Vermont City Marathon

The Vermont City Marathon is an annual marathon in the city of Burlington, Vermont, in the United States. Held since May 28, 1989 on Memorial Day weekend, the race attracts people from the New England area.

The race is produced by RunVermont, a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting running in Vermont. RunVermont also organizes several other races as well as the Lake Champlain Women's Running Camp, adult training programs, and a youth running and health education program called Many Milers.

The Race

The race is held annually on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Runners in the Vermont City Marathon can compete in the full marathon, on a two-person relay team running half marathons, or on a three-to-five person relay team. In 2007, there were 2504 marathon finishers, 441 two-person teams and 664 three-to-five person teams.Fact|date=January 2008 Due to overwhelming demand in the relay events, relay team spots are available only through a lottery while spots for the full marathon can be acquired through the standard entry process.

The Course

The USATF certified course has remained the same since 2001. It starts in Battery Park overlooking Lake Champlain, does a 3.1 mile loop through downtown Burlington, then heads out the Burlington Beltway, a highway that is closed to traffic only once a year for the marathon. The course then climbs back into downtown Burlington before heading South and joining the Burlington Bikepath at Oakledge Park, where the halfway point is reached. The course follows the bikepath north to the "Assault on Battery Hill", the largest climb on the course. After going through Battery Park, the course does a final loop through residential neighborhoods in the north side of Burlington, then follows the bikepath back to the finish at Waterfront Park beside Lake Champlain.The course record for men, set by Michael Khobotov in 2001, is 2:17:03. The course record for Women, set in 1995 by Gordon Bakoulis, is 2:38:32.

History

There is an ongoing disagreement between the race's Board of Directors and one of the runners. In 1998 a club called the "Hall of Fame" was formed to honor runners who had been a part of the event each of the first ten VCMs. Membership is a mix of those who have completed every marathon, some who have started but not finished all years, some who have run on a relay team in various years, and still others who for various reasons registered for all of the VCM races but did not start some of the races. The disagreeing runner wears a cone shaped hat proclaiming "Hall of Farce" as he runs the race reflecting his belief that the club should honor only those who have achieved it by finishing every race. [ [http://www.7dvt.com/2005/new-top-prosecutor# Seven Days] ] [ [http://boysweekend.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=475&sid=c6eb5f4f0df6eadef351df650b2796e7 Bulletin Board] ] [Sam Hemingway,"Burlington Free Press", May 26, 2005]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.runvermont.org/marathon/index.html Vermont City Marathon]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117275739630837992683.00000112af2a412bffcd8&ll=44.487199,-73.215294&spn=0.085725,0.160675&z=13&om=0&iwloc=00000112af39cbe78bfa8 Unoffical Google Map of Course] Can be importing into Google Earth for examining elevation etc.