Racing Maine #266

Steve Corry:

You know, business drops off quite a bit in January and then the cooks and everyone are looking for hours. So it's kind of an opportune time for me to say I will be the interim nanny, Mr. Mom, whatever you want to call it. And again, the kids are in school all day. So my justification for taking on that new role was to train for the marathon. It allowed me to do the long runs and do the training that was required.

Jeff Cole:

Then from there, swim over to Cushing's island, run on Cushings, swim then to Fort Scammell on the end of House island, traverse the fort remnants and then come down onto the beach on the east end of House island. And then finally the swim over to Peaks island and the finish line.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 266 Racing Maine, airing for the first time on Sunday, October 23, 2016. Many athletes set training goals according to upcoming events like marathons and triathlons. Today we speak with chef and restaurateur Steve Cory about his experiences with races such as beach to Beacon and the Paris Marathon. We also discussed this past summer's first annual Casco Bay Island Swim Run with founder, triathlete and coach Jeff Cole. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's always a great pleasure to spend time with people whose food I enjoy in the restaurant setting, but whose company I enjoy outside of the restaurant setting. And this individual is Steve Corey, who with his wife Michelle opened 555 in Portland in 2003. Steve has received several accolades, including Food and Wine's Best New Chef in 2007 and Mains Chef of the Year in 2011. In March 2011, Steve and Michel opened Petit Jacqueline, a more casual French bistro named after Michel's grandmother. In Petit's first year, it was nominated for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America. Last year, the Corys opened Portland Patisserie in downtown Portland, actually. Right. Like two streets down from us, I think a block away in the. In the Old Port.

Steve Corry:

Correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So thank you for doing that. It's pretty delicious stuff that you have.

Steve Corry:

Great. Happy to have it there for you and for me as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. So you are doing really interesting work and you just keep adding to it. It's. From what I can tell you and Michelle, in addition to. You have two sons, I believe.

Steve Corry:

Two sons.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Two sons. But you also work, like, all the time.

Steve Corry:

Yes. Well, as the owners of now three restaurants, it's kind. And two of which are open day and two of which are open at night. So they're effectively open. One of them is always open, you know, from early in the morning to late at night. So that kind of dictates the work schedule to some degree because everything is always changing. But. And then the two little boys, Seamus is nine years old now and Finnegan is seven. They're in school full time for most of the year, but they certainly keep us busy as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how is it that you are able to do things like run the Paris Marathon last April and also run the beach to Beacon for the last three years? How do you incorporate that into your life?

Steve Corry:

Well, interesting question. Up until January of this year, we had a full time nanny that while she didn't live with us, she stayed with us on occasion. She worked a lot of hours and really was hugely instrumental in helping to raise our sons while we endured quite a workload. She had a baby and as of December last year, she went off on maternity leave and we were closing Petit Jacqueline in January. December 31st was our last day at the old location in Longfellow Square. And we knew there would be a good, you know, period of time to find a new location for it. And 555 staff was, was, was solid. We come out of the holiday season and, you know, business drops off quite a bit in January, and then the cooks and everyone are looking for hours. So it's kind of an opportune time for me to say, I will be the interim nanny, Mr. Mom, whatever you want to call it. So. And again, the kids are in school all day. So my justification for taking on that new role was to train for the marathon. It allowed me to do the long runs and do the training that was required to actually get to the finish line. So I was able to train while Michelle was at work and the kids were at school. And then I got him off the bus and took care of their after school homework and activities and dinner and lunches and all that. And so that's really why I did it because I think I would have gone crazy out of my mind if I didn't have something to work towards now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Have you always been a runner?

Steve Corry:

No, I haven't actually. I've always kind of adhered to some sort of fitness program. Really self driven, to tell you the truth. Truth. Just to kind of try and offset working in food and also beer. But prior to working as a chef, I was, I was a brewer. And you know, eating and drinking, it certainly can get ahead of you really quickly. So I was always trying to offset what I like to do for work and leisure, which is eat and drink beer, by staying, staying somewhat fit.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about your younger years before you even got to the place of working? Were you an athlete?

Steve Corry:

I was in high school and coming up I did, I played soccer, I played lacrosse, I played tennis, played basketball, played a little hockey. So there's always some team sport coming up through school and whatnot. In college, not so much college. I just kind of spent most of my time skiing when I should have been in class really. But that was enough to kind of keep me motivated to stay in shape as well. And just prior to having Seamus, our first child, I kind of let it go and I was about 30 pounds heavier than I am right now. And I actually started to, to feel kind of terrible. I had heartburn and I just wasn't in good shape and I could certainly feel the effects of it. And it was such an eye opener when Seamus arrived and I was like, wow, this is tough with the restaurants and lack of sleep and this and that. I said I gotta put it back together. And so kind of got myself back on track and have stayed relatively on track since then.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What was that transition like? It sounds like you did a lot of team sports and then you've gotten into what's really most of the time a very solo sport.

