Bar Harbor Half: Report from 1986, ...the year the front runners went long.

Up for this year's Bar Harbor Half, Kitty Fair, Crow acquaintance and XC coach at Exeter, last ran the race in 1986 when she won the 30-39 women's category. Some of you will remember that race as the one in which the first 25 front runners were misdirected around Witch Hole and some of those went on to run Paradise Hill as well. Kitty brought with her a copy of the report from the 9/26/1986 Bar Harbor Times, transcribed below:

Nice to recognize that so many from that field, including Bill Pinkham, Fred and Joan Merriam, Louisa Dunlap, Robin Emery, are still familiar in the local circuit. Gary Allen and Sharyn Kingma (1:37:03) were the first MDI finishers that year.

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13-Miler Signs Altered
Bar Harbor Times
September 25, 1986

BAR HARBOR - Pranksters managed to create havoc with the Bar Harbor 13-Miler half-marathon race last weekend by changing a sign and directing front runners two miles out of their way.

Coordinator Robert Woodworth said the incident didn't change the standings in the women's competition, but did confuse the standings in the men's race. Listed as the winning man was Lance Guiliani of Brunswick with a time of 1:24:22. Joesph Stanley of Prospect, CT, placed second followed by Dan Bondeson of Lee.

The first woman around the course was Katie Martin of Caribou with a time of 1:34:17. Bar Harbor's Sharyn Kingma placed second, and Virginia Ereshena of Willimantic, CT, came in third.

The directional sign was changed sometime during the night prior to the race, according to Woodworth, at Duck Brook Bridge. The change cause front runners to run around Witch Hole Pond, an additional 1.2 miles. Some ran around Paradise Hill also, said Woodworth, which added another 1.6 miles. The error was caught after about the first 25 runners had gone by that point, he said.

Age-group winners were: RIchard Fournier men, 30-39; Arnold Repetto, men 40-49; Carl Bowen, 50-over; Kitty Fair, women 30-39; Marily Hughes, women 40-49; Margaret Miller, women 50-over, Lesser Durham Striders, first men's team; Gary Allen, first MDI man; Sharyn Kingma, first MDI woman.