49th Sub-3-hour Marathon State: A Successful 3rd Attempt at Vermont

One of us has 2 thumbs, had fun, AND beat the other by 2/10th of a second

The COVID year messed us all up. Sure, it was fun for a bit. Then winter came. Then it got lonely. Then I realized how much I was drinking. Coming back from that to prepare for this race began March 1st with a 26-week plan, broken into 8 weeks of base building, body weight workouts, and attempting to quit drinking. Then, 18 weeks of Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning 70-85 miles per week training plan, body weight workouts, 75+ miles per week of cycling, and actually quitting drinking. I'm putting that out there now in case you're here for the breweries... 

We landed in Boston on Friday and no sooner found ourselves at Jack's Abbey, a brewery. Then, on to Treehouse, another brewery. The latter was a good place for the club to rendezvous (a few dozen of the Libertyville Running Club were here) and to test my commitment to sobriety - it's one of my favorites. They have cold brew coffee and seltzer now and have community guitars to play. Now THAT'S a great idea, especially since I learned to play guitar while simultaneously drinking coffee and seltzer during the pandemic. 

Coffee at Treehouse's brewery / adult outdoor play land in Charlton, MA 

They trust us with not shitty guitars, they also limit patrons to 2 beers

Five of us rented an idyllic farmhouse, built in 1810 but newly remodeled, in Shelburne Falls, MA. We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of a brook that ran through the backyard and Laurie burping. We're accustomed to one of these things by now. After a shakeout run in the High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary, we explored the three things Shelburne Falls has for us: a dam, potholes (geological, not the Chicago variety), and the Bridge of Flowers, ending with dinner at West End, a cute restaurant overlooking the river. 

Our house

Getting high on a shakeout overlooking Shelburne Falls

Damn, look at that dam

Flowers on a bridge

The Bridge of Flowers

Like back home, this area was having a hot, humid weather streak. Fortunately, that broke on Saturday and promised to stay overcast and just below 80 degrees for the race on Sunday before getting hot again. We woke at 3:30am for blueberry pancakes we made the night before. We were on a bus at 5:15am to the port-a-potty lines (runners, amirite?) and then the start line in Marlboro, Vermont.

LRC is handsome in every state we travel to run

I've said it here before, New England runners are fast; 18 are in front of me from the start in a race field of less than 300. The course is downhill for much of the first 10 miles, in fact, the course profile is similar to the Boston Marathon with more downhill and gravel roads but without the fanfare. The only high-five I (almost) got was from a stray cat that didn't budge when I put my hand out. I think her name was Wellesley. 

Somewhere around mile 9

I had planned to run the half in 1:25:00 (made it in 1:24:30), be at mile 20 at 2:10:00 (made it in 2:09:46), then relax. After mile 18, I was alone. I finished my 9th fastest marathon (out of 74) in 9th place in 2:52:36. Yay, I won a coffee mug! Aside from my quads feeling defeated, I was thrilled to have finally conquered Vermont after the 2011 Shires of Vermont Marathon and the 2019 Vermont City Marathon thoroughly enjoyable misses.

We hung out to see all of LRC finish then off to one last brewery, Whetstone Brewery, in Brattleboro, VT, which overlooks the Connecticut River. On the drive there, we found Apex Orchards. Laurie may have hinted that she wanted to go pick peaches. We had to stop.

This stop inspired a Songs About Peaches playlist for the drive to Whetstone

The views of Howie from Whetstone's patio were as dreamy as the river

Continually reinventing myself throughout this challenge has kept me motivated to run. To learn how one's body adapts to different scenarios, age, and experience is exciting. Also, I'm happier when I'm not doing the same thing over and over again... like running a marathon OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Ok, but the surroundings are different and Vermont is pretty. So is New Mexico, which I'll see again at the end of September and hopefully for the last time, for a while anyway.

I'm getting pumped for my last state