Steve Corry:

It is, and it's a good question. It's funny you ask that because I do a lot of mountain biking as well, which is pretty much on my own or with one other or I'm out in the kayak myself or one other. But I do play basketball. I'M part of a pickup basketball league called the gobl. It's gentleman only basketball league, which the loose requirements are that it's that you're supposed to be 40 years old and a father and relatively mild mannered. It's competitive basketball with a bunch of guys that we play every Tuesday night. And there's probably 20 or 25 of us on the list and you know, as many as 15 or so will show up any given Tuesday and we'll play, we'll play basketball for two hours. And I get a lot of satisfaction from that, from the team that fills that niche of that team sport and that camaraderie. But otherwise I just, I compete against myself really. I'll set goals for myself in terms of running and say, okay, I want to come in at this time and the next time out I'm trying like crazy to beat that time. Not so much in the kayak or on the mountain bike, but certainly with the running.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Having been a runner also for decades now, which I hate to say because that just ages me in such an incredible way. But one of the things I notice, it's very interesting, is the crowd energy around the races. And I've done, I've been in both camps, I've raced, I've run really hard to race and I've run really mostly just to hang out with buddies. But there's something that happens on race day. You can't help but be impacted by the energy of it.

Steve Corry:

No, it is really unbelievable feeling actually. And you wouldn't think that you'd get nervous for running because, I mean, you just know how to run, but you do. You get charged up when you're kind of approaching. Even when you get up that morning and you're starting your routine of okay, I need to get my nutrition right and hydrate and make sure I use the bathroom and, and head off to the race. And then as you get closer and closer to the start line, there's more people and it's just, I don't know, it's, it's an uplifting feeling that, yeah, there's a euphoria to it that most people run for that feeling at the end. But you, as you said, you kind of get that at the beginning and then all you have to do is bridge the gap and it's, it seems a lot easier than the training, the race itself most of the time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you have people that you run with when you do, say beach to beacon?

Steve Corry:

I do. My wife is. We ran it. I can't remember. It was probably seven or eight years ago. And we ran together. It was actually kind of an incentive at the restaurant. It was just after Seamus was born. It was part of that get back in shape kind of time. And we printed off t shirts at 5:55 and they actually had the slogan on the back that said the belly rules the mind. And we all had. Anyone that was going to run the race with us obviously got a T shirt. And they also would come back to the house and they'd have the night off and I was going to cook for them. We'd get the night off and come back and the beer and the wine and the food is on me and I'm going to cook. And there was a good six or seven of us that ran, which was a considerable percentage of the staff. Even the year when the restaurant was much smaller. But, but for the most part, no, I actually, I train pretty much by myself. Hours are very strange. Up until a year ago, we lost our dog. But I would take our Rottweiler out in the woods with me, deep in the woods, because he liked to run as well and he just could not be contained on a leash. And so he would be free in the woods and he was a Rottweiler, so he would upset people. So we would have to, we would have to be by ourselves. Occasionally Michelle would go with us. But. So it's a very interesting dynamic in that all of my training is pretty much solo and most of it in the woods. And then the races for the most part are these road races with thousands and thousands of people. So it really creates a real different dynamic, a different feeling that, and I like it both ways.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How are you impacted by the bystanders? I, you know, I think sometimes I have found myself not impacted at all. If I'm running really fast, it's almost like I can't hear them. And then other times I'm kind of ditzing along and, you know, I'll go over, I'll give them high fives, you know, interact. And it's, it's kind of a funny thing. It's like they are part of the,

Steve Corry:

they're part of the scene and a huge part of the support. And I really enjoyed them at this year's beach to Beacon. Not that I didn't in the past. I think I was just comparing Paris to Cape Elizabeth, you know, great distance in the two distances, if that makes sense. But I just felt that there were such so many of them. I guess because you're talking about a 10 kilometer race in Paris, there Were stretches at the end in particular where you're running through this park way in the western part of the city that you're just running through the woods and there was no one out there and you really were like, oh, I could really use a little bush right now, little help. And so when you did come to these water stations and pockets, it was just, it was really fantastic to get the support. And I thought one thing that was nice about Paris is they actually had your name on your bib and where you're from, your country. So even though you're miles and miles away from home and the support system had. Over there was my wife, my cousin and my two boys. Just passed them once. You'd hear people say, oh, Steve. Go Steve. And I'm like, who knows me out here? And it was just really nice. But I said, okay, if we're not going to run to beach to Beacon next year, we need to go and just bring the boys just for supporting others sake, you know. But she said, I want to run the beach speaking next year. I said, great, we'll run it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it seems like you should be able to do both.

Steve Corry:

Yes, you could do both. It's a matter of someone needs to take the kids. If we're both running now, we need someone to find the kids and get back to the kids and then get the kids to the race, you know. But that's not that hard either, really.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I've done that too. And that's also interesting. I mean, my kids, when I was, I think I was in my heavy racing phase when my kids were quite young and they remember going to the races when they were little and my brothers and sisters would help out with that. That's also interesting for them to know that their parents are complete people that do other things other than just be parents.

