The Runner Next Door in Burlington, Vermont

When I drove 4 and a half hours due North to Burlington, Vermont, this weekend to run the 2011 Keybank Vermont City Marathon, I didn’t think there would be a Canton connection to write about, but there she was.  

Out-and-backs on a race course, especially at the start of a marathon, give the plodders a chance to see the leaders up close in all their speediness.  This course did just that. 

At about 50 minutes in, including the time it took to shuffle to the official starting line, I was jogging near the Mile 4 marker on the “out” portion, and the foot race leader was just about done with the “and back” stretch, motoring up to his mile 8.  (The leading hand-cyclists, who start a couple of minutes ahead of the field for safety reasons, were past this point already.) 

A few guys back was a tall young man whose stride was so smooth, he looked like he was on wheels.  Spotting the first woman is always a treat, and she usually appears about 10-15 runners back from the leader. 

Then I recognized a familiar face in the field of leading women.  Mary-Lynn Currier from Canton, CT, is a masters runner (over 40 years old by USA Track & Field rules, which technically makes me a masters runner, too), who appears at local races of all distances, from the 5K to the marathon.  She’s always at or very near the front, and this was no exception.  Mary-Lynn finished first in her age group and 8th woman overall on a rainy-then-hot day, where at two points on the course the conditions were listed as “High” for a dangerous combination of air temperature, radiant heat from the blacktop, and humidity.  

Seeing her there made me wonder how many other of my neighbors had taken the trip to run this beautiful race along Lake Champlain.  A search for CT on the results page also includes the “ct” combination in any word, so returned too many results to list, but I did see there was another Canton runner in there -- Sheila Camilleri, and a bunch from surrounding towns, including Liza Bocchichio from New Hartford, whose occasion of her very first marathon was the reason I chose that race in the first place.  Standing in line for the bathroom at the end, I met Matt from Simsbury.  (No mens and ladies rooms, here -- we all share one big wall of equal-opportunity port-o-potties.)

Running is generally a solitary sport.  It’s tricky to find a partner who matches your pace and your distance.  Even those who are lucky enough to find such a combination often run alone because of scheduling conflicts.  But as I saw at this race, we are a fairly substantial traveling community.