The 2017 Vermont city Marathon was held on May 28, 2017. The weather on race day was temperatures in the upper 50s and climbing into the 70s by the time the race ended, and sunny skies. The race consists of a marathon, two person really, or a five person relay team. The event is held every year, the day before Memorial Day.

I will start off with my overall thoughts on the race itself. If you would like to know who my race won’t continue reading to the second half of this blog entry.

Registration and everything else leading up to race weekend.

Registration opens on October 10, 2016 at $99. Prices would rise to $110 and $135 leading up to the race. If you waited to register on race day it would’ve cost you $135.

Leading up to the race, the promotion team use social media in a way that I have never seen Avery still before. Every Thursday afternoon they would do Facebook live on different areas of the race from nutrition to what to expect on race day. These were great source of information to get you ready for your 26.2 mile run. Along with that, email reminders were sent out frequently as well.

Expo

The expo is held at the Sheraton Hotel. Expo hours were from 1 PM to 8 PM on Friday and 9 AM to 7 PM on Saturday. The hotel was real easy to find as it was right off the highway when driving into Burlington. I arrived at the expo on Saturday at around 10 AM. As you can imagine most of the vendors were local from local businesses to local races. I did also stop by the official race merchandise table as well. They had some nice looking shirts there but I was disappointed that they were all cotton. I would have liked to see more of a selection with some shirts and sweatshirts being polyester.

The Race

I am not sure I can say enough about this race. Everything was great from start to finishline. First off, I found that getting into the prefered corral was easy. There were also volunteers making sure you belonged In the preffered corral. This was easy to tell by your bib number.

Next, the crowd support. For a smaller city marathon, the support was second to none. Fans were out with signs and cowbells at key locations on the course, especially the large hill. In the neighborhoods, there were families out on their lawns, garage bands playing, and some with sprinklers. The finish line was the best. So many people lined up, ringing their bells.
The Course was great as well. Some complain about the Beltline from miles 4-8 because it is boring but I think every course has that one boring stretch. At least at Vermont City Marathon, its early in the race when you are in more of a pack and not hurting. My favorite parts of the course was Church Street, the last 4 mile stretch on the bike path, and the hill by Battery Park. Yes, the guy who hates hills includes it as part of his favorites. Probably only because I ran it perfectly. This was also a great spectator course. You could stay in one place and see your favorite runner go by 4 times without moving.

The aid stations were great, filled with awesome volunteers. Aid stations were operated as a Gatoraid sandwhich, water, then Gatoraid, then water again. So easy and the same at every station. There were also aid stations with gels, fruit, and candy. An unofficial aid station at mile 18 had Maple Syrup shots.

Swag

The shirt was a nice short sleeve maroon colored shirt. The finishers medal was nice as well with the race logo on the front, showing the runners running down Church Street. Also, free race photos!
Post race

After crossing the finishline, you are given your medal, a bottle of water, a reusable grocery bag for post race food. The food was fruit, granola bars, yogurt, chips, and pizza. Oh yes, of course chocolate milk.
There was also a results tentwhere you could go and print off your results. Also you could type your number in on a key pad and your name and finishing time would be displayed on a sign.