Steve Corry:

Yes. And a lot of the reason for kind of staying fit is for them to see that this is a very important thing. Regardless of how much you work, you need to take care of your body as well. And I grew up and my dad was, was quite athletic and maintained a very strong kind of athletic routine. And I do. And I remember it, I remember him, you know, his routine was okay, it was, it was push ups and sit ups. It was kind of, it was a while ago. So. So many push ups, so many sit ups. Okay. Then he would shower, then we come out and he would polish his shoes up, put on a suit and off he'd go for work. But he would do this every day and he was leaving the house before we were leaving for school. So I was up to witness it, and I remember it clearly, and I want my kids to remember that as well. Just because I think it's so important to have athletics for the sake of staying on the straight and narrow, so to speak. And also just the camaraderie that comes with it and the routine and the balance. And I just think it's so important on so many different levels.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I also feel like Maine is pretty much one of the best places that one could train most of the year. I train throughout the year, so it doesn't bother me. When it snows, it's cold, but it doesn't bother me. But most of the year it is just a beautiful and brilliant place to be.

Steve Corry:

It's perfect, actually, because it doesn't get too hot generally. I mean, we're coming out of the summer here and it was a warm one, but I'm with you. I prefer it to be cooler. I think it's a lot easier to train when it's. When it's cooler. Too cold. Paris Marathon was April 3, so the training was done throughout the winter. And it was hard to get out there and run. You know, you're 20 milers, by all means. It was hard to get out the door, but two miles in, I was delighted with it, you know. Yes, you had to put on some extra layers and this and that, but. And the summer, I mean, it's not so brutally hot that you can't train. So I agree with you. It's perfect. And the outdoors in Maine, I mean, you can't beat it. I mean, to be able to. Most of my running, trail running and whatnot is in Cape Elizabeth. And so it's in. Around Crescent beach, and you're looking out at Richmond island, and you're just constantly looking up and distracted by beauty. Then the next thing you know, it's, oh, I'm done for the day. Wow, that's fantastic.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So, see, and I'm the same way. I can't run on treadmills now. I feel like I'm spoiled. If somebody says, you go do a 5 miler on that treadmill over there, I'm like, no, I'd rather go on the city sidewalks if I'm not in Maine. Because, I mean, there is something about being in the outdoors. And I like you, I trail run and I get the ocean and I get island and I get. And it's so. It's so invigorating in a way that's not just physical.

Steve Corry:

It is. It kind of it hides a bit of the vigor, you know, the, the. Sorry, the rigor of it. And accentuates the vigor, if that's said well enough in that. Yes. And I think that sense of accomplishment is something else too, that you actually did get up and go out there and get it and you see things that you don't even expect to see. The wildlife component to it. I almost stepped on a hedgehog the other day and then I jumped over a small little garter snake, you know, and I'm glad I was alone because I jumped 10ft and I'm actually not afraid of snakes. But those things you're not going to certainly find on a treadmill. You know, I can't stand the treadmill.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, and this is not to say people who run treadmills, I'm 100% behind them. So anybody who's listening, if you run on a treadmill, you go, because that's great. Do it any way that works for you.

Steve Corry:

More power to you. I say absolutely, yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But I think, I think it's also interesting when I'm listening to you that I mean, because of the job that I do here, I don't have to cook the food, I don't have to create menus, but I eat a lot of the food and I go out a lot and I go to a lot of events. And for me it's very similar. You know, there is a very important balance that takes place. There's this understanding that if I'm going to have delicious food at petit Jacqueline or at 5:55, then I absolutely have to get up the next day and make sure that my body feels balanced.

Steve Corry:

Yeah, I do. I think it's, you know, I'm dating myself a bit too, but, you know, it's been decades of doing just that. And I find now if I don't do it, if I go for a stretch of time, that I. That I get out of balance to some degree, whether it's my nutrition falls off or, you know, this past weekend, for example, Labor Day weekend, and you know, a lot of family was up and this and that, and we didn't really have a routine. And I was able to do a lot of activities. We spent a lot of time at the beach, we were hiking, we were in the kayaks, this and that. But I didn't have my built in run, kayak or mountain bike timed workout. And I felt a little off kilter. And I just think it is so nice to have that outlet which is. Has only every benefit to it, which also helps Keep you grounded, balanced, whatever you want to say. It's just. It's such a nice, convenient aspect of it. I mean, it's just an extra added bonus outside of the health, you know, positive effects of it all.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's interesting to hear your story of when you had gained some weight and then your child was going to be born, and then you said, no, no, this can't continue. Because I see this over and over again personally, but also as a doctor, that it seems as though, especially young men, because young women, they have babies and there are other things that happen to their bodies that continue to keep them aware. But young men especially, there's something about. There's some time between being in college or being in your early 20s, if you don't go to college, just working, and then somehow in your 20s, late 20s, early 30s, waking up to the fact that maybe you haven't really been tuned into your body that much. And Harding Lee Smith came on the show. He's lost a bunch of weight. He's a local chef. He's a little older than his late 20s, but he came to this realization, I think. Justin Walker, I don't know that he gained any weight in particular, but he's a biker. So it seems like it's not only a young man thing, but maybe even male restaurateur chef thing. Is that possible? I don't know.

