After last year’s inaugural Great Bangor Marathon and Half included some runners reportedly getting lost, organizers say they are excited and ready for round two.
And they have plans for making sure that participants know where to go while navigating the USA Track and Field-certified course.
“We’re excited and delighted to bring Bangor another epic event like the Great Bangor Marathon,” said David McIntyre. He and his wife, Laura McIntyre, introduced the race to Bangor a year ago, when over 300 people participated in either the full 26.2-mile marathon or the 13.1-mile half marathon.
The duo is turning to “a lot more volunteers” for help along the route and will increase road signage as well.
“We’re going to have more directional signs. We’ve got big, brand new signs that have red arrows pointing left, and right and straight up,” David McIntyre said. “And signs that say drive slow and run fast.”
Laura McIntyre said that while races can sometimes see a dip in participation in year two, they expect to see similar numbers to last year. The McIntyres have also brought in Joe Coddington from the Gran Fondo Hincapie biking series to handle the race timing, she said.
“We’ve got a lot more help with us this year and we’re really excited about the race,” she added.
The couple also has a video posted on their business Youtube page for Lifestyle Sports Global, which goes through the entire course route “so they could visually see the course” and get a feel for it while training, Laura said.
The race will start at 7 a.m. Sunday, June 1 at the corners of Main and Dutton Streets in Bangor. According to the description on the race signup page, the full marathon will go “through Bangor out valley avenue to Broadway with a turn around in the town of Kenduskeag and back to the Finish at Bangor Waterfront Park (Dutton St entrance) just south of Geaghan’s restaurant.”
The course features a 170-foot change in elevation. The half marathon will follow the same course but will turn around on Broadway shortly after Pushaw Road.
Last year’s winners were John Ignacz of Annandale, New Jersey, and Orono native Hannah Kershner. Ignacz’s clock time was 2:38:26 to lead the men’s category and Kershner was fastest in the women’s division with a time of 3:11:57.
The race was held in late June last year, and David McIntyre said that “logistically it just made more sense to change it to June 1” for the Bangor community. As an open road marathon, he said participants should be aware that they could be sharing the course with traffic. There will be a police escort from the start of the race to the Bangor city line, the McIntyres said.
Since it’s a USATF-certified race, runners will be able to use their times to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon, something 10 to 11 runners did at last year’s event, according to David McIntyre. That certification lasts for 10 years and the organizers plan to keep hosting the event during that period.
The MacIntyres already organize another marathon in Lincoln, and are adding two new races this year with the launch of the Great Augusta Marathon and Half on July 20 and the Great Waterville Marathon and Half on Oct. 19. The Great Lincoln Marathon and Half will be on Sept. 14.
“We want people to come here, have a Maine experience,” Laura McIntyre said. “Have blueberries, have lobster. See a lighthouse, see a moose, and then come back for a vacation.”
The registration fee for the Bangor marathon is $125 and the half is $105. Registration ends on May 31. The Maine Veterans Project and Heart of Maine United Way will each receive $5 from all registrations and 10 percent of all donations, according to the race signup page.
There will be no cut-off time for finishers in the Bangor race.
“We don’t have time limits on any of our races because we want people to finish,” Laura McIntyre said. “We want to help them reach their goal.”
