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Below is the current race roster as of April 8th, 2024. Several have yet to fully commit, a few are pending "I really hope so" as they nurse lingering injuries or other uncertainties. We always see a drop of about 3-6 entrants a week before the race so we'll start with more than 20 entrants so that by the time we get to race day...we'll have the most allowed racers for the day of. I will determine start times as we get closer and more people finalize their plans. One thing for the 2024 season will be everyone's start times separated by at least a few minutes of one another. As the years have gone on we've bunched them up so people can run together. It is my opinion that running with others slows you down and limits your full potential. Given this entire event was devised around the concept of racing yourself so you can race others...pushing yourself to your max can only happen when you are alone. Run your own pace, not that of someone else and to start the race we'll separate everyone by their start times. Even if by a few minutes, that separation creates the necessary tension to push yourself from being caught...and close enough to someone in front of you that you in fact will catch them. Anyone that cannot complete the race by 7pm should remove themselves from the entrants list. If it takes you that long you didn't train hard enough or run fast enough. We're not waiting around into the wee hours of the night for people that didn't push it. Please pick another day for long slow run. This is a race and it deserves a race effort. (Exception here being those that blow up going too hard too early and death march it in instead of quitting. I'll gladly wait all night to see people push through that and not quit. If you find yourself in sight of someone in this race and you don't try and beat each other on the final stretch into Fabbri, I'll share a few links to races you might be more interested in where they encourage holding hands at the finish line. This is not such a race. The goal is to finish before the other people. So if you are running several miles together for the company and you are coming down Gorham together...at some point one of you is going to have to make a move and pull away. If you come down the entire trail and hit the road and hang a left to Fabbri one of you should be pulling away from each other. If you turn that final right turn and the last 150 ft to the finish line...and you are right next to someone else that is racing you...and neither one of you tries to beat the other one? I think you'll have missed the entire point of this entire day. There is an intense beauty in finding the last remaining of adrenaline, the final sliver of energy and tapping deep into that reserve to push just a tiny bit harder than you ever thought you could. Pushing when you know others are pushing just as hard, to find that final gear to pull away from someone else trying to do the exact same thing. Finding that gear when you thought the whole engine was broken. That feeling of your body pulling you through and doing as YOU choose, not what it chooses, that is the entire purpose of this day. Find that gear and use it. I guarantee nobody will be upset with you for beating them on the final stretch, but instead respect you and appreciate you for forcing them to find that same gear and provide that feeling of competitive fire when you felt miles ago that fire was out. Find the gear. Light the fire. Drop the hammer. That's ACI. May 18th, 2024. Get ready. -Jeremy 1Darron Collins 2Maria Simpson 3Matt DeLaney 4Amber Hachey 5Brandon Chase 6Lori Alley 7Jarly Bobadilla 8Daniel Cortes 9Drew Wallace 10Jeremy Dougherty 11Jenn Britz 12Brian Head 13Jarly Bobadilla 14Tim Lock 15Abe Philbrook 16Tom Merrow 17Dylan Brann 18Tim McDonough 19Eric Mauricette 20David Loome 21Brad Eslin 22Chriss Davis 23Tara Allen 24Will Draxler 25Kat Snyder 26Peter Philbrook 27 Tom St. Germain (?) 28 Bryan Gagner
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These are the start times for the 2023 running of Acadia Cross Island: CLICK HERE (Make sure you click on the 2023 ACI tab) As the start line in Seal Cove is a dirt road with no parking next to people's homes, it is important that you do not go to the start line unless it's within your group to start. There simply isn't parking for everyone and to go to the start and bring crews and families. So please just get dropped off and have friends meet you at a future early location with better parking. Long Pond or Echo Lake are better spots in the first few miles than the actual start line. 1 Darron Collins -5:45 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time -11:15:00 2 Matt Delaney -5:45 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 11:15:00 3 Tom St. Germain - 5:45 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 11:15:00 4 Brandon Chase - 6:00 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 11:00:00 5 Lori Alley - 6:00 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time -11:00:00 6 Amber Hachey - 6:00 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 11:00:00 7 Evan Boudreau - 6:15 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 10:45:00 8 Dawson Mossman -6:15 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 10:45:00 9 Drew Dawson - 6:15 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time -10:45:00 10 Jeremy Dougherty - 6:30 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 10:30:00 11 Jenn Britz - 7:00 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 10:00:00 12 Harley Brown - 7:15 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 9:45:00 13 Tim Lock - 7:20 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 9:40:00 14 Abe Philbrook - 7:25 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 9:35:00 15 Tom Merrow - 7:45 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 9:15:00 16 Dylan Brann - 8:20 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 8:40:00 17 Tim McDonough - 8:45 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 8:15:00 18 Eric Mauricette -8:50 AM Start Time - Expected Run Time - 8:10:00 19 Peter Philbrook -9:25 AM - Start Time - Expected Run Time - 7:35:00 AID STATION & CREW ACCESS There are several locations that your friends and crew can access the course and see you. However, there are only four locations you can give them food and water support. Any additional visits, water, gear swaps, or food offerings outside of those four locations would be considered an unfair advantage you are getting that others are not. We all would like to carry as little water as possible and run light, but when one person gets support every few miles and others are carrying all their gear, it's a distinct and unfair advantage. So the only spots you can receive aid are: St. Saveaur parking lot on route 3 Mile 7- Peter will leave his pickup there (there is rarely other cars there.) Flying Mountain Mile 13 - (This is the car location to drive around to the other side. Keep aid supplies in your car/crew and most people finish Flying Mountain ONB and jump straight into their cars and drive around Somes Sound and refuel on the drive.) Bubble Rock Parking Lot Aid - Mile 22.4 (usually a parked car with aid in the back. Mark is leaving his vehicle there, Black Suburu Outback, New Brunswick plates) Cadillac Mountain Summit - Mile 25.5 (water fountains, bathrooms are here) The Tarn - Mile 28 (we'll drop a cooler and aid in the bushes here again like last year) If anyone wants to volunteer to be an additional aid station or put an additional drop at additional locations that everyone could use, that is ideal and certainly welcomed. Long Pond or Echo Lake early on are helpful locations for early aid to cut that 13 mile in smaller chunks. Otherwise, we'll plan to have our normal 4 locations where you can refuel and get more water. The SHUTTLE We do not kayak across the Sound any longer as the tide schedule is too fast and its hard to plan access out of Fernald Cove since its a mud flat in low tide. So here are the logistics that need to be worked out: You need to be at the start line on the west side of the island to race. You run 13 miles east to Flying Mountain Trail head. (Small parking lot with about 8 parking spots.) You need to drive or be driven 10 miles around Somes Sound (takes 20 minutes almost every time) to the Northeast Harbor Golf Course parking lot. You will jump on the trail you can see from the parking lot and start the east side crossing from here. You will need to go from the finish line at Fabri Picnic area BACK to Northeast Harbor to pick up your car from the golf course parking lot. So to do these shuttles first you need to figure out how you are going to get around the Sound. Are you driving yourself or is someone driving you? If you are driving yourself, you need to meet at the Flying Mountain Trailhead and leave your car there (packed with your resupply food and water for that mile 13 aid and 20 minute drive around) before your start time. We usually cobble together a volunteer to drive runners from Flying Mountain to the starting line. That way there are no cars at the start (going all the way back to the west side to get your car at night after running this is not fun) and your car is waiting for you at Flying Mountain. If someone is driving you and they can also drive you straight to the start and then meet you and drive you around from Flying Mountain to the Golf Course...that's ideal. Most people drive themselves and we do the shuttle from Flying Mountain to the start. So with the groups of people starting together, please coordinate amongst yourselves who can shuttle who and as it gets closer we can fill in the gaps. (See: My wife becomes the shuttle driver...) The final shuttle challenge is when you finish the race and your car is at the golf course about 20 minutes away. I think I picked my truck up the next day last year and it was OK with the golf course (as in they didn't tow me) but that's a final piece for those that really need their car that night. FINISH LINE & DROP BAGS As the finish are bathrooms, picnic tables and lots of parking and we'll collect up some finish line food the day before (Friday) so that we have some food for the finish. We also can take on Friday any finish line drop bags you want waiting for you. They all go in my wife's van and she'll be there at the finish. So if you want a drop back at the finish, please get it to me Friday afternoon. I think that about covers it for now. -Jeremy   Here are the start times for the 2022 running of Acadia Cross Island: CLICK HERE
