Photos from Maine 2023

What in the world was I doing in Maine over the weekend?!

Several years ago we had some amazing neighbors named Marlin & Victoria (along with their awesome daughters). They are just wonderful people. We were blessed to have them living next to us, and to be able to call them dear friends.

Marlin is a runner, and I had a chance to run with him a time or two—including a time that I met him in the middle of the night somewhere in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to help him run part of a 100 mile ultra marathon! I suppose that makes him that kind of a runner…

Somewhere along the way I remember Marlin telling me that he was trying to run a marathon in all 50 states. I cannot say for sure if this was the moment that lit the spark in my own heart to run a marathon in each state by age 50, or if knowing that my neighbor was doing it simply blew fresh wind on the already burning ember. I cannot chronologically place when that crazy idea first emerged in my brain. Either way, I knew that I also wanted to run 50 by 50, and I knew that I wanted to run at least one of those states with Marlin.

Sadly, time flew by and it never happened. Throughout the years, I continued to keep up with Marlin, even when they moved to another city a half hour away. He would tell me what marathon he was next running, and I would tell him what marathon I was running, but I couldn’t quite get our calendars to line up. I soon realized that I was running out of time-because Marlin was running out of states!!

When I heard that he would be running the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Bar Harbor, ME… and that it would be his 49th state… I knew that I just had to take this last opportunity to join him.

So I signed up to run the marathon and made plans to join Marlin and Victoria in Maine.

As it turned out, it actually worked out great. They were having a hard time getting a reasonably priced rental car to and from the Portland, ME airport, and I was driving in. So I just drove by the airport and picked them up. We got to spend a wonderful weekend together, exploring Bar Harbor, taking in a breathtaking hike on the Beehive Trail, and then (of course) running the marathon.

I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to finally make good on that hope to run one of the states together with Marlin. We ran the full marathon together (well, mostly together… I did have to stop and use the little boys room at one point along the course…)

Congratulations to Marlin on completing his 49th state! Next stop for him: Hawaii!

(I have the same plan of running Hawaii last. I mean, why not?!)

For me, I was able to knock out state number 16 on my path to #50by50. If all goes well, I should have 21 total states completed by the end of the 2023. (More on #17-21 later.)

For the next several weeks I will be sharing photos from my epic adventures in Maine, but for today, here is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

Congratulations, Marlin!