Earlier this week, attributable to record-setting rainfall and disastrous flooding, the 2023 Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run, scheduled to start on July 15, was canceled. This was significantly troublesome because the race was additionally canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. In her e-mail to the entrants, race director Amy Rusiecki had this to say:
“It breaks my coronary heart to write down this, however because of the devastating flooding that hit the race course yesterday and the lasting harm attributable to this climate occasion, the race committee has reached the unlucky determination that this 12 months’s occasion have to be canceled. The second worst factor a race committee desires to do is cancel an unimaginable occasion. Nonetheless, the worst factor a race committee desires to do is to conduct an unsafe race for the runners, volunteers, and communities. Our highest precedence is the protection of each runner, volunteer, path, and highway that this occasion impacts.”
Sever flood harm on the route of the Vermont 100 Mile, with the yellow arrows indicating the course. Photograph: Vermont 100 Mile
Sadly, over the previous a number of years now we have seen an rising variety of race cancellations attributable to harmful circumstances. Extreme climate, wildfires, and now flooding have all impacted path operating occasions world wide. Whereas it has all the time been one thing that we runners know might occur, it appears to me that the rising frequency of all these cancellations is a rising concern.
Within the case of the Vermont 100, one of many historic North American 100 milers and a real gem of the east coast operating scene, Amy and her staff actually had no alternative however to cancel. With roads washed out, water ranges dangerously excessive, and a state of emergency declared throughout the whole state, it was clear that an occasion of the scale and scope of the Vermont 100 couldn’t happen. They thought of alternate dates, potential completely different venues, and even making it a digital occasion — however ultimately determined the prudent factor to do was to cancel.
The floods, which have ravaged a lot of the Vermont 100 course and surrounding space. Photograph: Vermont 100 Mile
Remarkably, and befitting the beneficiant nature of the ultrarunning neighborhood, inside 24 hours of the cancellation announcement three occasions — the Burning River 100 Mile, the three-day Ragged Stage Race, and the Redpoint 50 Mile — all supplied Vermont 100 runners free or discounted entries into their races.
Lastly, this cancellation hits me personally. As a five-time finisher of the Vermont 100, and somebody born and raised in New England, my coronary heart hurts for Amy and her staff. Figuring out how troublesome it’s to maintain volunteers motivated, work with native companies and landowners, and conduct an occasion just like the Vermont 100 each 12 months, three cancellations over a four-year interval is a tough tablet to swallow. Simply final month at Western States, the place Amy was out crewing and pacing a pal, I had the chance to speak together with her extensively and I might hear the passion in her voice and see the glint in her eye as she regarded ahead to her occasion this 12 months. And now, that’s all been washed away.
I’m assured that Amy and her staff will return stronger in 2024. I’m assured that the Yankee hardiness that’s a lot part of the Inexperienced Mountain State will assist people rebuild from these damaging floods and permit the race, and the whole area, to as soon as once more shine in that particular means that solely these rugged rolling hills and deep hollows can.
Bottoms up!
Amy Rusiecki directing the 2010 Vermont 100 Mile Photograph: Nancy Nutile-McMenemy
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Otter Creek Brewing Firm in Killington, Vermont. One of many extra established craft breweries in a state filled with them, Otter Creek has been making distinctive brews because the mid-90s. Not too long ago, I had an opportunity to style their Each day Dose IPA, one they invoice as sessionable, and I used to be impressed. Balanced, west coast-ish, and bursting with taste, Each day Dose actually lives as much as its title.
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