Sunday October 25 2020
Vermont in Autumn is beautiful. And boring. But definitely really beautiful. The bright coloured leaves on the trees create an oil work patchwork canopy as far as you can see. The trees cover the rolling hills surrounding the bays, and the cold fresh water laps at the pebbles on the shore. It was cold in Burlington, with the atmosphere of an approaching winter, flowing down from French Canada – but all this helped me run a good race early on Sunday morning, the Half Marathon Unplugged.
I had been scheduled to run the Dorset Hollow 10K in southern Vermont. Of course, this fell victim to CVR, Corona Virus Reaction, so this Burlington event was one of those new-look set-ups, as the racing community attempts to survive in a world where local permits to hold races, are difficult to attain. There were various emails before the event – such as the one stating any visitors to Vermont from outside New England, must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the state. What prejudice, particularly with the state of affairs in New York. Anyway, it was alright, I live in Maine… A health screening was required upon arrival, all runners had to remain six feet apart at all times, masks were required when not running, and the race was split into different waves, over the weekend. I ran in the Sunday 0800 wave, with maybe 50 other runners. We could see the similarly sized 0900 wave coming out, as we were on our way back to the finish line, as was the set up of this nice out and back course, with a park loop to start things off.
It was just me on this short trip. I left home on Saturday morning after an early Zoom call to celebrate my brother’s 39th birthday. I arrived in Burlington around noon, briefly waited at the airport whilst I figured out what to do with my time before checking in to the Air BnB, and settled on a Lyft to the only option open, and/or vaguely interesting – the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of art. I looked at the various exhibits here – some good South East Asian artifacts, some nice landscapes painted by European masters and also Americans, and a fascinatingly self critical exhibit focused on Egypt, I think, but mainly focused on our own guilt.
I wandered into town, checked out the limited centre of this student spot, and as a town formerly under the mayoral leadership of Bernie Sanders, it was predictably… closed. With CVR in full flow, most places seemed closed, shops only let five people in, everyone glared at anyone not wearing a mask, no eateries allowed dine in, and presumably every employee and business owner here is either increasingly destitute, or reliant upon the already record levels of national debt to increase further, in order to keep them safe from a virus that has infected 1% of the population, and has the following CDC reported survival rates; 0-19: 99.997%, 20-49: 99.98%, 50-69: 99.5%, 70+: 94.6%.
I digress. I grabbed a late lunch/early tea from Subway and relaxed in my room at the Air BnB – a small bedroom in a Colombian architect’s (quite cold) apartment. I ate some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (also cold), watched Khabib retire, and read my book about Hitler, before turning in for the night.
Sunday morning, I walked down to the race, had my health screening and wandered about for a bit, doing a handful of stretches. The race started with a loop around the park before hitting the shore front bike trail in the other direction. It was an old light rail line so a nice width and pretty flat, most of the run was flanked by the water and those Autumnal leaves were everywhere. I went out in about 15th place and by the time the park loop was done, I was in 6th. I pushed on a little more and as the route started to climb slightly to follow the old rail route, there were just three runners ahead battling it out and me tucked behind in 4th, with about 30-50 yards between me and that group at different points. There was a guy in layers, a trail runner guy with long hair and a female running hard, all challenging each other and leading the way. I noted that the last two miles coming back would be slightly downhill, which was good. Layers pulled away at about mile 4 or 5 and held that until the end. I caught the Girl on the bridge around mile 8 after our loop around the neighbourhood, caught Traily around mile 10, but couldn’t quite catch Layers. He beat me by about 10-15 seconds, I finished second, but I still clocked a new half PR in 1.25.40, which was great for a non downhill course. This placed me in overall 7th place for all waves over the weekend (450 total runners), and similarly, 2nd place in my 30-39 age group.
I listened to this wonderful song over the last couple of miles to push me home. An incredibly powerful piece, do listen, at own risk.
It was so cold and my warm up had been so non existent, that it was really only mile 3 by when my back muscles had warmed up enough to let me breathe in deeply! I’d carried three Maarten gels but only used two – 4.5 & 9, I didn’t need to onboard water at any point, ran in a pair of my bright pink Off White ZoomX racing shoes, and as is becoming consistent, was again surprised by how well I had performed in the colder temperatures. It must really regulate my energy output.
After the race, I showered and got things ready at the Air BnB, Lyfted to the tiny Burlington airport, grabbed a bacon roll for lunch and headed for home. State 34 complete. Not the most eventful of trips touristically, but a great memory to hold from a running perspective. I should be 37 (plus a shored up MO option) by Christmas.
Racing Americana 