Last year I entered the Vermont 50-miler, a month after DNFing the Grand Teton 50, with little hope of finishing. As expected, I was pulled, by race officials, about 4 hours into the race, for not getting to the mile 19 aid station in time. It's a shame too because I was running my own race and felt great, and it's a shame I never got to the mile 35-40 range to see how i'd feel then. At any rate, I came home empty-handed and was lukewarm about that race. It had been described to me as a mountain bike race primarily with a running component added almost as an afterthought, and I could definitely see why people would say that.
still, it's a pretty cool race in terms of scenery. the course is very serene if that makes sense. enjoyable singletrack, new england dirt roads, fall foliage. for months after last year's dnf, every time i saw a photo of a country road lined with colorful trees, i thought of the vermont 50.
while the vermont experience from 2008 has taught me to not enter any races where i'll be chasing a cutoff - all of that beauty wasn't enough to get me to go back to do the 50k, a corresponding race i know i can finish. the reason i decided, only a couple of weeks ago, to enter the 50k was i was invited by multiple friends to carpoolup on saturday, run the race & drive home sunday night. it should be fun. and even though i won't be running with any buddies (everyone i know will be running the 50m), i'll be content to enjoy those colorful serene new england dirt roads for a sunday in october.
New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com
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