Looking to boost tourism and tap into the expansive wilderness of northern Maine, a group is planning the longest ultramarathon on the East Coast in Aroostook County.
The 207-mile Maine Moose Ultra is slated for September 2027.
The marathon, organized by the Presque Isle nonprofit Ignite PI, aims to attract world-class runners to the trails of Aroostook County and put the region on an international stage in a sport that has surged in popularity in the last decade.
The effort is led by Collin Darrell, Ignite PI’s director of operations and community impact, and Jack Wilson of Harpswell, a business executive and keynote speaker who is the only person from Maine to finish the Moab 240, a prominent ultramarathon through the deserts and mountains of Utah.
“I really think, in my heart of hearts, that this is an opportunity for Presque Isle to put on a world-class endurance race,” Wilson told the Bangor Daily News.
The race course has not been finalized, but will start and finish at Northern Maine Community Trails in Presque Isle, Wilson said. Other non-negotiable points are the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone and Mars Hill Mountain, the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise for half of each year.
A preliminary course map Wilson and Darrell showed town managers and other community leaders earlier this year had runners going as far north as Van Buren.
That course had roughly 17,000 feet of elevation gain. Organizers want the final design to be more than 20,000 feet. That’s equivalent to climbing Katahdin five times.
“[17,000 feet] is not going to be hard enough,” Wilson said. “People say, ‘Hey, man, running 207 miles, isn’t that hard?’ Of course it is, but you really want this up-and-down thing so that it’s really gnarly.”
Wilson completed the Moab 240 in just under four and a half days.
Ultramarathons of this distance are held over a stretch of four to five days. They also typically require many special-use permits and other land-use agreements to host an event over vast areas of federal, state and private land.
Aroostook’s expansive ATV and snowmobile trail systems give organizers a leg up on that challenge.
“The logistics of other places are a weakness,” Darrell said. “In our community, it’s a strength. The trail system is 2,300 miles of negotiated land use rights with a designated trail map system, clubhouses … I think it’s one of the things that we have as part of our community that we haven’t leveraged in the way that we could drive the traffic.”
People have been eager to offer their help to bring it to fruition, Darrell said.
Wilson said the race has received the “blessing” of the Maine Sports Commission and significant buy-in from local leaders.
In letters of support, the town managers of Fort Fairfield and Van Buren, Aaron Huotari and Luke Dyer, each threw the support of their towns behind the event.
“Fort Fairfield stands completely behind this initiative, ready to collaborate with you and our neighboring central Aroostook and Saint John Valley communities to make this ambitious race a resounding success,” Huotari wrote.
Organizers still face numerous challenges over the next 19 months, among them the marketing and promotion to attract runners. Darrell and Wilson are working with the Maine Office of Tourism on that aspect.
The entry fee will be around $1,200 to $1,500, which is around the average for a premier ultramarathon, Wilson said. He hopes to bring in 200 to 300 runners, most of whom have multi-person support teams that follow them throughout a race.
“We may get five people from the Northeast, but everyone’s going to come from out west and there will be people that fly in from Europe as well that have never been to Maine,” he said.
The idea behind the race, concocted after Darrell and Wilson met at a conference in Bangor last year, is to capitalize on growing sports tourism to the state, creating an economic boost from that influx of visitors into Aroostook County and introducing new people to what northern Maine has to offer.
Darrell likened it to the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races in Fort Kent, or the Biathlon World Cup and World Junior Championships that have been held in the region.
“It is above and beyond the scope of what we could do normally in Aroostook County,” he said. “But the same way those two races have been successful, and brought that clientele here, that’s who we’re looking at.
“For one weekend a year, could we use it to promote how world-class our trails are?”