As you can see I was more successful than I expected on getting confirmations on runners for this year. So a few adjustments to our normal, and smaller, local event. There are three main groups of start times. As the start line in Seal Cove is a dirt road with no parking next to people's homes, it is important that you do not go to the start line unless its within your group to start. There simply isn't parking for everyone and to go to the start and bring crews and families. So please just get dropped off and have friends meet you at a future early location with better parking. Long Pond or Echo Lake are better spots in the first few miles than the actual start line. Green Group - 6:00am to 6:30am Start Times 1 -Darron Collins 6:00 AM Start - 11:00:00 total run time 2 -William Jackson 6:00 AM Start - 11:00:00 total run time 3 -Kristin 6:00 AM Start - 11:00:00 total run time 4 -Lori Alley 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time 5 -Rebeccah Brann 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time 6 -Brian Head 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time 7 -Drew 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time 8 -Emily 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time 9 -Dawson 6:30 AM Start - 10:30 total run time Darron is going to start with William and Kristin, veterans of the inaugural race a few years ago. We'll see Lori and Rebeccah head out with four of our Canadian friends at 6:30am. While we previously would start everyone separately, those unfamiliar with the numerous turns and trail intersections will appreciate some local company at least for the first few hours when people tend to stick together. So by 6:30am we'll have 9 runners out on the course. Blue Group - 7:00 AM to 7:45 AM Start Times 10 -Jarly Bobadilla 7:00 AM Start - 10 hour total run time 11 -Evan Boudreau 7:00 AM Start - 10 hour total run time 12 -Aaron Long 7:00 AM Start - 10 hour total run time 13 -Brandon Chase 7:00 AM Start - 10:00 total run time *LAST YEARS WINNER -FIRST TO FABBRI 14 -Anthony Ricardo 7:15 AM Start - 9:45 total run time 15 -Harley Brown 7:15 AM Start - 9:45 total run time 16 -Tom St. Germain 7:30 AM Start - 9:30 total run time 17 -Jeremy Dougherty 7:30 AM Start - 9:30 total run time 18 -Abe Philbrook 7:45 AM Start - 9:15 total run time Thirty minutes after the big group heads off at 6:30am we'll see Jarly, Evan, Brandon and Aaron take off at 7:00am. Tony & Harley take off at 7:15am. I'll take off with Tom at 7:30am and Abe will follow 15 minutes later at 7:45 am. There will be 18 people on the course by 7:45AM. The blue group in the middle has the added fun of chasing down the green group while simultaneously not getting caught by the fast Orange group. ORANGE GROUP - 8:15 AM Start Time to 9:05 AM 19 - Tom Merrow 8:15 AM Start time - 8:45 total run time 20 -Daniel Cortez 8:15 AM Start time - 8:45 total run time 21 -Bradford Eslin 8:15 AM Start time - 8:45 total run time 22 -Tim McDonough 8:30 AM Start time - 8:30 total run time 23 - Heather Spurling 8:30 AM Start time - 8:30 total run time 23 -Brendan Gilpatrick 8:30 AM Start time - 8:30 total run time 24 -Jenn Britz 8:30 AM Start time - 8:30 total run time 25 -Eric Marciette 8:45 AM Start time - 8:15 total run time 26 -Dylan Brann 8:45 AM Start time - 8:15 total run time 27 -Peter Philbrook 9:10 AM Start time - 7:50 total run time - Last Years Fastest Time 7:41 (CR) 28 -Patrick Caron 9:10 AM Start time - 7:50 total run time The Orange group is the chase pack, with now 18 runners anywhere from 2:15 ahead of them to 30 minutes ahead of them. There is a much bigger group this year capable of breaking 8 hours, as Dylan and Peter have done in previous years. It takes a hell of a day and the right conditions for the right person to pull it off, but three people have broken 7:50 now in our five years of racing the island. With more chasers this year, I can see several people breaking that barrier and these start times ending up being very conservative. So we'll see how it plays out and that's half the fun. Daniel will take off with Brad & Tom M. at 8:15am, chasing runners who left 30 minutes prior. Tim and Brendan being new to the course will start with Jenn at 8:30am and see how long they can keep up with her. Eric is kicking off with Dylan at 8:45am together. Eric was the 2nd overall last year and ran a 8:33 in his first shot at the course. Dylan has a fastest overall time from 2020 and broke the 7:50 mark in the past and certainly both of these guys could both finish under 8 hours this year. Peter is heading out at 9:10am solo after