Steve Corry:

It could be. I mean, Larry Matthews is a good friend of mine, Back Bay Grill, and he has. He dropped a lot of weight, got himself really fit with CrossFit. I was talking to him about that. Jonathan Cartwright, who was the chef down at the White Barn Inn. He's an avid cyclist. I mean, very good one. I mean, he's a very fit individual, and I've always known him to be that way, but I haven't known him for all of his time as being a chef. So it's hard to work with food and not let it get to you because you constantly have to be tasting the food. And most of the restaurant food, I mean, there's no secret, really to it. The difference what we're doing in the restaurant is that you're not doing at home, is that we are not thinking about the excesses. Yes, there's more salt, there's more fat and more acid. I'd say those are probably the big three, that we pump those up and balance them to create these tastes and flavors and sensations. And meat dishes that are so satisfying, but you couldn't eat them every night. Don't get me wrong, not everything on the menu is that way the menus themselves have a balance so that those that are health conscious and whatnot can certainly find that fair as well. But to generalize, for the most part, people will go out to eat, to eat food that they can't eat at home. And it's my job to taste all of those foods throughout all of the day. And it's very hard to determine what your caloric intake is or fat intake, because you're constantly taking a tasting spoon and having a biological. To taste that I need to taste that I need to taste this. And so I think it's inevitable you come to that realization that, wow, I need to check myself a little bit, because you will just put on pounds very quickly, very easily.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There must be something also about the pleasure that you take. I can't imagine that you would do this if you didn't find pleasure in food. And that's a very sensory experience. But also running is a very sensory experience. Biking, kayaking. There must be something about your physical makeup that. That makes all of these things kind of have some relevance to one another.

Steve Corry:

I have never really thought about it that way, but it certainly stands to reason. I would. I would think. Sure, you make a very good point. I always. I never really equated the two. It's not a separation between work and play. It's not that black and white. But I don't know, it's interesting to think about it that way because I haven't done so yet.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate you coming here and talking to me and makes me want to run, honestly, the Paris marathon. Anybody who tells me a story about a race, I think, oh, I want to do that. That's. That is the funny thing about being a runner is it's not even the time. It's like, oh, that experience. I want that experience. That sounds great. And it sounds as if whatever it was, whatever sense of accomplishment that you had out of that, it makes you want to go back, even just to cheer on the people for the Paris marathon.

Steve Corry:

Yes, we're always trying to get back to Paris. My wife is of French descent and her dad was French, and of course, that whole side. And so. And we have French restaurants, so we. We try to get to Paris whenever we can. But I will make a point of getting back there for the marathon. Whether or not I'll run it again, it remains to be seen. My wife has no interest at this point in running a marathon. She's four years younger than I am. Four years ago, I had no interest in running A marathon either. So who knows. And the two boys, certainly the elder, he's developed an interest now in running. So he'll run some short distances and stuff with us. But no, to go back and support it, to see it. It was such a, I think there was over 60,000 people running the race and it is absolutely gorgeous at the, you know, at the beginning of the race and then you're out. Paris is only so big, so you have to get outside of the city and you're running in the country effectively for, you know, the middle portion. Then you run back to the, the city and then you're in the west for a portion. But when you are in the city and you're running that amount of time, regardless of the distance, you're just running for that long and your mind just goes to a different place. And then you kind of look up and you're like, oh, yeah, there's the Eiffel Tower. It's like, wow. You know, there's just a sensation to it. Like that was kind of part of it was like, we're going to train for one marathon. Let's couple it up with a business trip and a culture trip for the kids and we'll run the marathon at the beginning and then we'll, you know, enjoy Paris at the end of it. Do you have any races planned doing it? Just a turkey trot five miler down in Long island where my wife's brother and family live, obviously around Thanksgiving. And one of the guys that I played basketball with was proposing a two peak hike race. I'm not exactly sure where. It's one of the ski areas that's in the fall. And he's, he's proposing that we do this trail race as he knows I like to run on trails, but I'm not sure I want to run up a ski hill, down it and then up it again. But we'll see it, so I'm always open to it. What the beach to Beacon this year was, was so enjoyable, don't get me wrong. The Paris marathon, that was very enjoyable and very rewarding, but it was, it was grueling. It was very hot that day and all my training was in the cold. So I wasn't very pleased with my results per se. Overall, the thing was fantastic, but I just really enjoyed the beach to Beacon this year. The weather, the crowds, everything just seemed to come off. It was one of those races where I'm sure you, you know, some days you feel very good and others you don't. And it was a last minute thing. I I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it or not. And I kind of got up and I had the bib and I just walked up and right as the gun was going off, so to speak, and it just felt great the whole race. It's one of those, ah, this is fantastic, you know. And then at the end there's one of the guys I played ball with lives right there. Instead of getting on the bus, I called him like any chance you can give me a ride back home? And he's like, I'm going that way right now. Pick me up. And I was back at the house. Like a walk from the my house to the start line obviously, but the whole thing was like an hour and a half and I was back home like I'm so glad I did it and I really had such a great time doing it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I hope that whatever your next, whether you do the peak to peak thing or whether you just go with that turkey trot, but I'm sure that you will enjoy it and I hope that you have continued enjoyment with your running training because that's ultimately the most important thing. From what I can tell in this life, it's not really about the running of the races. It's really just about the joy of the run from what I can tell.

