Moonlight in Vermont 4 Mile Midnight Road Race
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Or should that be Saturday? I'm so confused...
Ann looked at me like I was even crazier than usual when I said I'd be doing a race at midnight in Vermont... on the other hand, when I first heard about the Moonlight in Vermont race a while back, I thought it sounded like a really fun thing to do. Back when I lived in the country I used to go out for runs in the dark on quiet back roads on a regular basis in the summer... it's a great way to beat the heat! I have a lot of good memories of running along roads in the dark and only seeing one or two cars over the course of 9 or 10 miles... those were the days! So there was no question that I wanted to do tonight's race over in Pownal, VT.
It did seem a bit strange to head out for a race at 10 PM, but as I drove down Madison Avenue toward the highway a just-past-full, orange-tinted moon was peeking through the haze of clouds and from between the tall buildings near the capitol. That moon kept me company all the way to Vermont, and even briefly put in an appearance while we were waiting for things to start... though not long after I arrived at the Pownal Fire Department the clouds moved in and blocked the moon from view. Oh, well...
On my way into town I drove up a long hill and thought "Don't see any markers - whew, at least we're not running up this!" Sigh. You'd think I'd have learned better by now - that's exactly what we did for the last mile and a half of the race... after already having run up a mile of hills...
After picking up my packet and gearing up, there was about a 20 minute wait until it was time to start. We all gathered at the starting line under the flashing lights of an ambulance, tried to hear what the very softspoken RD had to say, and then - off we went, into the night.
It was really quite surreal, following a crowd of runners adorned with glow bracelets and the occasional safety light down the dark road, lit by an occasional street light or house light. The first 3/4 of a mile followed the paved road downhill, and the pack spread out, so that by the time I reached the first turn (which was lit by the lights of the truck serving as a water stop) there were only a few runners visible ahead of me. After the turn the course followed a dirt road downhill for about another 3/4 of a mile. That was fun... essentially no lights other than the runners ahead of me and paper-bagged candle luminara's that had been placed along the edge of the road every tenth of a mile or so. About half way to the bottom of the hill we passed someone playing a violin in the dark; I also passed two youngsters ahead of me who didn't seem to comfortable in the dark. I was enjoying it immensely - heck, after some of the trails I've run at night the dirt road was almost as smooth as pavement! It was quite, though not very cool, and the humidity left me soaked for quickly.
All too soon I reached the next turn, marked by the flashing lights of another emergency vehicle, and started up the next dirt road. And "up" was definitely the order of the evening. Passed a couple more runners along the hill, and walked once or twice to regain my breath, but ran most of it... one big plus to running hills in the dark is you can't see how long they are, so I typically find it easier to convince myself to keep going. Though I really found myself wishing I'd known about the hills earlier - I would have stuck to the flats on my bike today! All in all, other than my heavy breathing, it was very peaceful...
Eventually reached more flashing lights at the 2nd water stop and then headed back to the start on pavement. Up and up and up and up... there were a few moments of level terrain and even a short downhill, but for most part the road climbed back to Pownal Center. Passed a few more runners, walked once or twice, and was very happy to finally reach the crest of that hill and run the relatively level quarter mile to the finish. Crossed the finish in 44:49 - not as quick as I'd hoped given the fast start, but not bad at all considering that more than half the race was climbing.
After that, I dried off, tossed my gear in the car, and waited for the last runners to come over the hill so I could head back down the road I'd just run up on my way back to Albany.
I had a lot of fun running in the dark tonight - I'm guessing it's really cool on a clear night with the moon lighting everything up. Even the hills were fun, in a way... I may not be as well-trained as I'd like this year, but I had enough juice in my legs to run the hills most of the time, despite having done a few hills on the bike five hours or so before the race. If the scheduling works out, I will definitely come back to this one again!
JMH
2008 Event Totals
Run 100.0 mi / 22 hr 11 min
Bike 20 mi / 1 hr 32 min
Snowshoe 45.7 mi / 13 hr 19 min
states visited: MA, NH, NY, VT
