I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 2010 Mount Desert Island Marathon and had my camera out to capture some video at the starting line and at the half-marathon point. I also got a few interviews at the finish line once everybody had passed through the half marathon.
The race couldn’t have been run on a more perfect day, with Maine foliage at it’s peak Autumn colors and nice cool temperatures to greet their runners as they made their way along the coastline. I definitely want to try to fit this race into my calendar next year.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=190lYXuRMJQ
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The starting line was interesting, because they used an actual cannon with a fuse. It’s much larger than the Maine Track Club cannon, but despite making the runners wait in anticipation for it to fire it wasn’t nearly as loud as I’d been expecting.
At the half marathon, there was a bigger lead pack than I’d been expecting which came through in 77:34. Louie Luchini followed up with a 74:20 over the second half of the race to set the course record; wish I’d been there to see the finish.
Video Transcription
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Blaine Moore: What was your final time?
Jamie Anderson: 3:14:33, I think I was 38th place.
Blaine: So how many times have you run this race?
Jamie: This is my 5th time running MDI. My other best time was 3:21:37, so…
Blaine: It’s a good improvement!
Jamie: Yeah! It was. I trained my butt off…
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Blaine: So who won the race?
Gary Allen: Louis Luchini, a Stanford standout and a Stanford All-American from Ellsworth, Maine. He won in a course record, 2:31:50, I’m saying unofficially, but I’m not actually sure what his official time is.
Blaine: And that’s a huge negative split from where him and the lead pack was at the half-way point.
Gary: He just looks smooth and strong, yeah.
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Patrick Finney: Yeah! Six years ago, I wasn’t able to walk. And I’ve got MS.
Blaine: Oh… Okay!
Patrick: And I rehabbed myself back after a year, and completed a half marathon in a little more than 4 hours. And I swore to myself if I kept moving, finished a half marathon, maybe I could do a full marathon. And did it the next year, and I kept getting faster and better, and then one of my friends challenged me to run in all fifty states in January, and I said, “Okay!”
Blaine: How many marathons in a row have you done now?
Patrick: Out of the last seven weeks, this is my 10th one in seven weeks, my 33rd state this year, and 45th total marathon.
Blaine: So which races are your favorites so far?
Patrick: Boston, Big Sur, Mount Desert Island. Those are the top 3, maybe not in that order, but definitely those are the top 3.
Blaine: Excellent!
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Blaine: And there’s a lot of first-timers I saw.
Gary: Yeah! We did a fun thing Blaine. We color coded the Bib numbers.
Blaine: Yup!
Gary: And it proved to be a really good thing. The first-timers wore green bib numbers, green background bib numbers. And experienced runners wore blue, and we had different color codings for all the different groups. So that worked out.
But yeah! I think there are a lot of people running their first marathon. As a matter of fact, a lady from South Portland, I think Kristine Guaraldo was third overall, first time marathoner.
Blaine: Yeah! I heard about her…
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Stephen: Why we doing this at the porta potties in the background?
Blaine: We were just talking about that…
Jamie: Nothing says race more than having porta-potties in the background…
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If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all of this, it’s that I need to interview at least one person that is near my height so that I don’t seem like I’m abnormally short after the fact…
I ran the 3rd leg of a relay team… it was an amazing day and race.. I highly recommend the whole event!