Mount Desert Island Marathon: Press

Looking for the perfect destination to run a marathon? Look no further than Maine's pristine, Mount Desert Island Marathon. We are home to Acadia National Park, one of the most beautiful and complete vacation spots in the entire United States. Jonathan Beverly, editor at Running Times Magazine, in a recent feature about destination marathons (specifically Maui) wrote the article below, which we by the way give two thumbs up. For your pleasure and information we've added how we measure up in the categories Mr. Beverly cleverly conveyed in his piece. Our comments follow in bold after each point. We hope to see you in our starting field in October. A friendly reminder, don't wait, as our field is strictly limited to the first 1000 who enter.

Sincerely,

Gary Allen

race director & founder

Mount Desert Island Marathon

Top 10 things to Look for in a Destination Marathon:

by Jonathan Beverly, Editor Running Times Magazine

Experienced runners know how to choose a marathon in which to run well. We scour guides and canvas race veterans for details about the course, aid stations, accuracy of splits, start line organization, field size, and competitive level, weather history, and more. When it comes to choosing a race that will give us, and more importantly, our partner, spouse or families, a truly enjoyable vacation while we get in our marathon, we tend to be either ignorant or pig headed. Maui opened my eyes to how a marathon could be both a great vacation for me as a runner and for my wife and me as a couple. Following are some of the elements I'll look for the next time I want to combine the two.

1. (JB) Location. It should be a destination you would go to even if there was no marathon there. Ask your spouse or family if they'd like to take their vacation in the location, without mentioning the race, if the answer is "Why?" you probably need to find another race. Ideally it is a place where visitors are expected, welcomed and well cared for.

(MDI) Mount Desert Island is a top destination for almost every outdoor activity including but not limited to, running, cycling, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain climbing, and even beach combing. We are home to fabulous dining, shopping and world class accommodations all set in a natural, friendly, and quaint island atmosphere.

2. (JB) Location. The trip should be long enough, or a big enough deal, to justify spending at least an extra day or two there, making the ratio of R&R&R (Running, Resting and Relaxing) a little more proportional than most weekend races, where running, and the events around running, take up the vast majority of the time.

(MDI) Mount Desert Island is close enough to drive from major east coast cities (an easy 8 hours from NY) and well worth coming early and staying on after our marathon to explore all the wonderful surprises our island has to offer.

3. (JB) Location. Find a race where the field size to visitor infrastructure is appropriate. This will be different for every location, but it should be big enough that the local population knows about the race and accommodates it. (it isn't just you and the homeless people walking around downtown on Sunday morning), but not so big that the transportation and facilities are overwhelmed and it is impossible to ever get away from the race, the runners, and the attendant crowds.

(MDI) Mount Desert Island's many and unique accommodations are more than ample to serve all of our visitors. Our local population embraces our marathon and turn out in force to volunteer and cheer you on. The charming size of our island paradise makes it very user friendly and very easy to get around.

4. (JB) Convenience. Ensure that all the elements of the race are close to your hotel and other vacation activities. Too many marathon weekends are spent shuttling back and forth across cities or counties to the expo, pasta dinner, start and finish. In Maui, everything, including the finish line, was at the host hotel, which was a resort on the beach, adjacent to a key tourist town.

(MDI) The Mount Desert Island marathon starts on main street in Bar Harbor. Many of our previous years competitors marveled that they could easily walk from almost every Bed and Breakfast and Hotel directly to the starting line. Our expo and registration is in town and a short, pleasant stroll from almost any point in town. Our pasta dinner is held centrally close to Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor at our local high school. We run on a point to point route and finish on main street in neighboring Southwest Harbor which offers equally great goods and services for athletes and their families that may wish to stay at the finish line.

5. (JB) Time. A hotel at the finish is especially nice for your family if the race starts early. You can get up before they wake, they can get up at their leisure, eat, take a walk or lay on the beach, and meet you at the finish rested, relaxed and happy to see you. You then with your marathon done, have nearly a full day to relax and focus on other activities with them.