Steve Corry:

I agree.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been speaking with Steve Corey who along with his wife Michelle owns 555Petit Jacqueline and the Portland Patisserie and is also a runner and father and man of the world and extremely busy. So thank you so much for coming in and having this conversation with me today and for doing the the work that you do.

Steve Corry:

It's been my pleasure, truly. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

my great pleasure to spend time on the water watching the first, which I'm hoping will be first annual Casco Bay Island Swim Run. And today I have with me Jeff Cole who is the co director of the Casca Bay Island Swim Run. He has been involved in multi sport and endurance since 2000, racing in sprints to Ironman distances. He's a USA Triathlon certified race director and organized the first Casco Bay Island Swim Run in August. And you also are the president of Cole Harrison Insurance in Kennebunk and have been married 37 years. Wow. Got a lot of stuff going on there. You're a busy man.

Jeff Cole:

It's been a while, right?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I would say so. So when I say that this was the first annual, I don't want to put it out there if that's not actually going to be the case. This is a pretty big deal to get it going in the first place.

Jeff Cole:

It was. And we have big plans to be here again next year and further on in the calendar.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me about this. It was really interesting for me to watch because we had our boat off Peaks and we were watching the final leg. We were watching basically this is you start on an island and then you run that island and then you hop in the water and then you swim to the next island, then you run that island and you keep doing this until you get to that final island which is Peaks. And then you run up the hill and. And then you're done. But it's more than that. You're also hitched to a buddy.

Jeff Cole:

You are, you don't necessarily have to be. But that's, that's one of the, the early elements that was established with the race in Sweden where it all began in 2006. It's a team race, as you said, it's not a relay. So you're partnered with either another woman or a man or a mixed team. And the tether offers not only an element of safety in conditions that would warrant the race director or his organization to mandate its use, but it provides a strategic advantage as well in that competitors have to stay within a 10 meter distance of one another. And so where it's very easy to become gapped while you're swimming and not realizing where your partner is, having that connection keeps you together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I also heard that there's a very different approach to competition. Whereas if you see somebody and they're struggling, somebody falls, you help them.

Jeff Cole:

That's part of swim run not only is it an event that's intended to utilize the local geography and nature and the environment that you're in, but also the social aspect of it. And that would be to reach out and help a competitor or a fellow team that's in the midst of not necessarily maybe having minor difficulties, tired or fatigued, but where they perhaps been injured or need some significant assistance.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is different from many of the races that I've been in where somebody gets injured, they go down, they wait for the medical team to come in to help them out.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah, kind of the unique part of Swim Run is you're in areas that may not be suitable to have an immediate response from medical teams. So. Absolutely, Lisa. That's one of the elements to the race that's a little different.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So let me back up a little bit because I said I was there at Peaks, but this race started on Shebeague.

Jeff Cole:

I think it did. It started in Chandler's Cove on Shebeague on the Casco Bay line's wharf and began with almost a two mile run on Shebeague before they entered the water and swam to Little Chebig and from there and from Little Shebeague. Then they swam across Chandlers Cove to Cleaves Landing on Long Island. Then a jaunt over part of Long island to an area called the Nubble, which is a very beautiful part of that coastline. And they dropped in through a slot in the rocks and swam across Shark Cove to Singing Sands at South beach. And then a short swim over to Vail island, which Vail island is an uninhabited, undeveloped small island off the coast of Long, where they did a rock shoreline scramble which had a tendency to really slow them down because it's a very bold shore. Then they swam back to Long island, ran to the to follow this beach on Long, swam to. Oh, Peaks Island. I'm forgetting it's going by memory over to Peaks Island. Evergreen landing at Peaks Island. Then probably the most scenic part of that element to the course was a run through the Peaks Island Land Preserve and the trails there. A very wild part of Peaks island. If you can imagine that being so close to the city of Portland, it's quite beautiful. Then from there, swim over to Cushings island, run on Cushing's Swim, then to Fort Scammel on the end of House island, traverse the fort remnants and then come down onto the beach on the east end of House Island. And then finally the swim over to Peaks island and the finish line.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There was a lot of coordination that had to take place around this because there's active ferries that go back and forth and then you have boaters. And when I was out there, there are all kinds of pleasure boaters, power boaters, sailboaters, kayakers. I mean, this was a very busy Sunday morning that this was happening.