his 7:41 time last year and if Patrick C. joins us he'll kick off with Peter as the final racers chasing down the entire field. When Peter and Patrick head out at 9;10 am there will be 26 runners out on the course spread out over what will be 14-18 miles. AID STATION & CREW ACCESS There are several locations that your friends and crew can access the course and see you. However, there are only four locations you can give them food and water support. Any additional visits, water, gear swaps, or food offerings outside of those four locations would be considered an unfair advantage you are getting that others are not. We all would like to carry as little water as possible and run light, but when one person gets support every few miles and others are carrying all their gear, its a distinct and unfair advantage. So the only spots you can receive aid are: Flying Mountain Mile 13 - (This is the car location to drive around to the other side. Keep aid supplies in your car/crew and most people finish Flying Mountain ONB and jump straight into their cars and drive around Somes Sound and refuel on the drive.) Bubble Rock Parking Lot Aid - Mile 22.4 (usually a parked car with aid in the back. Details TBD) Cadillac Mountain Summit - Mile 25.5 (water fountains, bathrooms are here) The Tarn - Mile 28 (we'll drop a cooler and aid in the bushes here again like last year) If anyone wants to volunteer to be an additional aid station or put an additional drop at additional locations that everyone could use, that is ideal and certainly welcomed. Long Pond or Echo Lake early on are helpful locations for early aid to cut that 13 mile in smaller chunks. Otherwise, we'll plan to have our normal 4 locations where you can refuel and get more water. The SHUTTLE We do not kayak across the Sound any longer as the tide schedule is too fast and its hard to plan access out of Fernald Cove since its a mud flat in low tide. So here are the logistics that need to be worked out: You need to be at the start line on the west side of the island to race. You run 13 miles east to Flying Mountain Trail head. (Small parking lot with about 8 parking spots.) You need to drive or be driven 10 miles around Somes Sound (takes 20 minutes almost every time) to the Northeast Harbor Golf Course parking lot. You will jump on the trail you can see from the parking lot and start the east side crossing from here. You will need to go from the finish line at Fabri Picnic area BACK to Northeast Harbor to pick up your car from the golf course parking lot. So to do these shuttles first you need to figure out how you are going to get around the Sound. Are you driving yourself or is someone driving you? If you are driving yourself, you need to meet at the Flying Mountain Trailhead and leave your car there (packed with your resupply food and water for that mile 13 aid and 20 minute drive around) before your start time. We usually cobble together a volunteer to drive runners from Flying Mountain to the starting line. That way there are no cars at the start (going all the way back to the west side to get your car at night after running this is not fun) and your car is waiting for you at Flying Mountain. If someone is driving you and they can also drive you straight to the start and then meet you and drive you around from Flying Mountain to the Golf Course...that's ideal. Most people drive themselves and we do the shuttle from FM to the start. So with the groups of people starting together, please coordinate amongst yourselves who can shuttle who and as it gets closer we can fill in the gaps. (See: My wife becomes the shuttle driver...) The final shuttle challenge is when you finish the race and your car is at the golf course about 20 minutes away. I think I picked my truck up the next day last year and it was OK with the golf course (as in they didn't tow me) but that's a final piece for those that really need their car that night. FINISH LINE & DROP BAGS As the finish are bathrooms, picnic tables and lots of parking and we'll collect up some finish line food the day before (Friday) so that we have some food for the finish. We also can take on Friday any finish line drop bags you want waiting for you. They all go in my wife's van and she'll be there at the finish. So if you want a drop back at the finish, please get it to me Friday afternoon. I think that about covers it for now. -Jeremy  Year six is only 15 weeks away. I've included a picture of what the trails look like when the ice is gone for a quick refresher.
We're shooting for 20 entrants this year to start. Same course. Same roots. May 21st. Last years data is here: Updated start times found HERE.
