the runner eclectic

Summer Schedule: Who knew retirement would be so busy? I’m going to try a new schedule of posting every Monday, perhaps more often for special occasions like the World Championships or for multi-part stories like the most recent one. Feel free to throw praise or money my way to try to guilt me into posting more often. 

The MDI H.S. Track: Home of the MDI Trojans

On a typical summer day on Maine’s Mt. Desert Island, the parking areas near Eagle Lake fill early, and by mid-morning, an overflow of hundreds of vehicles line the sandy shoulders of Route 233, a two-lane highway that connects downtown Bar Harbor to the East with Somes Sound — a natural fjord that divides the island into two large but unequal lobes — to the West.

Millions of visitor come to Mt. Desert Island every year to experience the beauty of Acadia National Park, and Eagle Lake is one of the more popular access points to the many miles of dirt carriage roads that loop through the interior of the park. Anyone wanting to hike, bike, run, or ride in horse-drawn carriages through Acadia finds their way to the carriage roads.

Approximately two miles West of the Eagle Lake parking lot is the entrance to MDI High School. For the locals, the high school is a center of activity and civic life for much of the year, but by late June, it’s pretty quiet. A few cars are parked in the teacher lots. There are a handful of maintenance vehicles in the large lot in back of the school. On this Tuesday afternoon, there is exactly one car occupying a space within shouting distance of the tennis courts, and beyond that, the MDI High School track. That car is mine. Continue reading →