John Pearson looks through photos from past Peaks Island road races at his home in Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday. Pearson held the first Peaks Island road race in 1988, and the race has been run every year since with the exception of 2020 because of the pandemic. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
Marty Mullen and his family have been running the Peaks Island Road Race for more than three decades.
For Mullen, a Cape Elizabeth resident, stepping onto Peaks Island the morning of the race provides the same thrill as it did the first time he competed in 1990.
“It’s just a short 20-minute ferry ride from Portland, but honestly, and everyone says it, when you step off that boat, it’s magical,” Mullen said. “It doesn’t feel like you’re just 20 minutes from Portland. It feels like another whole country.”
Hundreds of runners will take that same ferry ride on Saturday morning to participate in the 5-mile road race – now in its 35th year – spanning the perimeter of the island. Roughly two-thirds of this year’s participants are from Maine, but other registrants live as far away as Fresno, California, and Pensacola, Florida.
When the Peaks Island Road Race started in 1988, there were just 180 runners. In the years that followed, the race grew to its current ceiling of 700 participants. Awaiting runners at the end of the race is a festive atmosphere that includes a beer garden and a lobster bake.
Because of limited ferry runs and boat capacities, the race has a later start time than is typical for summer road races. The 5-miler, which follows a kids’ fun run, begins at 10:30 a.m. That means runners may be hit with warm temperatures from the moment they start running.
“It’s a testament to this race that people still go over there and have a blast while it’s brutal. The neighbors, they all turn on sprinklers, but it’s not an easy race,” Mullen said. “Everyone just loves it so much because of the atmosphere, so you kind of forget it’s brutally hot.”
The course starts off fairly easily.
“You’re running right along the water pretty much (during the first two miles). And usually on race day, historically speaking, it’s beautiful and sunny out,” said race director Cameron Goodwin. “So it’s a beautiful view as you’re making that initial run.”
Runners gather near the starting line of the Peaks Island Road Race in a photo taken in the mid-1990s, part of a collection of memorabilia owned by former race director John Pearson. The first race in 1988 attracted 180 runners; today the field is capped at 700 participants. Photo courtesy of John Pearson
As the second mile ends and the third begins, the effects of the heat start to kick in as runners take on a few deceivingly difficult mid-course hills before descending to flatter ground again by the finish.
Last year, Ben Lanza won the race in 25 minutes, 37 seconds, while Renae Anderson was the top women’s finisher in 31:31.
At the race’s end, runners can gather at the beer garden, courtesy of Shipyard Brewing, and the lobster bake, courtesy of the Peaks Island Lions Club in Greenwood Gardens.
For the Mullens and their friends, another part of the afternoon’s fun is a trophy handed out to the group’s participant who improves their time the most from the previous year.
“It’s always pretty competitive with that many people, there’s usually like 40 people trying to win the cup, and there’s been some years that it’s come down to within 10 seconds between two people,” Mullen said. “You always kind of look back and think, ‘Well, what could I have done better in that race?’ or ‘Did I have to stop for that water stop?'”
As is the case with many road races, the Peaks Island Road Race makes charitable donations.
“The race gives back to the island, providing funding for the Peaks Island Lions Club and all of the things that they do for the island community,” said John Pearson, former race director and historian of the race. “We make a donation annually to the Peaks Island School and to a couple other smaller nonprofits on the island.”
And the race continues to thrive. It has been held every summer since 1988 with the exception of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It has survived. Think over the last 30 years, all the road races that have come and gone,” said Pearson. “How many road races are there in Southern Maine? And this one, this one not only survives but thrives.”
In past years, there has been registration the morning of the race, but this year’s entry deadline is Thursday at 11:59 p.m. The entry fee is $20, which does not include items at the lobster bake.
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