Don't mind too much on the split estimates. The start and end time and total time on course are the important parts, the parts in between are just the formulas to connect it. First runners leave the gate at 5:30am. Goal finish time for everyone is 5pm at Fabbri Parking Lot at the bottom of Gorham. Final two runners, Peter Philbrook & Dylan Brann (last) leave within 5 minutes of each other at 9:20 and 9:25am respectively. Almost a 4 hour head start. Can the the older veterans hold off the young and fast? Somewhere in the middle is a thick mess of very similar skill sets, strengths and endurances. A few that haven't been able to train (Tony for instance on a wicked ankle sprain all spring or Melissa with a knee issue) and others that have been putting in some incredible training to put themselves in the thick of it. 10 of the 17 entrants are going to start between 6:30 and 8:30am. While the start times are by no means exact, they get a little more accurate each year and I can see this group having some competitive bunching from Pemetic to the finish. A few items to cover for everyone: THE START: The start is at the Seal Cove Road western gate and has limited parking. If you come to the start that's great, just be aware of the neighbors and try not to be too rowdy in the early morning and make anyone angry at us. I love the excitement and fun that comes with those pre-race jokes where you totally forget how much pain you are in and then inadvertently laugh so much you forget a running pack in a locked car 10 minutes before your start time. Wicked fun for sure, but with a slighter larger group this year comes more crew and support, and more people. Help me keep the neighbors happy by not pissing them off with too much noise at 6am-9am. AID STATIONS: We will have minimal aid stations because I don't really care about you fueled up and doing better than me. So its a bit my design that this is a fairly self supported and difficult endurance race. Flying Mountain we will have some water re-supply and snacks to share. This is also where you pick up our own car or transport so most people don't really need this much aid. Whatever my wife decides to bring and share with everyone is what you get. The next aid station/water resupply is the Bubble Rock parking lot. We can either drop a vehicle here the night before or if someone will volunteer to be there and help out, that would be even better. So if nobody volunteers to do that, I'd take a volunteer to drop 8-10 gallons of water and some basic snacks in the back of a pickup or unlocked car we can all access. Or hidden behind the rock after crossing the road. But one way or another, Bubble Rock Parking Lot area is an aid station location. Cadillac Mountain should have its water fountains on by then, and otherwise there is no aid up there. The gift shop may be open, or it may not be. The next aid station is the finish line. Mile 14 and then 20 and then 31. CREW ACCESS In between there are of course lots of opportunities to receive other aid. Bottom of Norumbega, carriage road crossings, top of mountains, or Cadillac or the Tarn. All should be avoided for additional support from crews unless your crews are also sharing with each entrant that runs by that same spot. When in doubt, it needs to be the same advantage shared throughout the entrants list. What you have to carry (less weight) to how much access you have to water/nutrition can be a significant advantage so please keep it equal. INJURIES Please, should something go wrong and you get injured. Please don't push on for the sake of ACI and potentially sacrifice your summer and fall of running. If you are running and something starts to hurt and you quit? I'll send you David Goggins video's for a year straight because it'll be clear at that point you need them. Its going to hurt. Its going to be hard. The hard is why we do it. Breath that shit in and push that pedal down to the floor and run until the wheels fall off. If you do quit for any reason and have to leave the course, PLEASE text me (480-309-2763) so I know you are not missing and everything is ok. All jokes aside, its really important we all make it to the finish or our cars safely. PACERS I think the consensus is that pacers are not fair or appropriate. Part of the challenge of running a very difficult ultra is getting yourself to push hard when you don't want to do anything but slow down, pity yourself and sit. A pacer is by definition there to pace you to the finish, by providing encouragement, support, and a pace to follow. Nobody else will have that so lets go with NO PACERS for everyone so its fair. FINISH LINE The goal of the race is that all runners of all speeds and abilities finish at Fabbri parking lot on the east side of the island by 5:00pm. All finishers families and crews can park there and wait for the finishers. We'll have a chalked finish line and my son Dean will be tracking the finishers coming through. He'll be expecting everyone to sprint the finish line because he thinks that's what you always do at an ultra because that is what he's always seen me do. DO NOT SCREW THIS UP. He'll get confused and think running sucks if he sees people dragging their ass in like a broken puppy just run over by the garbage truck. Pull your shoulders back, lift your knees up a bit and turn that corner like you give a damn. HAMMER IT. Fabbri has a lot of parking, bathrooms and lots of picnic tables. Last year it worked great with everyone bringing something