This was my second trip to Great Cranberry Island for the ultramarathon, and I had a great time despite the fact that I didn’t finish the race.
The only other time that I dropped out of a race was when I was in high school and I fell down the side of a mountain and broke my ankle, so it was a tough pill to swallow but I think that it was the right choice.
Unlike last year, I was far enough back that I got to see the race develop up front (as well as in the chase pack, once they had caught up to and passed me.) Running out and back so many times lets you enjoy the race as a spectator and as a runner in a way that I haven’t found anywhere else. After running together for the first 3 laps, Leah Thorvilson got left behind by Ryan Aschbrenner as he built an almost a 7 minute lead.
In the end, they both broke last year’s course record. Here’s my race recap:
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A few weeks ago, I ran the Great cranberry island 50K for the second time. When I went into this race last year, I looked at the course where you have a 2 mile out and back road that you run 8 times. I thought this is going to be more of a mental challenge, but it should be good preparation for a 6 or 12 or 24 hour loop race.
What I discovered was that it’s actually a really fun race because it’s an out and back. It is really scenic, and with it’s small field, you really get to know everybody during the race. You’re constantly seeing the same people over and over again as you run.
I really had a great time; not just during the race, but also in the post-race party and the whole island atmosphere. This year was more of the exact same thing. It was a great time. A lot of big personalities come out to this race. It’s a got a good cult following.
We got there early on Saturday morning. We went out to the island and started socializing with everybody. The race itself starts in the middle of the day at 11:30 AM, and once again, it was a really hot day. I had not as good of an experience dealing with the heat as I did last year, and there weren’t quite as many of hoses out. There was a really nice slip and slide, which quite a few people would go down during the race and I would almost every loop stop and soak my hat to help keep my head a little cooler.
But unfortunately, I didn’t finish the race. I got about 24 miles to 25 miles into the race, and my back was spasming, so I wound up just calling in the first time I’ve DNF’ed that I can remember since I was in high school. But, it was still a great experience. I had a lot of fun for the first 18 – 20 miles before my back started to bother me.
One of the cool things was because I wasn’t one of the fastest people this year, I actually got to watch the race up front develop. Ryan Aschbrenner and Leah Thorvilson took off and just left everybody else in the dust. They both broke last year’s course record. Ryan won the race in 3:25:07 so he was about 7 minutes under the old record. Leah was 3:32:00 even. That was 4 seconds under Chuck Engle’s record from last year, and it was almost 29 minutes under the old women’s record. So, both of them had great races.
After the race there’s a big lobster bake. Everybody got some corn and lobster. We got to see some interesting going-ons throughout the night. A lot of people stayed and camped-out.
And as I said earlier, this race is all about the big personalities. And the biggest personality is one of the race directors, Gary Allen. He puts on,not just the Cranberry 50K, but also the Mount Desert Island Marathon, and heads up Crow Athletics. He’s got a really whimsical style about him, and it’s a lot of fun watching him doing what he loves, which is making everybody else happy with his races.
One of the other personalities that was there this year was Leah Throvilson who finished her race and immediately got into a costume. She had this gigantic wig on, and went in and helped some of the runners finish up their races; she paced them in for the end.
It was also a lot of fun seeing everybody trading-off a pink tutu between all the different Marathon Maniacs.
The cranberry Island 50K this year was also the RRCA Maine State Ultramarathon Championship. The winners were Roger Marquis who had a time 4:06:19, and last year’s winner Amanda LaBelle finished in 4:08:39 to take home the women’s title.
So, if you get a chance, I highly recommend going out and running the cranberry Island 50K. It’s going to sell out fast next year, I’m sure because it sold out a lot quicker this year than in years past and that’s just the trend going forward. But it’s still worth trying to get into. And next year should be a special treat with some of the plans that Gary was talking about. I’ll leave those as a surprise for when he’s ready to announce them.
If you want to know more about either Gary or Leah, two of the bigger personalities in the race this year, they both took part in Marathon Mastermind. You can listen to some coaching sessions with both of them just by going over to www.marathonmastermind.com and joining in yourself.
If you want to listen in for free, you’ll have to sign up today to hear Gary, however. His coaching session ends later tonight, and Leah’s was earlier this week. There are still 5 more coaching sessions coming up next week however.
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