Jeff Cole:

There were a lot of moving parts and, you know, the race couldn't have happened and happened as successfully as it did without the support of the US Coast Guard Casco Bay Islands ferry, Nick Mavidonis and his team there. Also the Portland harbor master, Keith Battles. He was terrific. And not last, but and certainly not least would be the team from Long island and their public safety people. They, they deployed a force of about 15 people throughout the day and worked very, very hard to keep the course safe and secure and make sure that everybody had a safe event.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How many people did you have compete?

Jeff Cole:

We started 121 teams. We had registered almost 140 teams. There's also usually about 10% national attrition, no shows for various reasons, but we started 100.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And these were teams that basically had to qualify and be accepted. These weren't just teams who could say, hey, I want to show up and do this. This was a very special field that you were gathering.

Jeff Cole:

It was. We had some fairly rigorous prerequisites in terms of experience and capabilities that people had to apply with. From there, we hand picked about 20 to 25 elite teams that we would call that had either previous swim run experience in Sweden or had done multiple endurance events, adventure racing, things of that nature. Certainly long distance ironman swims were an important element, but even so, everybody still had to meet a minimum threshold in terms of swim times and then the balance of the entries. And we hand picked, excuse me, we lottery chose the remaining 85 teams and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

these were tickets that went fast.

Jeff Cole:

They did. We were overwhelmed with interest, quite frankly. When we went live with seeking applications for the selection process, we had over 600 applications in less than 10 days. And at that point in time, we'd established only 100 team race slots. And so was a challenge to find or discriminate various applications because most everybody was very well qualified to be in this race. But you're right, it wasn't the type of race that you decided on Friday that you were going to do the next day like a 5k.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So why do you think so many people were interested in doing something that frankly, is quite difficult?

Jeff Cole:

I think. Well, certainly our target audience were established adventure endurance racers. And within that subset there's a large number of people that have what I call triathlon fatigue. They've done triathlons for a decade or more. It's pretty much cut and dried. What's involved with that? And I think that they're looking for something new. And it became obvious to us very early on that this hit a chord.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What is the total? I think when, when we first heard about this at Maine Magazine, we actually. Somebody went through and they calculated how. How much swimming this included involved and how much running this involved. I don't remember the numbers, but I'm sure you know them.

Jeff Cole:

It was 4 miles of combined swimming and pretty close to 12 miles of overland work between beach run, shore scrambles, road work, trail work, about 12 miles. So 16 miles combined, which is pretty

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

incredible considering that it's not. I mean, I've run races, but you're on the road, you run down the road, you run up a hill, you run down the hill, you run back around to the finish. This is. You're not talking that. You're talking trail runs, you're talking rock scrambles. You're talking. It's not even. It's not even pool swimming. You're talking open water swimming.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah. The natural environment provides some very interesting challenges that you don't ordinarily encounter. When you're doing a triathlon with a nice paved surface road, a nice buoy marked swim course that you just need to look ahead and see where those buoys are and where to go with swim run. You need to have some sense of being able to orient yourself with a compass and look across an expanse of water and know that from your map there is a swim exit point 1300 yards across this expanse of water that's just about over in that direction. And also taking into account the variabilities of current and tide and wind and waves. So it. Yeah, it's quite different. And I think because of that, that's why it attracted so many people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When we were watching, we noticed that it wasn't necessarily a straight line that people would take to swim from one island to the next. And sometimes if there was somebody, a duo right in front of you, then you could follow that duo. But sometimes you're just like, oh, it's roughly over there. And we saw people go way over to one side, way over to the next. We kept having to move our boats. And I think that that's an. I think that that's what you've referred to when you say it's a little different than what we're used to. We're not giving people all the information we're saying roughly, this is where you go have at it.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah. Some of those diversions were probably unintentional as opposed to intentional with the current and so forth. Later in the race where you were down toward Cushing's in House Island, Peaks island, the outgoing current got a little stronger than it had been when they started up at Shebeag. So that may have taken them a little bit by surprise and they had to alter their course. And certainly following the team in front of you isn't necessarily a guaranteed option that you're going to land where you want to be. So it's those nuances to swim run that are different and I think became more fully appreciated as the day went on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I think it was striking to me, the number of people who were almost at Peaks and they would just stop for a minute and rest. We could hear them across the water. I'm so tired. And the other one would say, it's okay, keep going, we're almost there. But that fatigue factor, and when you're talking about this current and I just think about like, you've gotten this many miles into this race and the end is in sight, but still your body's just like, okay, okay.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah. And surprisingly, there were only four teams that didn't finish. So out of 121, 117 finished and pushed through. That fatigue factor that you reference, beyond physical fatigue, I think there was mental fatigue and emotional fatigue. Some of these teams hadn't work together with swim run to any large degree as they may have put in race preparation for any other race because this was so different. Some certainly did. We had a pre event in mid July, just as kind of a small test, a part of the course. And it was obvious with just a few of those teams that the struggles that they had to endure were quite different. And it, it played upon their ability to be able to interact in a positive way toward the end of the day. And we saw some of that on race day that there were some teams that finished and they split up and they were gone.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I can only imagine being tethered to somebody that by the end of all of this run, again, swimming, you're like, yeah, I am just done with you. Because this just didn't work out that well for me at all. And I remember, actually it was interesting during the summer because we live on an island that's connected by a causeway. I remember we would see footprints that would go from one side of the causeway to the other and we wondered why they're wet. Wet footprints. And we learned that there were actually some people who were out swimming around in the COVID that had walked across the causeway. So that's also interesting, this idea of where do you train.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah, I mean for anybody that's approximate to Casco Bay, they had the upper hand in being able to know where their out points were, understand what kind of train they were going to be on, that it wasn't going to be a first time view for them on race day. So I think I know who you're referring to on some of those people that went out and trained and they definitely had an upper hand for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So, Geoff, you have had successful business. You've graduated from Berwick Academy and the University of Maine. Your family's been in Maine a long time. You've been married 37 years, you have two grown children. Why would you put yourself through triathlons and endurance competitions, things like Ironmans? I mean, you already had a lot going on. Why would you take this on? And then why would you become a coach? And then why would you go to the next level level and organize an entire event?

