Sugarloaf Marathon Trip 2024
As I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2023, I told myself “I’m never doing this again.” After I passed the finished line and as I hobbled towards my family I said aloud “I never want to run another marathon.” Roughly 2 days later, my sister Sarah and I were talking about running a marathon together in 2024. It took me some time (less than 48 hours) to realize that I did not leave everything I had on that course in Chicago. I didn’t train the way I should have and I knew my time didn’t represent my potential. Before that marathon, deep down inside I thought I could roll up to Chicago with minimal training and somehow qualify for the Boston Marathon (BQ), something that many runners aspire to do their entire lives and never do. What a total B I was.
It took Sarah and me what felt like forever to agree on a marathon for a number of reasons. She wanted to pick a marathon that was in a location that wasn’t hot like Florida and would be a fun place to visit. I only had one requirement: it had to be an official qualifier for the Boston Marathon that was flat. At some point in our search we decided that the most relaxing way to accomplish a marathon would be to go by ourselves and leave the kids at home and let the dads hold down the fort. The husbands were very accommodating to this idea.
After a few months of research and going back and forth, we were able to compile this not so short list of marathon options:
Eugene: Sunday, April 28, 2024
Queen Bee Montana Marathon: May 19, 2024
Sugarloaf (Kingfield, ME): May 12, 2024
Colorado Marathon: May 5, 2024
Traverse City Bayshore: May 25, 2024
Detroit Free Press: October 20, 2024
Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon (North Bend, WA): June 9, 2024
It’s hilarious to look at how all over the place we were: Oregon, Montana, Maine, Colorado, Michigan, and Washington. All places that would not be too hot (more likely too cold for me) and I’d only been to two of those states and not the areas in which these marathons were located.
We finally agreed on Sugarloaf Marathon mainly because neither of us had ever been to the mountains of Maine and the marathon fell on Mother’s Day. Most people wouldn’t think of a marathon as being relaxing for Mother’s Day, but, for us, it seemed like it would be a dream come true. We wouldn’t have to tend to the children for a few days and could relax as much as we wanted afterwards. Also, given my disastrous Chicago experience, I knew that it was very hard for me to balance being a mom, wife, daughter, and entertainer to the kids and family I drug along to watch me run in a new city I wanted to see, while at the same time resting before a major athletic feat. The husbands were sweet enough to throw us a pre-Mother’s Day brunch the weekend of Cinco de Mayo so we could at least have a mini-celebration with our kiddos.
The build up from the Sugarloaf Marathon for race weekend was underwhelming. This race was low key to the point that I started doubting that it was a real marathon. We barely got any communication from the race. The social media (Instagram and Facebook) for the race is shared with the Sugarloaf Ski Resort. As the months and weeks passed and we got closer to race day, there were still no pump-up posts about the race. Every post was about skiing! We did get one update saying that April 15th was the cut off to sign up for the races. Then I think a week or so before there was another post. There was so little pomp and circumstance that we found out after we got home that this was the 40th Anniversary of the marathon. This was never mentioned to us while we were there. No signs. It wasn’t even on the shirt! Also, the marathon had a little over 500 participants and 15K was in the 400s.
One of the tricky logistical parts about the Sugarloaf Marathon is figuring out how to get there. Sugarloaf Mountain is located in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. It’s the third highest peak in Maine and is part of the Rangeley-Stratton mountain range. It’s basically tucked up at the west side of Maine and very close to the Canadian border.
There are three main airports you can fly into to get to Sugarloaf Mountain: Portland, ME, Bangor, ME, and Boston, MA. Sarah had been to Portland, ME before and said it was a quaint town that we would enjoy. We flew into Portland, on Friday May 10th and stayed for one night at the Cambria Hotel there. This hotel was nice because it is walking distance to the Portland Harbor and is in the same building as the Shipyard Brewing Company.
It is also walking distance to so many restaurants. We ate a delicious dinner at The Honey Paw. The food was good, but since we were in carb loading mode we both agreed the portions could have been bigger.
