Relay Runs Hit Vermont

Vermont is seeing a surge of interest in long-distance running relays and this summer two such events are taking place along the corridor of Route 100. The inaugural Green Mountain Relay was held this past June 10-11, and the 2nd Annual 100 on 100 Relay is coming up on August 19. Both events follow the team format where individuals trade off segments to cover a distance of 100 miles or more.

The granddaddy of long-distance relays is the Hood to Coast in Oregon, which this year celebrates its 25th running. In the east, the wildly popular Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire is modeled after Hood to Coast. Both events cover approximately 200 miles and run from point to point. Hood to Coast begins
on Mt. Hood and ends on the town of Seaside’s coastal beaches. Reach the Beach travels from Bretton Woods in the White Mountains to Hampton Beach on the Atlantic coast. This year, Hood to Coast will host 1,000 teams and up to 12,000 runners. Each year teams rush to enter before the 1,000 team cutoff is reached and hundreds go away disappointed. Reach the Beach, which started in 1999, has a 300-team cutoff.

Why such an explosion of interest in relays? The camaraderie of the team events and the offering of a new challenge are two reasons. Many runners also use them as a transition into ultrarunning, that is, for running competitive distances longer than the 26.2-mile marathon. Aging baby boomers use it as a way to compete over long distances with less physical trauma to their bodies and lots of support from friends and team members. To Nancy Elwess, a geneticist from South Hero, being in the Green Mountain Relay was a way to experience a team event that demonstrated the individual strengths of each team member. Whatever the reason, a national trend has clearly hit Vermont.

The Green Mountain Relay is based on Hood to Coast and Reach the Beach. Twenty-one teams started this year, and 19 finished. Last year’s inaugural 100 on 100 relay hosted 18 finishing teams from eight states, with 67 percent from Vermont. The 100 on 100 expects 78 percent of the teams to return this August, and has yet to set a cutoff number.

Organizers put on these events for a variety of reasons, including raising money for charitable causes. 100 on 100 organizers Robert and Scott O’Neill, two brothers who live in Vermont, chose Burlington’s Howard Center teen programs as their relay’s beneficiary. The Green Mountain Relay is organized by Timberline Events of Colorado. Its race director is Paul Vanderheiden, who also directs the Wild West Relay in the northern Rockies. He co-directs the Green Mountain Relay with Lisa Javernick, and Susan McNamara of Williston, Vermont. Thousands of Green Mountain Relay dollars are earmarked this year for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Women Helping Battered Women, the Lamoille County Youth Group, the Ottaquechee Community Partnership, the BarreTones of Central Vermont, the Manchester Lion’s Club and the Vermont Covered Bridge Society. Those groups provided support along the course in exchange for financial donations.

Both Vermont events play to the uniqueness of the Green Mountains. While 100 on 100 calls its course the "Heart of Vermont," Green Mountain Relay takes its runners "over the river and through the woods." The 100 on 100, from Trapps in Stowe to Okemo in Ludlow, takes place mostly on Route 100.  Although the Green Mountain Relay follows the Route 100 corridor for the most part, it takes secondary roads wherever possible from Jeffersonville to Bennington, including dirt and gravel roadways through farmland and a number of covered bridges. The two Vermont long-distance relays offer runners a choice of
distances, terrain, and team size, as well as many challenges, not the least of which includes sleep deprivation, running on tired and sore legs, cramped quarters in the team van, weather factors, and the Vermont hills.

The events themselves are very different. 100 on 100 runners are expected to finish 100 miles in under 24 hours and has a team format of six runners, broken out into age and gender categories, and also an ultra category. Green Mountain Relay is twice the distance and lasts two days. The standard team configuration in 200-mile relays is 12 people: all women, all men, or mixed, with categories broken down into age groups. Those teams go at slower paces and finish between 24 hours and the 35-and-a-half-hour cutoff. 

In the Green Mountain Relay, the ultra category consists of teams competing with six runners or fewer and can be run in different ways. The six may run six single legs or each may run six alternating segments, called a 6 by 6. Team members must maintain the same order of runners throughout. If any runner drops out, the team must continue in the same order with the remaining team members running additional segments. Green Mountain has 36 segments of varying distances. Individual runners on ultra teams will run anywhere from 27 to 42 total miles, or more if their team is smaller or loses a runner to an injury or sickness. Some ultra teams are made up of
only two people, running different variations on the segments. For instance, they may run 50 miles each or alternate multiple sections. Estimated finish times are based on 10-kilometer race results averaged for the team. This is a guess at best since many ultrarunners have never run a 10K and their pace is slower per mile than the typical shorter-distance road runner.

This year’s inaugural Green Mountain was inundated by rain, cold temperatures and strong winds from a string of Noreasters. My team, Vermont Hot Shoes, an all women’s ultra team captained by Debbie Tirrito of Winooski, won the women’s ultra division in a time of 28:49:50 seconds, not bad for six Vermont women aged 51 to 58. We attributed our success to multiple changes of clothing, lots of endurance, good nutrition and good humor. The winning team overall was 12 Watts, a 12-person Open team from Elizabeth, Colorado. They completed the race in 24 hours and 12 minutes.

So why enter one of these events? The experience is one you cannot fully comprehend without trying it. The logistics are unfathomable until seen in action. If you want a weekend of fitness and an activity that will make and deepen friendships, as well as disclose what you’re truly made of, the long-distance relay is something to put on your schedule of events.

Dot Helling is an attorney in Montpelier who has cometed in many ultradistance competitions including the Hood to Coast Relay, the Hawaii Ironman, the Western States 100 and numerous other adventure and competitive road and trail runs. She won the Vermont 100 in 1997.