(MDI) The Mount Desert Island Marathon starts at 8:00am, visiting friends and family that may want to sleep in can as our starting line is accessible on foot from almost every lodging choice that Bar Harbor offers. To catch the all important finish, friends and family members can make the easy drive or catch one of our convenient shuttle buses to watch the action in downtown Southwest Harbor.

6. (JB) Attention to details. Find a place that the other events that you want to attend, like the pasta party or awards ceremony, are worthwhile on their own, and cater to all in the group, not just the runner. Maui's pasta party was on a balcony overlooking the ocean at sunset, with tablecloths, live music, and a diverse buffet of food that was not only good for runners but just good.

(MDI) The Mount Desert Island was founded on details. We built our race from the ground up, for and by runners. All of our events have been planned and thought out to ensure both superb organization and great fun for every one of our attendees and their families.

7. (JB) A race for everyone. Great destination races have accompanying events to allow others to participate in the active vacation. Ideally these events are scheduled so that family members can support each other or share childcare, and they have their own identities, such as their own name and T-shirts so the "other" participant don't feel like also ran. Maui has the Maui Taco's 5K and a series of road miles the day before the marathon, and is adding a half marathon in 2004.

(MDI) The Mount Desert Island is a pure marathon meaning we politely disagree with Mr. Beverly on this one point for now. We do not hold accompanying events as we feel that all the attention should be focused on the marathon and the marathon runners. We dislike the trend of races artificially filling their fields by adding other distances to their marathons which we believe only takes up space and services that runners covering the entire 26.2 mile distance should be receiving. If at a later date an accompanying event is ever added it will not start at the same time as the marathon. None is planned at this time as all of our energy is going into putting together the best marathon we can produce.

8. (JB) A built in excuse. I believe you should try to run your best in any race, but giving your best is different than the myopic, monomaniacal focus that accompanies an attempt at your all-time best. If you know the race is going to be hot or to hilly for a PR, you'll be more patient with less-than-perfect pre-race itineraries, meals, sleep, or time on your feet -- and you're more likely to enjoy the days after the marathon, too.

(MDI) The Mount Desert Islands course was described as "tough but fair" by a runner in our first edition. We don't believe in excuses either, our course actually produced the fastest men's and women's winning times run in the state of Maine for 2003. Should the hills slow you, we advertised from day one our race as "one tough mother" featuring our infamous rhino ads, should you run less than a perfect race, you can just say, "the rhino got ya."

9. (JB) Faultless organization. You don't want to spend you vacation waiting in long lines for your number, standing in front of the hotel for a bus that doesn't show, fighting with a hotel receptionist over a race discount, etc. Find a race that has an impeccable reputation for doing things right.

(MDI) We at the Mount Desert Island Marathon are firstly, marathon runners, and secondly a highly motivated race committee. We have run marathons all over the US and bring back the good points we see and learn about things we don't want to happen at our event. We understand that something that you spend months in preparation for should be almost perfect to the letter. We constantly strive to bring you that level of perfection.

10. (JB) A scenic, creative, well thought-out course. OK, this last one is just for you, the runner. For a PR course, all I ask for is an open road and few distractions. But if I'm going to travel to a great place, I want a course that highlights it. I want a tour of the best the place has to offer, not just an arbitrary 26.2 miles of marked off highway. Maui's diverse course does this well, showing off what Cummins E. Speakman, Jr., in The History of Maui, the Magic Isle, identifies as Maui's advantages: "small-town charm combined with increased sophistication and the great variety of terrain and climate in a few short miles."

(MDI) Our Mount Desert Island Marathon course is in a word, breathtaking (not talking running here) We pass high vistas of the vast, blue expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, snug forests at peak (almost blinding) fall colors, pristine lakes that often reflect those fall colors, quaint, charming island village centers, high, pink granite mountains of Acadia National Park and the only fjord in the eastern USA, Somes Sound. Is our course beautiful? We think you might be distracted by our beauty to the point you'll forget you're even running a marathon. We are a real runners race and one of the top true destination marathons held in the country. We invite you to come run The Mount Desert Island Marathon and see for yourself.

"Mount Desert Island, The Perfect Destination Marathon"