to the finish line potluck style and it would be great if we could do the same this year. If everyone wouldn't mind bringing something again we can transfer it into my wife's van at Flying Mountain or you can give it to me the night before and we'll bring to the finish. Or if you have crew to the finish even better if they can bring it. As its ANP, I'd suggest NOT too much obvious alcohol use as we still want to keep this small, and otherwise not an issue with the rangers so we can keep doing this each year. You get the drill but just laying that out there anyway. AWARDS: I have an overall finisher award for the first person to cross the finish line. There is not fastest runner award. Or first female. Or fastest old person. The only award is for the one person that cross the finish line FIRST. Everyone against everyone. 14 sleeps left.  Seal Cove Gate - Feb. 13th, 2021 The Entrants List for May 22nd, 2021. Bold signifies ran 2020 race. 1. Dylan Brann (*Fastest 2020 total run time) 2. Rebeccah Geib 3. Jeremy Dougherty 4. Tom St. Germain 5. Walker St. Germain 6. Tom Merrow 7. Judson Cake 8. Darron Collins 9. Bradford Eslin 10. Daniel Cortez - “Definite Maybe” 11. Peter Philbrook (*Won 2020 ACI) 12. Jenn Britz 13. Anthony Ricardo 14. Mathew Frongillo 15. Joanna Fogg - “Definite Maybe” 16. Harley Brown 17. Jarly Bobadilla 18. Brandon Chase - Maybe (returning from Mexico around then) 19. John Hough 20.Eric Mauricette Below are the final times and comparison for projected times versus actual times. Dylan ran 1 hour and 17 minutes faster than projected to finish in 7:48, the fastest time of the day and only 20 seconds behind Peter Philbrook. Peter started at 8:25am while Dylan started last with a 8:55am start time. Dylan caught all the runners except Peter by the time he reached The Bowl on Champlain. Peter was descending off Beehive when Dylan was going out to tag the Beehive summit, marking the first time they had come in visual contact. Down into the valley and back up Gorham they went, with Dylan short on time and miles to catch Peter. As they came to the final section of the Gorham descent at the cross trail to the Fabbri parking lot they were within sight and sprinting for the finish. Darting through the woods the mileage ran out and Peter held off Dylan, winning the 2020 ACI by mere seconds! Its why and how this race is different than the rest. Creating competition where it might not have been. Everyone is the prey. Everyone is the predator. First time projections come out on April 1st. Stay healthy!    Park at Red Spot along the road or in available spots.
Updated start times above. After a rolled ankle and some stellar last few weeks of training, there is some shuffling of the deck in here. We've also added Patrick Caron and lost Tobin Peacock, but overall still running with twelve entrants. I believe everyone is set up (?) for transports from Flying Mountain to the start tomorrow morning. John is kicking off at 6:30am and Patrick the last to leave now at 10:20am. I've adjusted the times slightly earlier to accommodate a longer drive time around Somes Sound. When you get to Flying Mountain you should just in YOUR car and drive around. The NE Harbor Golf course will technically be open, but they will lock their gates at 7pm. So, instead of parking IN their lot, park along the side of the road on the golf course side at their entrance, and just beyond it. Tom spoke with the GC and the Mount Desert PD there so they are aware there will be vehicles there in those pull outs. Just make sure to pull your car off to its not an issue with the traffic flow (obviously) and worst case, you can park IN the golf course but you'll need to get back to pick up your car before 7pm or they'll lock your vehicle in until Sunday when they re-open. Make sense? Just park on the GC side of the road in the safest places you can find when you get there. Here are exact directions. 18 minutes of driving. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/44.2994668,-68.3162221/44.3085287,-68.3003255/@44.3088119,-68.3004109,200m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0 Running across the east side we have three drops for supplies. At Bubble Rock parking lot you will cross the park loop road and enter the NW Pemetic climb. Immediately after the small wooden bridge (like 10 feet at the start of the trail) there is a huge bolder on the right. There is a bag full of water, gatorade, coca-cola, pretzels, sour patch kids, and whatever else is in there. Refill and head up, just leave the trash in the same bag and we'll pick it up afterwards. After you climb up Pemetic, down Pemetic, you'll get to Bubble Pond at the very start of West Cadillac. There is a garbage bag on the left after you cross the small stream at the start of the trail. Snacks, water, gatorade are in there as well. At the top of the climb there is more aid on top of Cadillac. Behind the gift shop tucked between the building and the Rubbermaid storage shed are two Ultimate Direction bags. There are 6 gatorades, 6 cokes, 1 gallon of water, baggies of sour patch kids, small bags of pretzels, small bags of gold fish, clementines, tailwind, tums and ibuprofen. Rebeccah and John dropped that last night, thanks! Heading off Cadillac, up Dorr, down Schiff trail to the Tarn you'll hit the road. On the right hand side directly across the road from the steps starting up Huguenot is a garbage bag filled with more water, gatorade, individual snacks, etc. After the tarn, there is nothing until the finish line. Which again, will be at Fabbri Parking lot. Looking forward to seeing everyone come through that finish line! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fabbri/@44.3161229,-68.194955,1131m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m19!1m13!4m12!1m3!2m2!1d-68.3162221!2d44.2994668!1m6!1m2!1s0x4caebda8c9c491f5:0x28894958b6107111!2sNortheast+Harbor,+Maine+04662!2m2!1d-68.3017589!2d44.3005195!3e0!3m4!1s0x4caeb95f98b519d9:0x97d2c1891e4f3800!8m2!3d44.3144891!4d-68.1952795  Two weeks from race day. Still in a pandemic. Acadia is still “closed.” Race is still on. Latest update is posted as of today for the start times. 6:30am is the first runner heading out, 9:05am is the last runner. Everyone is projected to finish at 6:00pm at Gorham Parking Lot. A few logistics given the park access is limited and getting to parking lots is different this year. We will need to meet at Flying Mountain parking lot the morning of and shuttle over to the start. We’ll want to limit the cars at that start location so everyone can have their car at Flying Mountain to drive around. Bubble Rock parking is usually an aid station location but it’s no obviously inaccessible by car with the park loop road closed. A few days before if we can bike in a few gallon jugs of water and stash them in the parking lot, we would have some water there. Same applies for Cadillac Mountain summit which normally has a gift shop and water fountains (and restrooms) but will have likely none of that. Either we bike/hike up some supplies to the summit or skip Cadillac and we could use the Tarn as an aid station and have someone there with food/drink before the last push up Champlain. Gorham parking lot will also be inaccessible by cars so we’ll need to finish there and then cut over to Fabri where we can be picked up. It’s a little extra on the end or we simply just finish at Fabri instead. Then we’ll shuttle back to the cars as needed. 2019 Split Times Looking at the 2019 split times (pulled from Strava from last years race where possible) you can see how long it took people to run those segments. Rebeccah ran the first segment from the start to Route 102 faster than anyone last year (or since) in 1:51. The Acadia Loop (route 102 to Flying Mountain segment) is closer to 1:30-2:00 for most runners. Peter Philbrook actually did this recently as a training run to learn the course and has the CR in 1:19. Obviously on fresh legs, but Dylan did it in 1:24 on race day last year. Jeff Rome probably did it in sub 1:20... Last year we kayaked across the sound which took most of us the better part of an hour from parking lot to parking lot. And left us cold out of the kayak. I estimate the difference to be a solid 30 minutes faster for this transition in 2020 without the kayak and a far more comfortable drive around the sound. Looking at 2019 times, and 2020 projected finish times, consider this difference in your “faster” 2020 times. The East side crossing has a CR of 4:28 by Jeff Rome from last year’s race. I tried it fresh and only doing that segment last June and got 4:43. Race day its a solid 5:30-7 hours for most of us. The overall CR is 7:43 by Jeff last year. That’s with a kayak and generally a fairly wet course last year. 2020 Start times With the idea being that we all are given the time needed to run the course and compete for an otherwise equal victory, the above are the current start times. Its by no means an exact science, someone will over-perform these times, several people will “blow up” and finish hours after these times. But this is where I have it now and this is how I came up with it: John Rodrigue - John is probably the most experienced (see: wicked old) ultrarunner of this group. He’s no stranger to the long run and the hours on the course aren’t going to hold him back. Now that he’s worked on the navigation of the course, he’s primed to trim some time off this and beat us all to Gorham. John will be looking over his shoulder all day trying to keep us from catching up to him. Darron Collins - Darron and I randomly caught up to each other on Sargent east cliffs over the winter and proceeded to run some tough miles on some tough terrain for the next few hours. He is a really strong climber, knows the trails really well and he’ll be someone that will do really well on all this climbing. Tobin Peacock - Tobin has been cycling a lot this past year and has gotten really fit in training for a big bike race recently. He’s got the leg speed and strength to keep everyone off his back and probably surprise everyone. Not knowing how much long distance experience he has, but knowing he is