Vermont 50: 424 Miles This Weekend ...

... and I only had to run 50. I drove to and ran the Vermont 50 50-mile race this past Sunday. Along with 550 other runners (some there for the shorter 50k version) and a ton of mountain bikers, I took off at 6:35 AM on Sunday to see the best of autumn scenery Vermont had to offer.

The run was quite manageable when compared to my Wapack experience from earlier this year. No need for a 7 installment blog series.

There were ample aid stations and only one run of 7+ miles between stations - in fairness, it was only going to be 6 miles, but course re-routing due to Hurricane Irene damage from a few weeks prior added some mileage. That said, the entire run was a bit over 50 miles, but what's a few miles between friends once you've already run 50? Right?

The day started "looking" nice - overcast, but you could feel the humidity and when the sun broke around 11 AM and temperatures reached close to the 80's, I knew it was going to be a bit uncomfortable. I kept up with the hydration and food at every chance possible - never going more than 45 minutes without eating (even if it was only a Gu packet between aid stations). I did run out of water on the 7 mile stretch between 40 and 47 miles with about a mile to go. I expected I would what with soaring temperatures just after midday and little shade on the open pastures we were running across at that point. I made it into the aid station after passing 3 runners in that last water-less mile, my thirst more of a motivator than a higher finishing spot.

Official results put me in 1 second faster than my watch at 9:15:49 at a pace of 11:06 minutes per mile. I finished 62/254 and 21/71 in my class (Male: 30 - 39).

My splits times according to my watch:

Vermont 50: September 25, 2011
Aid Station	Mileage	Split Time	Spent at Aid	Cumm. Time
Coon Club	4.2	37:22	0:41	38:03
Dart's	8.5	43:42	0:00	1:21:46
Skunk Hollow	12.3	39:04	0:54	2:01:44
Garvin Hill	19.3	1:06:25	1:50	3:10:01
Cady Brook	23.2	39:03	0:51	3:49:54
Margaritaville	27.6	52:27	2:19	4:44:42
Dugdale's	31.9	42:51	2:45	5:30:19
Fallon's	37.3	54:02	2:39	6:27:00
Goodman's	41.1	45:12	2:37	7:14:51
Johnson's	47.2	1:18:19	2:01	8:35:15
Finish	50	40:35	--	9:15:50

Reach the Beach Relay - 2011

Massakruliks - Men's Open

84/434 - 30/119

Back row from left: Bill (leg 4), Bayen (leg 8), Ward (leg 12), Gavin (leg 1), Tucker (leg 5)

Middle row from left: Emily (leg 9), Kara (leg 6), Ashley (leg 3), Jodi (leg 11), Suzi (leg 10), Randy (leg 7)

Front row: Vince [aka: Me] (leg 2), Krulik [aka: Mascot] (on my right shoulder)

			Vert
	Distance	Difficulty	Gain	Loss	Net	Time	Pace
Leg 2 *	3.33	Easy				21:25	6:26
Leg 14	7.57	Moderate	246	230	16	52:15	6:54
Leg 26	6.4	Moderate	236	260	-24	44:30	6:57
	17.3					1:58:10	6:50

* Shortened from 8.96 miles (hard) - along with legs 3, 5 and 6 due to bridge washout at Crawford Notch from Hurricane Irene.

Labor Day Run Around

The Saturday of Labor Day weekend, I ran my yearly tune-up for Reach the Beach, the Charleston Distance Run. The 15-mile course is pretty flat and fast, save for the 1000+ foot climb in a little over a mile and the subsequent 1000+ foot descent in the next mile and half. With high 70 degrees and high humidity at race start time this year, it proved to be a pretty difficult 15 miles.

Nonetheless, I ran my pace and finished quite well, in 1 hour, 53 and half minutes - good enough for 61 place overall out of 550+ runners.

I ran a consistent 7:30 minute / mile for the first 3 miles, 7:40 for the fourth mile as that started the brutal climb up Capital Punishment Hill. From there, my pace fell off a bit on the uphill as expected. I crossed 7 miles on the downhill at 54 minutes and hit 8 miles crossing the bridge into the last flat 7 miles at 1 hour, 1 minute (7:38 pace).

I ran the next few miles pretty inconsistently - a 7 minute mile followed by an 8 minute mile followed by a few 7 and change miles. The heat - now well into the 90's, made it difficult to find a comfortable pace. With 2 miles left, I dropped down to 7:05 - 7:10 pace and finished strong.

Other than the oppressive heat, it didn't cause me any issues - I stayed hydrated taking water at every aid station and ate consistently. Recovery was pretty easy too - 6 miles the next morning with no issues.

I'm certainly ready for RTB, and a week later, the Vermont 50.