“We Rob Banks – and run marathon relays”: Mount Desert Island Marathon (10/16/12)

Race: Mount Desert Island Marathon – Two Person Relay

Location: Bar Harbor, ME

Team: Bonnie & Clyde (Kelsea Gusk and Jesse Morrow)

Goal Time: 3:45:00

Actual Time: 3:39:03 (fourth in Two-Person Relay)

To scoop from Snoopy: “It was a cool and drizzly morning.” Bar Harbor was inundated (not hard to do in this small town) with marathoners ready to launch. Leaf-peepers who had just returned from sunrise on Cadillac Mtn and local sports fans (and some imported SRR fans) lined the start as the cannon fired off!

Bonnie, Mile 0- Mile 13.1 (~2:00:00) -

Kelsea's MDI Top 10 Impressions

1. Waking up on Mt. Desert Island, pretty amazing without being excited to race.

2. Seeing a deer on the way to breakfast.

3. The band at Mile 2 with a keyboarder, tambourine and drums all wearing gloves and playing "Beat It"

4. Cool Rain before the start.

5. Amazing views from all miles of the course; and I loved the hills, they made the miles fly by; call me a masochist but running up hills is the best.

6. I made a bunch of friends on the course. Wearing a Minnesota shirt I found the 5 people who traveled to the race from the Midwest.

7. Free beer after!

8. Changing after my half and being warm at the finish line.

9. The washed out bridge. Turned out to be not such a big deal; it was just a dirt path for about two blocks.

10. As always, good company (getaway driver and partner) made the race a great time.

Clyde, Mile 13.1 – Mile 26.2 (1:38~1:39 – 7:30/mi. range)

After the Getaway Driver, Brittany McBride, and I spent a half an hour wandering around not finding the exchange point – largely because we followed the directions exactly – we still had another hour as Bonnie made her way over the tough hills that started the race. This hour was spent cheering on members of SRR who came by and watching how many people in the two person relay I would have to pass.

Bonnie said she would take 2:05 to 2:10 to run the first half. At around 2:00, just as I was going to start a little warm-up jog, she appeared around the corner. Bonnie was a collegiate athlete, her abilities are beyond her expectations. I handed her her jacket and she handed me two leis she had received somewhere on the course.

When Runner’s World voted MDI “The Most Scenic Marathon” they knew what they were talking about. The course goes along quaint roads from Bar Harbor through beautiful “peepable” autumn colors. When it emerges from the woods, it runs along classic postcard shots of Maine Coastlines to finish up in the village of Southwest Harbor.

I started winding my way through the people running 9 minute miles. The first few miles were absolutely gorgeous. Miles 13 – 16 carried me down to a beautiful quarter mile right along the shoreline that afforded said postcard views. I tried to get Paul and Korynn to come along at my pace (they declined).

While the course is beautiful, it’s also HILLY! There were the five tough hills Bonnie had to deal with in the first half. And per Rob, “there isn’t a flat middle ten miles” as relay-mates may have attempted to sell him.

For the second half runners, (and everyone doing the full marathon), mile 17 starts the uphill. There was a sharp uphill where I was still zoned into a comfortable pace. I felt comfortable as we leveled off a bit travelling to mile 20 in Somesville. It is at 20 that the seeming “death hills” start. Mauricio had marked this portion with a death skull.

Still feeling good, I ran steady keeping in the neighborhood of 7:40 miles over these last five miles of hills. I was able to encourage some marathoners who were feeling the hills. The last .2 miles I bolted. I passed Scott Abrams telling him: “Come with me!” To which he responded: “I can’t.” As I reached across the line in a gun time under 1:40, Bonnie and Clyde finished in 4^th in the Two-Person Relay.

On the Somerville Road Runners Front –

• Dan McGinty, Korynn Stoyanoff, Paul Venuti, Marc MacDonald, Mauricio Salmon, Seth Maleri all had Marathon Personal Records!
• Kate Daniel and Ruthanne Waite ran their first Marathons!
• Cruisin’ for a Boozin’ (Jim Moberg and Lino Macini) was not only one of the three teams to beat Bonnie and Clyde, they won the whole two-person division in matching yellow singlets and matching 1:35 halfs!
• Tri-Force (Damon Bussey, Rob Stanzel, and Rich Lu) took third in the three-person with a 3:49:04.

Special Thanks to Getaway Driver, Brittany McBride!

Tino Pai!

Jesse and Kelsea.