Jeff Cole:

I think because it's fun and it's out of the box for me in terms of what I do in my profession. And it's an interesting question and I don't know that I have the perfect answer for it other than to say I enjoy it immensely. The mental part about putting together all the work in pieces to make an event like this successfully happen, that to me was a challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed throughout this. We were admonished quite early on that, you know, what are you doing? You're gonna go on some of these private islands, you'll never get permission. You know, these people are very cloistered and very private. You'll never be able to go on that island. And that to me set a bar that I wanted to be able to overcome. And we did. And I think part of that was I'm not someone coming from away that just wants to drop in here and take advantage of people's largesse. Not at all. We wanted to show them that we respected their privacy immensely. And that was one of the, the reasons why we didn't hold that mid July test event on any part of the course that involved private property. We stayed completely on public lands for that. I didn't want to wear out the welcome. We were very careful about pledging that we would leave their homelands in shape better than we found them. And we did our course monitors did an excellent job in picking up trash and, and litter that our racers didn't leave. And more importantly, I think that our charity beneficiary, the Travis Mills foundation, resonated with a lot of people in the area that know who that individual is and the sacrifices that he made and what he intends to do. From his experience, I think that that aided us in being able to secure those types of permission to get onto private property.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For listeners who aren't familiar with the Travis Mills foundation, give us a little background.

Jeff Cole:

Travis was a staff sergeant in the U.S. army, and in, I think it was 2012, he put his rucksack down while he was in Afghanistan. And just below the rucksack was an ied and. And Travis lost all four of his limbs. He's one of only five surviving quadruple amputees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he's a miraculous young man. He's taken this experience and he's moving forward with his goal to transform a large estate up in the Belgrade Lakes area to be a retreat for wounded warriors, all expenses paid for their families and their children for weeks at a time. And so our race benefited him with a donation of $10,000 at the finish line. Travis was there with his father in law, Craig, and we're really pleased and proud that he affiliated with us, and we're pleased to say that he'll be with us next year and hopefully going forward.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did you choose his organization as a charity?

Jeff Cole:

I think because his story is quite unique and there's a Maine connection to it, too, and a direct Maine connection. His wife is from Maine. He lives here now. And he intends to use another part of Maine, the Belgrade Lakes area. That. That's beautiful. To enhance the experience that he wants to be able to provide for other wounded warriors and make their life better.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It must be also an interesting irony to participate in a race where you probably are going to benefit from having all of your limbs and be putting the proceeds of this race towards an individual's foundation who doesn't have that anymore.

Jeff Cole:

His motto, Lisa, is never give up, never give in. And I think that was a part of the essence of our race that I think was meaningful to people that came here to do the race is that this was going to be a very tough day for most of them. It was very different, very different conditions to race in. And, you know, despite maybe some discomfort during the day that they may have felt, if they could think on what the race was doing for the Travis Mills foundation and what he's endured and what his motto is, that that would have inspired them to just keep going. And I think it did.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What did you learn from this last year that you will apply toward organizing future swim runs?

Jeff Cole:

That it wasn't long enough, believe it or not. So next year we hope not only to have a longer version, but we'll also have a much shorter version for some folks who aren't quite at the point where they can do something of that length, but they want to give it a try. So we'll have a shorter course that will be about 2 miles of combined swimming and 6 miles of running. But the longer course will be even more challenging because it'll have close to 6 miles of swimming and 16 miles of running.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I'm sitting here processing this, people saying that it wasn't long enough because when we were watching the first people came in, they had literally been out there for hours.

