FW: Vermont City (Burlington) Race report - a little late
Blanchard III,Ralph S
A little over 7 days ago I ran the Vermont City Marathon, my 98th marathon, this one in the land of Bernie (Sanders, that is). The race was Sunday, May 26th.
This race is a medium sized regional marathon, about 2,000 marathoners, with its most distinctive feature being the number of relay teams (about 700). More on this later. There was also a half-marathon option.
Like nearly all marathons these days, registration is on-line. Signing up entitles you to weekly emails in the months prior to the event, and daily emails as the race gets closer.
When you register it is also wise to book a hotel room. The race provides shuttles from most of the nearby hotels. (I booked a hotel right on the route, a short walk from the start/finish.)
Packet pickup was the Friday and Saturday at a hotel near the highway exit (but not within walking distance of the start – if you stayed there you needed a shuttle to get to the race). The expo was well run, with a fair amount of vendors including at least two running stores: Fleet Feet and National Running Center. There were also a couple vendors from other marathons, but only relatively local ones: Laurentian Mountains (Canada), and Adirondacks. I also took advantage to the opportunity to taste the gel they would have on the course, an “all natural” concoction made from maple syrup. It tasted like and had the consistency of sugar water. No thanks. (I decided to rely on the packets of Gu that I usually use.)
Forecast for race day kept changing as the day approached. The initial forecast (7 days prior) was ideal, temps starting at 50 degrees, warming to 60 degrees by the finish. As each day passed the forecast got worse and worse. By race day the forecast was for thunderstorms at the start, with temps warming to just below 80 degrees by the finish.
The race was supposed to start at 7am, early enough to beat at least some of the heat. It was a good idea, but the weather didn’t cooperate. 10 minutes prior to the start of the race, they evacuated the starting area. We were asked to walk a couple blocks to covered parking garages. It turned out that the thunder and lightning, along with some brief showers, arrived right on time (at the scheduled race start time of 7am). They didn’t start the race until 7:45, 45 minutes late.
The course consists essentially of 4 loops, each returning back to the starting area or nearby it, making relay logistics very easy. It is also ideal for spectators. They can stay in one spot and see their friends 4 times on the course. (The finish was actually a little downhill from the start, by Lake Champlain.)
The first loop was just over a 5K through downtown and some residential areas. Given the recent rain, we were running on wet pavement. It wasn’t wet enough to form large puddles, but it did help raise the humidity. (Dewpoints started around 60 and rose to about 64 degrees, a bit humid, especially given the recent weather.) I have one piece of advice to the race organizers on this stretch – please remove the traffic signs in the middle of the road before the race. As we passed by a school I had to dodge a “School Zone” sign placed in the middle of the road. A runner behind me wasn’t so lucky – he crashed into the sign and tumbled into the pavement.
The second loop was a 6 mile out-and-back to the North along a mini highway. Scenery was swampland with no shade. As such, it was good to get this out of way before the sun rose too high in the sky. This loop ended with a long hill around mile 9 as we re-entered the city/town.
The third loop was another 6 mile loop heading to the south, with occasional stretches on a bike path along the lake – generally pleasant, but by now it was starting to get hot. At each of the water stations they held up signs that indicated the “risk” level. For the first loop the signs said “Low” risk, by the end of the 2nd loop the signs started to say “Moderate”. Halfway through this loop all the signs said “High” risk. This section also went through some nice residential areas where the first of the freeze pops started to appear. (These were a thin plastic tube of flavored sugar water frozen into ice. Some very nice people handed them out along the course, cut in half so that you could easily squeeze the icy delight into your mouth as you ran. Very much appreciated.)
The third loop ended with the mile 15/16 hill, a steep hill with a tradition of Japanese Taiko drummers at the base. After this you headed Northwest through the start/relay staging area. It was here that I experienced the dreaded WWT (walking while texting) phenomena. I’m running along through the chute starting the fourth loop, and a spectator ahead of me decided that she just had to finish her texting. The only problem was that she stopped right in the middle of the runners chute to do so. After yelling as loud as I could, she jumped out of the way just in time. A little unnerving around mile 16 for a runner.
The fourth loop started out with the most boring part of course, on the edge of a main road (still open to traffic) with little to no shade. After a while we headed off the main road and briefly into a residential area before arriving at a park. For some reason the course left the park (around mile 19) by going through the woods for about 20 yards, a cameo trail section. Remember the start of the race, which was delayed due to a brief thunder shower? Well, that early rain had managed to make that 20 yards of trail into a mud field. So much for keeping your shoes looking good. (It reminded me of this year’s Traprock 17K, at least for 60 seconds of the race.)
From mile 19 to about 22 we were running in quiet residential neighborhoods, with excellent local support. Many people handed out freeze pops, and at least one handed out water bottles. They were lifesavers given the conditions (sunny, humid, temps close to 80 degrees. It was around here that the impact of all the relay teams became more pronounced. As marathoners were starting to slow down due to the distance and the heat, we noticed more and more all these fresh runners racing by and weaving through us. It can get a little demoralizing.
This last loop is also where I noticed an unusual thing at several water stations. Each water station (about every 1.5 miles) had water in clear plastic cups and Gatorade in green paper cups. At one of the water stations I noticed a volunteer digging into the trash can after the water station, pulling out the plastic water cups for recycling. Other water stations had a special trash can for recycling. I personally thought this was a bit much, but to each his/her own.
The course finished along a bike path through the woods, with the lake on your right side. It was a very pleasant place to finish, although I wish there was more shade.
The finish was in a lakeside park, just downhill from the start. There were plenty of refreshments for runners. We were each given our own reusable grocery bag to carry the food, which included “organic” chocolate milk. (This was the land of Bernie, after all.) They were also supposed to have free beer for the runners, but the beer tent was on the other side of the park, and had run out by the time I made it there. (Too many relay racers and half marathoner?)
Overall, a decent marathon. I finished, which was all that really mattered, especially after jamming my right knee (while running in mud) 2 weeks before the race. The knee is still sore, but I have time to more fully recover before my next marathon – late August in Iceland.
Ralph
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Bogle,Nelville S
“Congratulations on completing # 98 Ralph...closing in on the big 100th. This one appeared to me quite an interesting event, Iceland can only be better”!
Neville S. Bogle, CPCU | Manager| Statutory Reporting
The Travelers Companies, Inc.
One Tower Square | CR17
Hartford, CT 06183
Office: 860.277.2570 | F: 860-954-0030
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Poppel,David C
Huge congrats Ralph!
Which race in Iceland? There’s a half on the west coast that I want to do some day.
Dave Poppel
Platform Engineering – Claim Systems
Travelers
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From: statehous...@googlegroups.com <statehous...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Blanchard III,Ralph S
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2019 7:50 AM
To: statehous...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [External] FW: Vermont City (Burlington) Race report - a little late
A little over 7 days ago I ran the Vermont City Marathon, my 98th marathon, this one in the land of Bernie (Sanders, that is). The race was Sunday, May 26th.
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Reese,Glenn A
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/statehousestriders/b72e63b0332f499f9098b5abd14543f1%40TENX3MCX.prod.travp.net.