Running and Marathon Recon on Mt. Desert

After a fun night and a fair amount of beer with the Trail Monsters at Novare Res Saturday day, we didn't roll out quite as early as we had hoped for our drive up to Mt. Desert Island. After all, Snowman had finished off 2 litres of their Oktoberfest beer! :-) However, despite the island seeming so far removed from Topsham, it took us less than 3 hours to reach Jordan Pond House, the starting point for our day's run on the park's carriage roads. We had decided on a 12 mile run on the "Around the Mountain" loop from our "Discover Acadia" guidebook, which was deemed "strenuous" for bikers. Sounded perfect. It was a beautiful blue sky day, crisp and clear with the foliage beginning to turn.

As we've noted when hiking in the park, the closer you are to major trailheads and trail junctions, the more crowded things tend to be. So, as we began to get farther away from the pond, the carriage roads grew quiet and we savored the gradual grades and smooth treadway. It was easy running, and we chatted away, enjoying the quiet beauty of the woods, the brilliant reds of the maple tree leaves, and the nice views. About halfway through the run, we began to realize we were indeed going up, up, up, but it was never too much. With the constant, gentle grade of the roads, we just kept moving along, gaining altitude until we were on the upper slopes of Parkman Mountain, overlooking Somes Sound. It was gorgeous! It was lucky the roads were wide and mellow, as we did a fair amount of neck craning as we ran along, trying to take it all in!

As we crested the upper reach of the ridge, we broke out the Margerita Clif Shot Blocks we had brought along. They had a bit of a strange taste, slightly sour and salty. Just as we had gone up, the road now slowly dropped us down until we were running above and along Jordan Pond, with great views of the "Boobies" (ok, really the Bubbles) and the pond. As we ran back to the car, both of us felt great, and if we weren't tapering for the marathon, would have liked to have kept going. The roads were really a wonderful place to run. We commented that they would be a great place to get a few good long trails runs in in April or early May in preparation the 2009 Pineland Farms Challenge!

We capped off our run with lunch at Jordan Pond House. Everyone talks about their famous popovers, and although we often stop and hike out of the area, we have never eaten lunch there. We figured it was the perfect day for it. We had a table inside with a great view of the pond and the Bubbles, and felt very civilized eating our popovers :-)

Then it was off to Bar Harbor for our marathon course recon. Snowman drove and I read off the MDI mile-by-mile "course preview and insider's tips" sheets. With notes like "Only 25.2 miles to go!" and "The next stretch looks bad with a capital B but it runs much better than it looks," the print-out was full of words of wisdom! Needless to say, our overall impression of the course was that it looked hilly pretty much the whole way. Yes, no doubt the hills in miles 21 through 25 are brutal, but the hills at mile 9, 10, 19 and 20 look pretty rough too. Whose idea was this anyway?! (I do not take credit for this one... it was all Snowman!)

That being said, the course is gorgeous. Lots of neck craning, taking in the views of the ocean, the Rockerfeller estate, Somes Sound, Northeast Harbor, the various tidal rivers along the way. I hope I can enjoy it while I'm out there sucking wind on the hills! Aie....

We were so focused on the location of the finish line in downtown Southwest Harbor that we failed to note the sign for the Claremont, our home for the night. But after a brief wander down a quiet side street, we came upon the hotel entrance. The hotel had a similar feel as the Balsams or other old-time hotels. Beautiful old building, replete with shared sitting rooms full of old books and board games, and the requisite fireplaces; guest rooms with no TV, nice views and a quiet, refined atmosphere. Although I had feared we would be out-of-place, apparently a Bike Vermont group was also staying at the hotel, so the friendly man at the front desk didn't blink an eye at us, sweaty and disheveled, in our running clothes. There were indeed two croquet courts between the main lodge and the Philips House, where our room was located. There was also a beautiful view out onto Norwood Cove from the grounds. A pretty spot.

After a quick shower, we took a walk around the property and then headed back to Bar Harbor to our most favorite restaurant - Cafe This Way. The past few times we've been up to the island, the restaurant has already been closed for the season, and we figured an early celebration of our 9th anniversary (!) was a good excuse to go back! Yum. It did not disappoint, and was a great day to end a good day.