a strong athlete who is currently in shape, he’s a hard one to pin down on a start time. Peter Philbrook - Peter is probably the youngest of the entrants and entering for his first crack at this distance. He’s a local speedster who has as much top line speed as anyone in the group. He’s been out running the course to learn the turns, but recently had a minor injury that has slowed him down in his training. Hopefully not enough to get him back out there for race day and see what he can put together on a long day. First ultras can go extremely well, or very poorly. Lets see what Peter has on this one and I’m excited to have him in the group. He’s fast! ***UPDATE: Peter just dropped this gem today which could change his start time. https://www.strava.com/activities/3391799186 Brandon Chase - Brandon is a MDI native who recently moved back temporarily from oversees. An ultrarunner for the last few years running races around various parts of the world, Brandon is excited for one on his home turf. A strong, steady runner who has the ultra background and navigation nailed, he is going to power through these mountains like a champ. Tom St. Germain - Tom created this route we use and the reason we all do this every May now. Tom gets out every day for some form of activity but puts in far more cycling miles than trails. He owns a ton of crowns on MDI, both in cycling and running, and literally wrote the book on MDI trails. He knows every trail, rock, root and tree. A meticulous mind, Tom knows every split from every year and might be the most competitive person in the bunch. Maybe. A power climber, and someone that will not shy away from speeding down the mountains, Tom is a force on the mountains. Given that this year he’s put in 3 training runs over 10 miles in anticipation for this event, its trouble for the rest of us. Usually ACI is his only run of the year over 10 miles. Rebeccah Geib - Rebeccah started early in the race last year and proceeded to put down some of the fastest early miles of the whole field. She took off and put a gap between her followers that only Dylan and Jeff Rome every caught up with. She finished in 3rd overall and a sub 10 hour time, a tremendous day out on the course that puts her in line as a favorite again for next year. She’s moved up in the start times and as she’s perpetually in great trail shape, certainly a time that could happen again, or better. Daniel Cortez - Daniel ran the Bold Coast 20 Miler back in November and where most of us first met him. As it turns out, Daniel moved here in 2017 to work at JAX and nobody had every come across him in the mountains. A sponsored mountain bike athlete in his earlier years of training, he still bikes a lot. Running mountains is a newer passion for him and one that brings him to this event without having completed an ultra. Being his first event of this length that brings a wild card to his day, but as an experienced athlete I doubt it will change the outcome. Daniel flies up and down the mountains with a bounce in his step you can only envious of. He’s strong, fit and fast. Jeremy Dougherty - I love mountains and am just as competitive as Tom. He’s dropped me two years in a row. I’m particularly interested in keeping it from being a three-peat. Bradford Eslin - Brad is fast. He flies down the mountains, hammers miles after miles and if he’s nailed the navigation of this course for 2020, he’ll be tough to beat. He had some gear issues and navigation issues that slowed down his time from last year but has a lot of time on the course so far. He’s put in a full course crossing two weeks ago with Jenn Britz, full west side a few days later. He’s put the time in and knowing how much of a fighter Brad is, he’ll dig deep out there. Jenn Britz - Jenn is strong, fit and extremely experienced. She was held back a bit last year helping others navigate the course, and without restrictions or anything holding her back, I see her flying this year. She gets stronger as the day goes on, she is probably the most well rounded runner in the field with climbing, pace, downhilling, nutrition...she’s strong. If she can stay away from others and just race, she will be hard to beat. Dylan Brann - Dylan battled Jeff Rome for a stretch of mountains last year, from Cadillac to Champlain, making the finish closer than expected. He is probably the fastest downhiller here, and holds a tenacious racing attitude that amps up his abilities even further on race day. Dylan has the speed to match (notable top 100 finish in extremely fast Black Canyon 100K this February) his climbing, and if everything comes together for him its his race to lose. Could all this be entirely inaccurate and create unfair advantages? Of course. But its so much more fun than blasting out of the finish line and running the the same place in the race all day, outcomes decided by mile 2. With this format, its going to be interesting well into the east side crossing. Lets hope for some dry conditions and everyone stay healthy until then! 
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