On Saturday morning, we went on a scenic run along the Portland Harbor. We ran past the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co and Museum. We saw lots of people walking their dogs and stopped to take some pictures.
After we showered and checked out of our hotel we went to brunch at The Front Room.
I fell in love with the city of Portland and wished we had more time to explore. Shipyard Brewing Company has a half marathon and 5K each summer and I would love to return to Portland with my family some day to run it! After showing off my amazing parallel parking skills to Sarah, we began the 2 hour trek to Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabasset Valley, Maine. On our way we stopped at a Shaw’s grocery store to get some essential race and Mother’s Day supplies- think bagels, bananas and champagne.
When we arrived at the Sugarloaf Mountain Resort we were greeted with a cute Sugarloaf Mountain Marathon banner.
The staff at the resort were so nice and supportive of us as runners. The only people that were staying at the resort were either runners or those there to cheer for the runners. We went straight to bib pickup after we checked in. It was the most chill bib pick up I’ve ever experienced. They had two tables set up with some snacks, stickers, granola bars and a free neck warmer advertising one of the race sponsors. We didn’t have to wait in line to get our bibs. Nothing to buy. Nothing to see.
We had read all of the reviews for this race before we signed up. We decided, based on the reviews, that we did not want to attend the race sponsored pasta dinner. (We also walked past it after our dinner just to see what we were missing. We made the right choice.) We ate a Tufulios which is about a 15 minute drive down the mountain.
The restaurant opens at 5pm, so we got there at 4:45pm and surprisingly they let us in. In fact, there were already several others seated before us! The restaurant filled with runners and families of runners before our eyes. I saw many Boston Marathon jackets in our midst, further convincing me I needed to run my butt off the next day to earn a chance to wear one. We both enjoyed our meals. I got a lobster and mushroom ravioli and Sarah got a shrimp pasta dish.
We also got a basket of garlic bread. That doesn’t come with the meals- you have to ask for it and it is made to order. Sarah is convinced that’s why we both ran so well! Get the garlic bread!
After dinner we went back to the hotel in time to see the sunset from our room.
We laid out all of our race gear and supplies. I always pin my bib number onto my singlet the night before a race. Sarah took her pre-race picture with all her gels and gear (maybe I’ll start doing this too for my running Instagram) and I tried very hard not to stress about the morning. I set my alarm for 4:00am with the intention of eating my breakfast bagel and drinking a cup of coffee-leaving enough time to digest everything before the 7:00am race start.
Since Sarah had to switch to the 15K that meant we would be on separate shuttles because the 15K starts 15K from the end of the marathon. This was kind of disappointing, but I ended up sitting next to a lady who was from Boston! She gave me several recommendations of things to do in the city. Both races end at the same place which was nice knowing Sarah and I were at least running the same course. We went down to the lobby together to see a lively crew of runners all bundled up in sweats, gloves and hats.
The hotel did provide coffee and some fruit and I think some granola bars for the runners. The race provides bus shuttles to the race from various locations (hotel, starting line, 15K). The race welcome packet said that the bus would leave at 5:45am from the hotel. I was down there around 5:30am and got on the first bus. My bus left while people were still in line. I think all the busses arrived in time for the start- I just like to be on the first one. Since I was on the first bus, we were the first ones at the porta-potties. Ha! They were pristine at that time. It was pretty chilly outside (especially for this Florida girl). I had my sweatpants, sweatshirts, gloves on and felt alright walking around. They did have some warming busses if you wanted to stay seated in a warm area before the race. The race starts at the Cathedral Pines Camp Ground. I did my warm up into the campground. If you run 2 minutes or so into the campground you’ll find the camp bathrooms. Those bathrooms were REAL bathrooms with sinks and soap and were very clean! Just saying this might have been the ultimate hack!
