Marathons: Paul #66, Leah #56, State #46 : Vermont City Marathon 2015
24th May 2015, Burlington, Vermont, USA
Finish Time = 3:44:50
The Vermont City marathon took place on a Sunday with Memorial Day Monday following, which is a US public holiday. This meant instead of finishing the race and having to fly out again somewhere, we could actually enjoy the full weekend for once.
We spent Saturday exploring Burlington and walking along the lakefront as well as the town.
The finish that we’d be running down the next day
At Waterfront Park, overlooking Lake Champlain. The State line between Vermont and New York divides the lake
We picked up our bibs from the expo and that evening we met up with a group of Maniac friends for dinner in a local Italian restaurant. It was great to catch up and we also met some new faces.
The morning of the race we got a shuttle from our hotel to the start and met up with the large group of Maniacs at the event. After a few pictures and some chatting it was time to start.
We made it for the Maniacs group photo before the start! We usually end up missing these
We hustled our way into the time slot area we wanted to start from and just happened to end up in the same place as our friend Heather. A good opportunity for another picture!
Finding Heather at the start. Photo credit: Heather Zeigler
We set off, the sun was shining and it felt like it was going to be the warm day that had been predicted. The course took in a lot of the area we had explored the day before and we were glad we had taken the time to walk around at a slower pace previously to fully appreciate all the sights. After several miles there was an out and back stretch, we were able to shout out to our faster friends and then while on our way back, call out to those behind us. The good thing about wearing the Maniacs gear is you and give and receive shout-outs from other random Marathon Maniacs, all united by the club.
Running through the town center
The clouds had covered the sun by this point which actually provided a nice temperature. The course was great, some parts city, some parts residential and some parts surrounded by green trees and nature. At around 11 miles we saw Heather up ahead who was struggling from fighting with a bad cold. She’s a 50Sub4 club member too, so we knew how important it was for her to get the sub 4. We talked with her briefly and she managed to take a picture as we went past. We hoped that she would be able to find the strength to keep pushing.
Heather snapped this picture of us as we went past. Photo credit: Heather Zeigler
We reached half way in 1:48, we felt good and were really enjoying both the event itself and being around Maniac friends. We stopped to use the toilets and then shortly after we spotted Heather up ahead, she had overtaken us while we had stopped. This was great news, she’d fought back and was confident of also getting her sub 4 time.
We met a few other people on the course that we had seen at previous races and talked, catching up with what races they had done since. The miles flew by and it wasn’t long before we were looking towards the finish. We ran down along the lakefront where we had walked the day before and turned the corner onto the grass finishing stretch.
To make the final stretch harder, try running it with your eyes closed
We finished in 3:44, nearly 10 minutes faster than our previous week’s time which was pretty crazy considering it was our 11th in 11 weeks.
We really enjoyed this marathon
We spotted Heather who had finished 3 minutes ahead of us and we all made our way to the beer tent for some refreshments. It was great not to have to rush off and we enjoyed spending some time having a drink and some pizza.
Celebrations with friends in the beer tent
Beer and pizza goes down well after a race
After a while we went back to our hotels and later met back up with one of our friends, Eliot, from the picture above, to visit the original Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream factory, which all started in Vermont. We couldn’t really visit Vermont without stopping here. The factory tour finished with a large helping of ice-cream, after which we went back to Burlington for a dinner of beers and burgers and a lot of laughs.
We had a blast at Vermont, not only was the marathon a very well organized event but it was a change of pace for us to have some time to take everything in and be able to socialize more with the people we’ve come to know through a common interest of running multiple marathons. We also met some new people and of course finished our 46th State.
Elevation graph from my running watch:
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