Mount Desert Island Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Mount Desert Island Marathon is a point-to-point road marathon across Mount Desert Island in Maine, run on the Sunday after Indigenous Peoples' Day in October. A half marathon and team relay run on the same course. The marathon starts at 8:00 am at 200 Main Street in downtown Bar Harbor, while the half marathon starts at 8:30 am in Northeast Harbor, and all races finish in front of Pemetic School in Southwest Harbor. The first mile is slightly downhill before a 150-foot climb from mile one to three over the ridge between Champlain and Dorr Mountains. The route then drops towards Otter Creek, follows the coast past Seal Harbor with views of the Cranberry Isles, passes the halfway point just beyond Northeast Harbor, and runs beside Somes Sound, which the organisers call the only fjord on the Eastern Seaboard. The low point is at mile 16, a sharp climb follows at miles 17 and 18, and the high point comes at mile 25 before the last 1.2 miles descend into Southwest Harbor. Cadillac Mountain, at 1,532 feet, overlooks the early miles but is not climbed. The course is USATF certified and a Boston Marathon qualifier. The time limit is 6.5 hours, an average of 15 minutes a mile, with no early start. The race began in 2002, and the 2026 edition was the 23rd.