The start of the race was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in the running world. They gave a 20 minute and 15 minute warning before the race started. I kind of zoned out for a little bit and was relying on that 10 minute warning to come. It probably did, but I didn’t hear it. 8 minutes before the race I looked at my watch and frantically took off my sweats and got in a massive line for bag check. There was a person gingerly grabbing the bags and placing them delicately on the seats. I stayed in that line for a minute or two but my anxiety got the best of me as did most people’s in that line and we all just threw our bags near the bus and ran to the start. (At bib pick up they let you choose a colored bracelet. You put that on your bag and then find your color after the race. Mine was pink). The adrenaline from fearing I might miss the start of the race prevented me from feeling cold. I never actually saw a starting line, just followed the masses. Then when it seemed about 7am there was a gun shot and we were off. No Star Spangled Banner, no “runner’s take your mark”, no “ready, set, go” just BANG! At that point the road was ours. I know for at least the first mile or so we were in both lanes. After that we all migrated to the right lane. Most people tried to run on the shoulder because they do not shut the roads down. Both lanes have cars coming and going and spectators are in their cars honking and yelling at the runners as they drive by. The first three miles were gradual downhill. Starting at mile 4 through 10 you are going uphill. I was not prepared for that, but I did my best to suck it up and enjoy those miles. That part of the course was beautiful and that really helped. Mile 11 and 12 were brutally downhill-so much so that I can’t believe I was begging for uphill. I was scared I was going to fall it was so downhill. I might have felt a little better if I had trained for this type of terrain. The rest of the race was up and down. It was not all downhill from mile 10 which is what people had said in other reviews and my head started to go to the dark place with all the uphill. Even the last mile had a pretty significant uphill (don’t forget Florida girl here). I was kicking myself for begging for an uphill earlier in the race.
Overall, for me, this was a great race. I was looking for redemption after Chicago and I think I got it. I finished with a time of 3:26.28. I cut about 25 minutes off my disastrous first marathon and I got a BQ with over an 8.5 minute buffer. I also did an 18 week training program by Hal Higdon and only missed one run (something I did not do the first time). I’ll post my training program and runs in a future blog post. My best advice is to take it easy at the beginning as with all marathons. Miles 9 and 10 were very challenging because of the uphill. Mentally prepare for those and know your splits will be a little slower on those miles. You’ll for sure make up for it on the next few miles that are soo dang fast. Keep it steady and when you feel like you are slowing down run faster! Oh, and get that garlic bread!
I would be remiss to not mention that Sarah had an excellent race too! She PRed-thanks garlic bread! She is currently getting back to longer distances after a knee injury.
Last note on the race, I carried my Nathan 18 oz hand held water bottle during the race. Since I was trying to BQ I didn’t want to stop for water. Well, by the end of the race I was so over carrying it. At the last water stop at mile 25 I threw my water bottle down which also had my sunglasses in the pocket (my glasses fogged up at some point and I decided to run the rest of the race without them). Anyway, after the race in the afternoon I found someone that worked for the race and told him about my water bottle. A little while later he brought my water bottle to me in the hot tub! That’s something that would have NEVER happened at one of the major races! Very nice of him to care enough to track me down even if we were easy to find in that hot tub! Ha!
One cool thing we experienced because we stayed an extra day after the marathon, was the hotel being a ghost town. There was basically no one left at the resort. Ski season had ended the week before the race. Our little rental car was one of the only ones left in the parking lot. Most people checked out of the hotel right after the marathon. The hotel did provide a late check out of 2pm that day, which I thought was very nice. We had the 30 person hot tub to ourselves the whole afternoon (probably not the best recovery method to be sweating in a hot tub drinking champagne that long ha).
We spent the rest of the day after the race relaxing, sipping champagne and decompressing. The next day we drove the 4 hours to Boston to spend two days seeing the city I had dreamed of running a marathon in during all those weeks of training and preparing. I might post about our Boston adventures in a future blog.
I just found out this week that my dreams are going to become a reality! My 20 weeks of hard work before the Sugarloaf Marathon and my determination during the marathon have officially qualified me for the 129 Boston Marathon in April 2025. I am so excited to start building my strength and getting a good base this fall so I can hit the ground running, literally, in January.
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