Jeff Cole:

Yeah, the winning team was three and a half hours, which was a little quicker than I thought that they would they'd finish that course. The last folks came through at about 6 hours, 6:20. So there was everything in between. But it never ceases to amaze me how much more of a challenge people are willing to subject themselves to. So we have, we've got some layouts

Steve Corry:

for

Jeff Cole:

a longer course.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I know that we will be covering the swim run through the magazines here and I'm sure we will be back out there watching you next year. Do we have a date yet?

Jeff Cole:

We do. It's the 13th of August next year, Sunday the 13th, basically the same weekend in the month. And I'm hopeful that we'll still have the welcome mat throughout those islands. I have no reason to believe otherwise. And so we're already thinking about it and working on it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We will have the website for the Casco Bay Islands Swim Run on our Show Notes page. We have been speaking with Jeff Cole, who is the co director of the Casco Bay Islands Swim Run. Thanks so much for bringing this to our lovely Casco Bay and we look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Jeff Cole:

Thank you very much and thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 266, Racing Maine. Our guests have included Jeff Cole and Steve Corey. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to UE Week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Racing Maine show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Also, it strikes me that you are wanting to help stem the brain drain. The University of Maine, it offers so many things depending upon what your desires are. But one of the things that it has been doing and it's got to be doing for at least a decade now is scholarship money to the top students in high schools around the state. So then, and my son took advantage of that. So he got this great high quality education and he got it really through having a full scholarship to the University of Maine. And that's so forward thinking to be able to say we really don't want you to have to leave the state to get a good education.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, that's something that we have been working on and we are, I'd say, putting even more intense focus on it in part because the state of Maine is really looking at both, I would say, a demographic and a geographic challenge. We are the state with the oldest median age population and we are seeing a decline in the number of high school graduates due to population decline, not because people are leaving high school. But when you look at that, you realize that the state is facing a shortage of people in the, you know, the teen to 20s to 30s age cohort and seeing a rise in those of us in my age cohort. Well, the whole state can't run. We cannot have an economy based on 1.3 million retired people and we actually have to do everything we can to both hang on to the talent we have in this state and make it attractive to stay in the state and attract people from other states. And so we've got some programs that we've named the Maine Matters program where we're really trying to make the University of Maine more affordable for middle income families. We have our Maine Match program and that program is really aimed at students who are looking at U Main and they're also looking at flagship land grant campuses throughout New England. So UConn, UMass, Amherst, UVM, unh. And we're offering a plan that we want to look at the financial aid package they're getting there and do the best job we can to make our financial aid very attractive so that they will choose to stay in Maine and come to their flagship land grant campus. And then for out of state students, we've identified six states. It's Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Rutgers, where the flagship campuses in state tuition is more than our in state tuition. And so in this case we offer a two tiered merit award. So this is an academic merit award. Tier one students from those states, if they apply and they are granted a tier one award, they pay to come to the University of Maine. They pay what they would pay to go to their flagship campus. So it's this flagship match and if they get a two tier, a tier two award, they would pay more than tier one. But still not the full cost of being an out of state student. And it has resulted in a 30, I think the number is now 38% increase in confirmed out of state students for this coming fall. So it looks like it's being successful. And I'll just say one more thing on this and that's we see when people graduate from U Maine from out of state, it's about 15 to 20% stay in Maine for their first job. So even if we don't change the percentage, if we just jack up the number of people and the percentage stays the same, we will be retaining more people, we will be attracting people, educating them, and more of them will stay in state. And that will really benefit the state of Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that you as a university system are benefiting from the recognition that Maine is a great place to live, a great place to visit? I know that what I do with Maine magazine, sort of my position is predicated on that and I've lived here all my life. And is this also something that you think that students are coming to recognize as they're applying to go to college and wanting to experience themselves?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, yes. I mean, the short answer is yes. It seems to have taken off a bit more. And I think in part that's because part of it is the financial aid packaging and that part of it is marketing. And frankly, being, I would say, more aggressive and more perhaps professional, having people that really know how to do that. We've done a much better campaign of pr. I mean, you know, billboards on the highways in New England, radio and TV spots. I mean, then you get you. And then we had a firm that we hired that did some marketing for us, and they were able to get really good stories in newspapers. I mean, we had a front page story in the Boston Globe. The Hartford Courant covered us. It was mentioned there was something in the Washington Post. When you get that kind of coverage, then it piques people's interest. And then more people start to come and look at the campus and then they spend a day there and they come to an open house and all of that, it frankly gins up interest, which is great because then more people discover you and they realize that there really is something. When you make the trip to Orono, Maine, there's really something to find. And that's why we encourage, encourage people to come visit, especially people that either haven't ever been there or haven't been

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

there in a long time.