I decided to run this last minute. I had already climbed a bunch of vert and logged lots of miles at the beginning of the week, but when I had a whole day free and the weather looked nice, I decided to run the Acadia Round as a training run. Also, only 2 people knew I was running, so I would not get "support" if someone showed up on course to cheer or wish me luck.
I was planning on starting much earlier, like 5:15am, since sunrise was around 5:30am, but with the whole day open and sunset not until close to 7:30pm, I literally had all day. I slept in, packed up all my food for the day and my water filter and walked to the clock at the start. I was off at 6:41am.
I had no plan to run this fast for any kind of record, so I was pretty relaxed the whole first half. Enjoying the views and lack of crowds, I cruised over the first mountains, through Blackwoods (water still not on), down to Hunters Beach, over to Jordan Pond, up Ampitheater Trail (better without leaves this time), and over to Norumbega. From there, it's the very familiar "run across the eastside" route over all the mountains. Filtering water from streams, ponds and puddles as I went. I was feeling pretty wrecked from Norumbega over to Pemetic, probably due to a full week of training, but I chugged on with no real goal other than to finish. Somehow I rebounded heading up Northwest Pemetic, and felt great after climbing straight up the steep granite slabs. I felt even better as I cruised up West Face of Cadillac, knowing only Dorr and Kebo remained. When I got to the bottom of Dorr, I checked my watch. 8hrs and I felt great. I figured if I hauled it in, I could make it back to the Village Green under 8:30.
I hit the clock at 8:29:31. Not nearly my best time, but I'll be back at it in the Fall with maybe a bit of tapering beforehand.