finished around 4:45-5:00 and I don’t know what my body would’ve done. I was at a junction with a lot of spectators so I could also easily ask for a ride to the finish. While I was stopped and thinking, I had a freaking asthma attack! That’s how cold it was out! I coughed it out and then called it a day. This is the first time I’ve run 20 miles and not sweat a single drop.
I started talking to this relay team and they offered me a ride to the finish. Then they immediately offered me a beers and food and warm clothes. Is this what Stockholm Syndrome starts as? I didn’t want to leave them! They were going to meet their final relayer so they could finish together. We parked ~1 mile from the parking lot at the end and I ran with them, beer in hand back towards the course. I said my goodbyes as I started seeing people I knew eating at the finish line. My new friends even invited me to a party! Man, I love runners and New England.
Overall: 21ish miles on the day, good friends, and BEAUTIFUL course. I’ll be back to Acadia.
Can’t wait to go back!
Granted I am writing this up only 1 day after the race, but I feel totally fine. I just winged a 20 mile run and nothing hurts at all today. Last year, when I would do anywhere from 16-20 miles, my feet and body would ache for a few days during recovery. I am so sold on strength training as a cross training necessity. My body recovers quickly and I am able to just go out for these long runs without worry for serious body injury. I’ve been doing abs/plyometric work every 3 days for months and I feel stronger and overall healthier. I heard a podcast a while back on 100 miler training using this method… foregoing long runs with strength training and I think it works in a number of capacities. Form doesn’t suffer as you gain miles because you don’t get as tired. It’s remarkably effective and I’m going to continue in this fashion, hopefully working on other at home strength techniques. Maybe I’ll even ask my roommates to go splitsies on kettleballs with me!
Anyway, going forward I have 2 races that I am in. 1. The Jack London 10k on Halloween. How could I now sign up?! Halloween? Jack London? It’s perfect. 2. The TARC fells winter ultra (40 miler). This is why I am obsessing over the Skyline trail. It is 5x Skyline! And in December so perhaps there will be snow, who knows!? Matt is signed up for this race as well… he and I just can’t stop racing together.
I put my name on the waitlist for the Ghost Train Ultra this weekend. I’ll be thrilled if I get in. I think I’ll try for at least 50 miles if I do!
All this from the girl who hates (road) running.
48 peaks 