The inaugural 2011 Shires of Vermont Marathon was a scenic, point-to-point marathon that connected the towns of Bennington and Manchester and coincided with the celebration of their 250th anniversaries. We were traveling to Northampton, MA that weekend for my wife’s reunion at Smith College. All I can say is that this college/area of the country is a utopia of acceptance of varying creeds, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation, complete with a cappella groups! Oh, and fantastic ice cream. (http://www.herrells.com) …and an intriguing history of the Gone With the Wind story and landmarks, considering that Margaret Mitchell attended college at Smith, briefly. Since only 360 people signed up for this marathon, I was hoping that it would not be very competitive. Upon arriving in Bennington the morning of the race, I discovered just how wrong that assumption was!
Have you ever heard of Chuck Engle? Of course you haven’t. Here, read this; (http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21482&PageNum=&CategoryID=). Ok, now that you’ve been briefed, I will proceed. Chuck is one of the first people, in a sea of middle-aged marathon veterans I see standing in the art gallery that served as the check-in place for the race. I overheard his plan for a goal of 2:40 and his impression that he will face some competition in his attempt to add this marathon to his pile of marathon 1st place finishes. New game plan – just enjoy myself!
As tempting as it was to stand in the comforting warmth of the gallery for the hour until the start gun, the entertainment just outside in the mist and cold was beckoning me. I enjoyed the a cappella groups of Smith throughout the course of the college reunion weekend. Vermont has its own special a cappella group, Blackberry Jam. I swear, when I find a You Tube video of their performance, you will see it here! The band consisted of two adolescent boys akin to Hanson in their prime, outfitted in bedazzled white denim jackets, hand painted jeans, perfectly coiffed hair and vibrantly colored Nike Air Force Ones singing a medley of hits from Don’t Stop Believing to the Star-Spangled Banner and my personal favorite for the day, I Can See Clearly (since it was clearly not going to be a bright sun-shiny day!). Over and over again. The comedic value of their appearance, performance, and looping repertoire did not go unnoticed by a single runner in attendance! I can only attribute their obvious dedication and seriousness in the face of such adversity to years of America being subjected to shows the likes of American Idol – making subpar, laughably terrible singers (in)famous.
With temperatures in the 50’s (F) at the 9am start time, the rain began to fall more heavily. In fact, there really was not a break in the rain throughout the entire race. Weather aside, the course was beautiful. It twists and turns, rises and falls through small towns scattered sparingly across the southwest corner of Vermont, over covered bridges, down pothole-riddled dirt and gravel roads and smooth, asphalt two-lane highways. For a first time marathon, this race was exceptionally well organized and staffed with the right amount of aid stations and course marshals directing traffic. I knew nothing about this course other than the course description offered on the race’s website; “There is a net elevation loss of 160 feet, with 500 feet of vertical gain between Miles 2 and 13. The last six miles of the course are flat. About nine miles consist of hard-packed dirt, with the remainder of the surface paved.”If that sets your mind at ease, then I too had the same false sense of security! This course was hard, second only to Pikes Peak Marathon for me. After the first two miles of aggressive downhill, the climb from mile 2 – 13 was a bit more difficult that I was led to believe. It was such a shock, in fact, that I actually had shin splints for most of this part! I haven’t had shin splints since I started running marathons in 2001. I can’t decide if this was a result of the course or karma for having just worked with a customer at Fleet Feet (a running store I work at) who had this issue and I boasted at the time that I hardly recalled the pain! Additionally, I wouldn’t call the second half of this course flat, or even downhill. It consisted of a lot of hills. By this time, I accepted the fact that I wasn’t properly trained for this and was just going to hold my own for the remainder of the race. I was currently in 6th place.
Between miles 16 & 17, two other runners had caught up to me as we were directed by a supposed course marshal to turn onto a highway with a not-so-insignificant incline. For 3/4 of a mile, we worked off each other to crest the top of the hill. At that moment, a police officer passed us and doubled back to inform us that we were off the course! The three of us were on pace for a sub-three hour marathon when one runner just said, “f**k it, I’m done!” I made friends with the remaining runner over the rest of the course, laughing at how absurd our 28-mile marathon was going to be. That extra 1.5 miles mentally and physically exhausted us as we were not prepared for even the slightest alteration to our planned 26.2 miles. As if Mother Nature herself knew the feeling, it just rained harder.
The last 0.2 miles became that usual show of bravado that exists in many runners to see just who has it in themselves to sprint to the finish. As friendly as he and I had become, there was no way I was going to just trot it in. This final sprint really was the icing on the cake considering that it was through a field transformed into mud puddles as a result of an entire morning of rain. I finished in 8th place, nudging my new friend out by one second. Awaiting us at the finish was the most impressive array of food I’ve seen at a marathon. Chocolate milk, galore! My lips were blue, my hands were numb and my arms were filled with snacks and drinks as I stood half naked in the rain waiting for my wife to pull the car around to drive us to the airport. I had a word with the race director about the 1.5 mile snafu and he amended my finish to 7th place to account for the approximately ten extra minutes we ran. My official time was 3:14:21. Who knows what it could have been without the detour!
Oh, and Chuck Engle? He finished in 2:44:55 and won, of course.
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