Getting excited for VT 50…..14 days and counting….

Pausing at the Jay Peak Trail Running Festival 25K

What a wonderful Labor day weekend my family and I had at the Jay Peak Trail Running Festival. I highly recommend this race to all runners because they seem to truly offer it all! First, you have a plethora of choices of distances; you can enter the beast of the 50k, 25k (which is still an animal) and on the day before they have three 5k’s (still a challenge!) and a kids race. You can enter one, two or three of the 5k’s, ranging from black diamond, blue square, or green circle. The 50k has been called one of the hardest 50k’s in the northeast, and I can see why! Running the 25k is a killer on the quads, so double that for the 50k..the races have an elevation gain of +3000 feet (some bloggers indicating they had upwards of 4000 elevation change), including an out and back jaunt down the Long Trail and running straight up and down the mountains lift trails. Your quads will SCREAM at you on this race, but the epic views, race directors, volunteers, swag, and venue will surely make up for it……..plus running this race, really confirms that you are a Bad-Ass! Second, you and your family will love treating yourselves to the Pump House indoor waterpark (ask about the Run and Stay deal when booking your room), numerous restaurants (our fav was the Foundry Pub and Grill….the flatbread Pizza was to die for!), and it’s own General store. Be sure to check this race out, you won’t be disappointed!! Jay Peak Trail Running Festival. This was a great run to add to my training calendar for the VT 50. It gave me a boost on my hiking and hill-work training. We used our Tailwind religiously and it was great. Non filmy and acidy like the gatorade I had been using before….hoping Tailwind will be a huge help for my stomach at the 50.

Guy climbing a trail at the Jay Peak Trail Running Festival

runners making the trek Up, Up, and UP!!

SO it’s T- Minus 14 days until the VT 50…..I have one more long run scheduled for tomorrow, then it will be lots of tapering and mental positive thinking on my part. I really want to finish this 50 and qualify for VT 100 next year (one of my daily mantras) I’m going to be running with my rock (My hubs), who I know will keep me focused and calm and he’s one hell of a numbers guy! I know I will ask him over and over, “do we have time? will we make the cutoff?” I really hope I can finish this 50 with more than six minutes in the bank like my last go around. It was wonderful to finish, but wow, it was stressful running against the clock!!!!!!! I hope all you fellow runners and mountain bikers are enjoying your last few weeks of training and are soaking it up!